[SOLVED] Bad performance

[Garfieldwxg55]

Hi, I recently bought a AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU for my new gaming computer, however, after running as few tests, I have found that my performance is quite a bit less then other 5950Xes. Only four of my CPU cores are able to reach the 4.9GHz boost clock, with the lowest sitting at 4.75GHz.
Then, I ran Cinebench R23, and I was only about to get a single core score of 1573 as opposed to 1684, and a multi core score of 24182 as opposed to 28782. I have a 360mm Corsair iCue cooler, and a Asus Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard, 64GB of DDR4 C18 RAM clocked at 3600Mhz, and I'm not sure what could be causing these problems. The CPU can take around 1-1.5V, and my temps can hit up to the 70C (158F). Does anyone know what might be causing them? Many thanks

Source for Cinebench scores:

Cinebench R23 Scores [Updated Results]

Cinebench R23 is the newest instalment of the most popular CPU-Rendering Benchmark Cinebench. We have the Score Results for all modern Processors.

www.cgdirector.com

 

[Grobe]

When comparing your system against result from other users (online benchmark results), you should ask yourself this question : Are the other result from people that have overclocked systems and is your system overclocked or not?

 

[BogdanH]

You should take scores on reviews only as approximate guide -there's a reason why they get higher scores there! In short: review benchmarks are done at ideal/controlled conditions, which is never the case in real use.
From what you wrote, your CPU is working fine and cooling is good -no need to watch frequency spikes or "analyze" cores.
You can get higher scores by moderate overclocking, but you will hardly notice the difference in everyday use (except if you're using CPU for encoding long videos or similar). But then, you can achieve almost the same by disabling useless stuff that's running in Windows background.

 

[drea.drechsler]

How have you set up your system? If you've not done it since you built it (or upgraded to the 5950X) do a CMOS reset. Now enable XMP for your memory. Ryzen loves high clock speeds...3200Mtps min...so if you haven't done this then it's operating at 2133 or 2400 and that hurts performance considerably.

It's strongly suggested to install chipset drivers for your motherboard from the AMD support web site and do not install any overclocking or utility software you might have gotten from your motherboard mfr. It will install Ryzen Balance power plan, use it unchanged. Also avoid Ryzenmaster. It looks cool but it's really meant for enthusiast overclockers. The best utility to use for monitoring is HWInfo64.

For now leave any overclocking features in your BIOS disabled or in AUTO...that would be things like VCore and CPU clock multiplier. But find these and enable them: Global C-States, Cool-n-Quiet, Processor CPPC and CPPC Preferred Cores. That may be unnecessary if they're in AUTO but some BIOS' interpret AUTO as DISABLED and this is a way to make sure they're enabled.

Now, when you run Cinebench, especially the multi-thread test, make sure nothing else is running on your system. No monitoring utilities, nothing in the system tray, just Cinebench. Also do a re-start and run it first thing. A way to get the most repeatable scores is to also do it with elevated priority - but you'll lose any control so you'll have to let it run to conclusion to get back control of the system.

After getting a baseline now try turning on PBO in your BIOS, raise PPT, TDC, EDC limits, enable and raise core boosting to +200Mhz. You can also raise scalar as high as you feel comfortable but understand that higher scalar settings relax how protective the boost algorithm is in relation to your CPU's FIT parameters.

PBO definitely make your CPU run hotter, so better cooling is also necessary to keep the cores boosting high to get it's benefit. In fact, if your cooler is less than great (a 5950 really, truly, needs great) that alone can be the reason you're not seeing scores similar to what you see online.

Once you have some baseline PBO CB23 scores experiment with undervolting. Use offsets ONLY, never fixed, and go slowly with CB tests in between. It's easy to hurt performance or go unstable. Be sure to let CB23 run the 30 minute 'stability' test run to see if it's stable after you settle on an undervolt.

 

[Rdslw]

This does not feel like an issue. Results are within 10% from one another, so it can be board or OS or driver or many tiny things like disc free space or background processes or maybe you just lost silicon lottery.
you can monitor and check which component is loaded 100% during testing or if anything pointless is still running while you run benches (like antivirus). But I doubt this is caused by single "problem".

 

[drea.drechsler]

This does not feel like an issue. Results are within 10% from one another, so it can be board or OS or driver or many tiny things like disc free space or background processes or maybe you just lost silicon lottery.
you can monitor and check which component is loaded 100% during testing or if anything pointless is still running while you run benches (like antivirus). But I doubt this is caused by single "problem".

Yeah, 10% off of CB scores might be considered 'close enough'. But then those scores on OP's reference site are pretty low, at least when comparing to my 3700X. It gets scores well above theirs for a 3800X and my 3700X is one of the early date codes, well before TSMC's 7nm process node matured. Really all I've done is enable my memory up at 3600Mtps clocks, set up BIOS as related above with PBO. Oh...and use pretty good cooling (240mm AIO).

I think they're a reasonable mark to shoot for at the least and to beat if it can to feel confident your system is well optimized without going into any kind of overclocking excess.

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

Hmm, I‘ve turned XMP on and set the RAM speeds to 3600mhz, so that shouldn’t be the problem. But I’ll try doing a CMOS reset and then run Cinebench with minimal background applications running, many thanks for all your help!

 

[Endre]

Just one question:
Did you buy your CPU for benchmarks, or did you buy it for personal usage?
Those benchmarking tools became kill-joy for too many people!

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

Well it’s for hosting a Minecraft server and playing on the same system, so I’m trying to get the best possible speeds, especially since SEUS PTGI seems to be bottlenecking my 3090 at 4K!
But other then that it’s mostly just for other games

 

[jtk2515]

1st thing I see is your running Cl18 memory. if your memory is 3600mhz make sure your infinity fabric is running at 1800mhz. Also if your using 4 ranks of memory per channel like 2 x(16 gb sticks per channel) you will have worse performance then using 2 ranks per channel on most motherboards.

I am running 3200mhz cl 14 with a 5600x 4(8GB)and get 12128 in r23 multi let me check with cl 18 and see what differance it makes.

Edit. 3200 14-14-14-34 Gives me 12128. 3200 18-18-18-34 gives me 11752. So about 3% increase in performance. I would say the main 3 things holding your score back are

1. Not tuning your PBO with -Curve/boost and undervolt settings so you can hit 5-5.1 single core boost and then Changeing settings for multi-core.

2. Memory not using optimized timings

3. Not using Optimized Ranks of memory per channel

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

Hmm, I do only have 2 32gb sticks, perhaps that might be what’s holding me back then...

 

[jtk2515]

Hmm, I do only have 2 32gb sticks, perhaps that might be what’s holding me back then...

Open cpz and check the rank of your memory module, But most 32gb DDR4 is either dual rank or quad ranked.

In CPZ it is under the SPD Tab. Then you can change the memory slot Selection under rank it will say, Single,Dual or quad.

 

[norcalsc]

YOUTUBE STRIKES AGAIN

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

It seems to be duel, but it's showing as running at 2666Mhz (even though I changed this to 3600Mhz and enabled XMP in the system bios)

 

[jtk2515]

It seems to be duel, but it's showing as running at 2666Mhz (even though I changed this to 3600Mhz and enabled XMP in the system bios)

Manually Set your memory speed,Timing and voltage in your bios then.

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

Ok, so I've set the RAM speed to 3600Mhz, and the timing is set to 18:22:22:42 I believe

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

Right, so I've tried everything except a CMOS reset and my multicore cinebench score was 24957. So a bit better but not huge

 

[jtk2515]

Right, so I've tried everything except a CMOS reset and my multicore cinebench score was 24957. So a bit better but not huge

That is what the timings are for your memory? 3600 18-22-22-42?

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

Yeah I think so

 

[dorsai]

Those memory timings are not helping the 5950x run to its potential...I would try higher voltage and see if you can tighten the timings.

Also running an SSD helps quite a bit if you're not already.

And what's your cpu cooling situation ? Ryzen chips run at their best when kept well below 70c....on a 5950x I would be looking at a 360 AIO or a very high end air cooler.

 

[Garfieldwxg55]

Right ok I’ll look into altering the timings then, I do have an SSD, it a Corsair Force MP600 2TB one, my cooler is a Corsair iCue 360mm cooler, which I would have thought would be enough, maybe not...?