B85M-ITX - NIC + CPU C6 = SLOW INTERNET

Hello,

Edited by cimba007 - 03 Apr 2016 at 4:01am

HI Xaltar, i did not install this tool .. only RST driver (required for C6 to work) and other drivers like VGA ..

Edited by cimba007 - 03 Apr 2016 at 5:36am

cimba007 wrote: Hello, i recently purchased an B85M-ITX on ebay for cheap and got myself a G1840 Celeron in addition. Both are working quite well .. but I still have some huge issues as soon as I enable energy saving features. What I did so far: - Update do BIOS 2.50 - Enable all C-State realated settings - Enabled C6 Package C-State So far so good .. my rig is runnig quite and smooth .. PC to PC network performance is remarkagble .. 110MB/s .. close to the theoretical gigabit cap ..  But then ... Downloading stuff from the interweb is terrible slow - I got a 35MBit connection (verified by other PCs in my household) - .. changed network cables, switch, direct connection to the fritzbox .. - Windows 10 32bit .. the same as Windows 8.1 64bit .. - All NIC-driver versions I could find from 2.1.0.7 to 2.1.0.21 What did I obverseve: - Default BIOS/UEFI .. no issues - Enabling C-States .. slow Internet download .. fast Network transfer .. - Switching from gigabit auto negotiation to 100Mbit full duplex .. no issues, Internet ~35mbit .. as it should be. With slow internet download I mean ~3Mbit .. jumping eradically .. nothing solid .. Switching from 2.50 to 2.40 got me 3-18Mbit .. but all far from stable .. My guess is the C6 State and the integrated NIC are interfering terrible ..  I will try out to selectivly disable Package and CPU C-States to find the culprit .. still .. this is not acceptible ..

When you say that the reduced Internet download speeds when using the CPU C State power saving options is not acceptable, what do you expect to be done about it?

Do you think this is some kind of mistake or bug in the mother board or the BIOS?

Intel has designed and implemented the CPU power saving options, like C States, and built them into their processors. A mother board manufacture can only allow us to enable or disable these power saving options. They cannot change the way they work, or when they are active. We can change when they are enabled or not in the BIOS, and can change to a degree when they become active with the Windows Power Plan settings for the CPU Minimum processor state.

The C6 C State stops one or more processor cores from doing any work at all. They are almost completely turned off. They will be turned on in a very tiny fraction of a second if there is enough load or work for the CPU to do, but that depends upon the internal algorithm programmed into the CPU by Intel.

The Intel networking chips in my ASRock boards have options called "Offloads", that when enabled allow the networking chip to do certain tasks that are otherwise done by the OS/Windows, which of course uses the CPU and software to do that work. A typical task that can be Offloaded to the network chip is segmenting TCP messages into valid Ethernet frames. Another is checksum calculations. The network hardware is much better and more efficient at performing these tasks, but the Offloads are not Enabled by default by the Intel networking driver software.

Your board's Atheros chip may have similar options, you should check if they are enabled.

But that alone may not fix the download speed to satisfy you. All you can do is disable the C States in the BIOS, or find a way to deactivate them when a download is happening. I'm surprised a G1840 will stay in the C6 state on one of its cores for very long. My i7 processors are over 90% in the C6 state when the PC is idle.

I tested my download speeds using Task Manager with C States enabled and disabled. Testing download speeds is not always easy, as the source of the download is a limiting factor of any download, and can vary widely over time.

I personally found no difference in download speeds with C States enabled or disabled. But, being in the USA, which is NOT known for its high speed Internet connections, I am no where near 34Mbit/s. I have a good ISP for the USA, but my sustained speeds are 1/4th that of what you get in Germany. Yes I have IPV6.

Your slowest speed is faster than my fastest burst speed. Everything is relative, and IMO you have nothing to complain about. How can you call your speeds "terrible slow", all my internet pages are displayed instantly.

What are you blaming for your "terrible slow" download speeds?

100Mbit (fast)

Edited by cimba007 - 03 Apr 2016 at 11:16pm

Why close?
Did you fix your problem?

Disable C-States or disable auto negotiation of network speed?

I also have a B85M board.

Do you also notice USB mouse lag?

Do you also see lots of shared ressources I/O Ports, IRQs and Memory Address also for the atheros NIC in the systeminfo?
Do you also see more than 500 assigned IRQs for ACPI Compliant System?

The default windows 10 network driver is older than the one asrock offers for Win8!
They do not offer one for Win 10.

I also posted here about the weird C-State behaviour of the board B85M board series:
http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=2057&KW=&title=asrock-b85mhds-b85m-pro4-c6-c7-support


Edited by softskiller - 15 Apr 2016 at 3:28am