Did I receive a used CPU?!?! Amazon Mystery

[MullisMan]

Hi Hackintosh/tonymacx86 community!

I am in the process of building a Mojave Hackintosh configuration with a Gigabyte Z390 Designare MOBO, Intel Core i7-9700K, and Radeon Pulse RX 580 GPU.

Today when I put all the components together and fired up the computer to look at BIOS settings, I noticed that my CPU frequency looks like it's OC'd already. See my attached photo.

The base clock speed for this processor shows 3.6Ghz but in my BIOS screen it's showing as 4.6Ghz, which is the OC rating that i've seen. I bought this supposedly new from Amazon and it was sourced from Amazon itself, not a third party seller.

The processor product box looked a little worse for wear when I opened up the Amazon package but I didn't think anything of it. I'm concerned that this CPU has been OC'd or something and returned and now I've bought one. I don't necessarily mind having an OC'd CPU in my MOBO but I don't have another 2x4 power connector available for the CPU power connection.

Am I correct in my analysis or is this some maximum possible speed that my BIOS is showing me? The BIOS version is F6 for the Gigabyte Z390 Designare board.

Any light that could be shed on the issue would be greatly appreciated!

MullisMan

 

[pastrychef]

Hi Hackintosh/tonymacx86 community!

I am in the process of building a Mojave Hackintosh configuration with a Gigabyte Z390 Designare MOBO, Intel Core i7-9700K, and Radeon Pulse RX 580 GPU.

Today when I put all the components together and fired up the computer to look at BIOS settings, I noticed that my CPU frequency looks like it's OC'd already. See my attached photo.

View attachment 424575

The base clock speed for this processor shows 3.6Ghz but in my BIOS screen it's showing as 4.6Ghz, which is the OC rating that i've seen. I bought this supposedly new from Amazon and it was sourced from Amazon itself, not a third party seller.

The processor product box looked a little worse for wear when I opened up the Amazon package but I didn't think anything of it. I'm concerned that this CPU has been OC'd or something and returned and now I've bought one. I don't necessarily mind having an OC'd CPU in my MOBO but I don't have another 2x4 power connector available for the CPU power connection.

Am I correct in my analysis or is this some maximum possible speed that my BIOS is showing me? The BIOS version is F6 for the Gigabyte Z390 Designare board.

Any light that could be shed on the issue would be greatly appreciated!

MullisMan

Overclock settings are on the motherboard, not on the CPU. For example, you stick your CPU in to a motherboard and overclock it. Then you pull it and put it in to a new motherboard. The CPU will not be overclocked on the new motherboard.

 

[MullisMan]

Overclock settings are on the motherboard, not on the CPU. For example, you stick your CPU in to a motherboard and overclock it. Then you pull it and put it in to the a new motherboard. The CPU will not be overclocked on the new motherboard.

Ah, thank you for the clarification pastrychef. So, any idea why i'm seeing that frequency for my CPU in the BIOS? Is it just a function of the BIOS showing the multiplier/Max speed for the processor?

 

[pastrychef]

Ah, thank you for the clarification pastrychef. So, any idea why i'm seeing that frequency for my CPU in the BIOS? Is it just a function of the BIOS showing the multiplier/Max speed for the processor?

Some motherboards by default do a bit of overclocking. You will have to check with your motherboard manufacturer to see if this is the case with your motherboard.

 

[VtsohWinMac]

Exact same thing here on my 9700k with Designare z390. I notice that Turbo Boost is on auto, which means it's enabled by default. I disabled TB, saved and rebooted. Then it defaulted to the standard 3.6Ghz.