Quantifying bottlenecks on the Intel i7-13700K
While simulating the extreme combat scenarios in report 2026-099, I found that when VFX get intense, the multi-thread load just hits a wall. I fired up 3DMark CPU benchmarks to quantify the hit: single-core clocks were fine at 5.2GHz - 5.5GHz, but multi-core rendering scores were swinging wildly between 16800 and 18300, with the power limit triggering between 125W - 145W. To stabilize the FPS, I nuked all unnecessary background processes and re-tested, which boosted the score by 14% - 20%. Core voltage stayed between 1.29V - 1.39V, with auto-overclocking adding a 9% - 14% gain. CrystalDiskMark cross-verification confirmed the bottleneck was these instant power spikes triggering thermal throttling. Fights are much steadier now, but in high ambient temps, the CPU still hits a thermal wall, meaning it can't hold peak clocks indefinitely.
