Question 5950x throttling to 800mhz immediately during cinebench and 3dmark CPU, not heat related

[gravitybear]

I recently got a 5950x and it's cooled by a Lian Li Galahad AIO. Temps are always good (40-65c). And it seems to be running fine for anything that is "normal use".

However, any time I run cinebench or 3dmark's cpu suite, the CPU immediately downclocks to 700-800mhz across all cores. There is no temperature spike - the downclock starts immediately upon the benchmark beginning. It will drop from 55c to 35c (which is lower than it normally idles) within seconds - so it is not heat related. I also checked my VRM temps, and those never get above 65 either. I can also run Prime95 forever without temps going above 70.

For some reason, the CPU just instantly downclocks to potato levels the second I begin a benchmark. Does anyone have any idea why?

I've tried changing PBO in bios to "motherboard" settings, and disabling XMP, but neither of those did anything. Like I said, it's performing great under normal use, but I worry that if it downclocks like this during a benchmark it might do it to me down the line on something else. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here are some screenshots as well:

https://imgur.com/a/hzZsgJE

View: https://imgur.com/a/hzZsgJE

 

[sizzling]

What motherboard?

 

[gravitybear]

Sorry should have put that in the post.

MSI X570 A PRO


Definitely a more budget oriented board.. But I've never had any issues with it thus far.

 

[Phaaze88]

On Intel platform, when the frequencies go that low(below 1ghz) they are power related. Not sure if Ryzen follows a similar pattern.
Double check, or just go ahead and re-plug the cpu EPS cables back in.

Since you have an Msi board, is Dragon Center installed? The app has this bad rep with automatically applying an overclock to cpus.

 

[gravitybear]

On Intel platform, when the frequencies go that low(below 1ghz) they are power related. Not sure if Ryzen follows a similar pattern.
Double check, or just go ahead and re-plug the cpu EPS cables back in.

Since you have an Msi board, is Dragon Center installed? The app has this bad rep with automatically applying an overclock to cpus.

Yes, I do have dragon center installed, and you are right it does act really funky sometimes, for example it changes my power plan every time I restart the computer.

But I just uninstalled it and restarted, and the same behavior occurred. The weird thing is that I can run prime 95 at full blast forever with no issue. The CPU has full power and boosts like normal. So far I've only observed this behavior with cinebench and with 3D marks CPU benchmark.

 

[mdd1963]

Is there some sort of BIOS-level TDP setting that, if challenged even slightly (AMD lists TDP at 105W, but, surely certain loads can exceed that), might cause this sort of over-reaction? (Perhaps you can raise the TDP limit slightly or altogether within the BIOS to get around it...?)



Edit: Der8uer mentioned possible VRM temp issues with MSI's X570 using even the 3900X under some loads, so, can't imagine that a 5950X would improve matters?

X570 Motherboard VRM Overview – der8auer

der8auer.com

Perhaps a fan blowing across the VRM circuitry directly?

(If it is a VRM temp issue, adjusting TDP upward might even make the issue worse---; maybe check assorted BIO versions avail for your mainboard, maybe they included some tweaks to try minimizing/reducing the issue?)

Try a $2 fan pointed straight across VRM circuitry....! Curious to see the results....!

 

[gravitybear]

Is there some sort of BIOS-level TDP setting that, if challenged even slightly (AMD lists TDP at 105W, but, surely certain loads can exceed that), might cause this sort of over-reaction? (Perhaps you can raise the TDP limit slightly or altogether within the BIOS to get around it...?)



Edit: Der8uer mentioned possible VRM temp issues with MSI's X570 using even the 3900X under some loads, so, can't imagine that a 5950X would improve matters?

X570 Motherboard VRM Overview – der8auer

der8auer.com

Perhaps a fan blowing across the VRM circuitry directly?

(If it is a VRM temp issue, adjusting TDP upward might even make the issue worse---; maybe check assorted BIO versions avail for your mainboard, maybe they included some tweaks to try minimizing/reducing the issue?)

Try a $2 fan pointed straight across VRM circuitry....! Curious to see the results....!

I do have really good airflow (lian li lancool 2 mesh). The VRMs under heavy load go to 88-89c. I believe you may be correct - my motherboard isnt the best and I'm not sure it can handle the 5950x.

In terms of TDP, under heavy load, hwinfo shows that my CPU is getting 145 watt.

 

[gravitybear]

I think I fixed it. I definitely have crappier VRMs for my lower tier motherboard. I did some more poking around and decided to slightly undervolt, and disable PBO limits on my motherboard (see this video here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfkrp25dpQ0&t=301s
)
Amazingly.. that worked, my CPU is not throttling any more on all core workloads like cinebench. All clocks are around 3.9 ghz on all core workloads and they still boost to 5 ghz for smaller core workloads.
For reference, if anyone else is as dumb as me and put a 5950x in a MSI 570 APro, disable PBO limits, and set the negative curve optimizer to around 10-12 in your bios.