CPU mark results vary widely from run to run

[wonderwrench]

I just pick up a Beelink SER7 mini PC to use on my HDTV. As usual I ran PerformanceTest and saved the base line (2163963 ID). At some point after getting all windows updates including upgrading from Windows 11 Pro 22H2 to 23H2 I ran PerformanceTest again and received a lower score. On close inspection the CPU mark was way down. I tried many things even a clean install of 22H2 with similar results. After much hair pulling I realized that run to run the CPU mark score was all over the place. The compression and extended SSE instructions varied by as much as 50%. See (2165746 ID) while others either did not vary or to a lesser degree. I know results will vary run to run but not by 50%. Any clue as to whats going on? Is it a hardware problem or a PerformanceTest bug?

Operating System: Windows 11 Professional Edition build 22621 (64-bit)
CPU Type: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS w/ Radeon 780M Graphics
Number of CPUs: 1
Cores per CPU: 8
Hyperthreading: Not capable
Motherboard: SER
Memory: 32GB Crucial Technology DDR5 SDRAM
Videocard: AMD Radeon 780M Graphics
Hard Drive: CT1000P3PSSD8 (1TB)
Hard Drive: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device (1TB)

Note there is a bug in the info summary showing Hyperthreading is not capable even though it is enabled and operational as far as I can see. Task manager and resource monitor show 16 cores. The full info in PerformanceTest says it's capable. Info from PT version 1018. My first test on the system in question was using 1016 then 1017 now 1018. It seems a new version comes out frequently.

Thanks for your time, Have a nice day!

William Brown

[David (PassMark)]

SSE (and SIMD instruction more generally) generate a lot of heat in the CPU. They are the most intensive thing you can do on a CPU.
Are you sure the colling is OK in this machine?

I did some Googling and there are a few people say they are seeing overheating on this mini PC.

[wonderwrench]

Well I had thought that was possible and forgot to mention it in my post but HWINFO64 claims the CPU is not throttling. The CPU Tctl/TDie max temp running the compression or SSE tests back to back many times over was 85c. The bios is factory set to throttle at 93c. It seems the temp has nothing to do with it as some of the best results are after running either of the two above tests many times with no time in between. I also found if I set the test duration to long or very long the variation run to run is reduced. Not sure what to think. BTW it's nice to see you after so many years. Hope everyone is well. I was a beta tester for the first version of PerformanceTest way back in the stone age and have owned every version since. I just wish hardware review sites would use Performance test to some degree as its a good diagnostic tool and tests several things their testing is missing entirely. 2D performance is the big one and 2D on today's hardware sucks.

[David (PassMark)]

Maybe there is some other intensive (but short) task running in the background every 10 seconds or so (For example, 1sec of load ever 10sec).
This would explain why the result starts to look consistent over longer runs.

BTW: The links you provided in your initial post are private links (you need to be logged in as you to see them).
Better links
https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V...d=216574651303
https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V...d=216396352258