Finding the performance ceiling of Core i5 CPUs
Using 3DMark CPU benchmarks, the single-core clock stayed between 4.9GHz - 5.2GHz, with multi-core scores landing in the 13200 - 14500 range, hitting the power wall at 95W - 105W. I noticed that if a browser was open in the background, the core voltage would jump between 1.28V - 1.38V, causing those combat stutters. After killing all background bloat and disabling power-saving options in the BIOS, my score jumped by 15%. I cross-referenced this with CrystalDiskMark throughput and confirmed the bottleneck was scheduling, not storage. Even then, during heavy particle effects, clocks would dip below 4.0GHz, showing this chip still struggles with extreme multi-core efficiency.