Question Can somebody provide a guide for a safe undervolt on a 5950x?

[Noobpunk]

Hey all!

I have noticed through HWINFO that the CPU is running at an almost constant 1.488V at idle.

Does one need to go down the PBO route of undervolting? Or could I just set a negative value in the bios?

If somebody with experience please guide me to the right direction in regards to a safe undervolt, that would be greatly appreciated! I have no intentiont to overclock as well..It is just to reduce the temperatures!

 

[drea.drechsler]

EDIT* Sorry, do I have any other options in reducing temps for the CPU?

Not without killing performance.

 

[Noobpunk]

Not without killing performance.

Honestly the CPU is overkill for my purposes which is to game.

Is there a safe way in doing so? Would be a life saver if you could throw me to the right direction!

 

[drea.drechsler]

Honestly the CPU is overkill for my purposes which is to game.

Is there a safe way in doing so? Would be a life saver if you could throw me to the right direction!

In the PBO settings there should be one for Platform Thermal Limit. Just set it to the temp you'd like it to be.

You can also use a lower than stock PPT setting, that's the maximum power made available to the CPU. Stock for a 5950X is probably something like 145W.

There are many other ways. All of them will reduce the CPU's performance but result in a lowered temperature.

 

[Noobpunk]

In the PBO settings there should be one for Platform Thermal Limit. Just set it to the temp you'd like it to be.

You can also use a lower than stock PPT setting, that's the maximum power made available to the CPU. Stock for a 5950X is probably something like 145W.

There are many other ways. All of them will reduce the CPU's performance but result in a lowered temperature.

Can I simply adjust these settings rather than doing the undervolt through the curve? or should I also enter a negative offset with the curve and change these settings to?

And by doing this, setting the PTL and the PTT, can this cause potential damage at all?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Can I simply adjust these settings rather than doing the undervolt through the curve? or should I also enter a negative offset with the curve and change these settings to?

And by doing this, setting the PTL and the PTT, can this cause potential damage at all?

You can do either with or without curve optimizer. I'd only do one (PTL or PPT) though. It won't harm your CPU doing this.

You seem to be operating under considerable concern for harming your CPU. That's normal if you don't understand what is going on or what you're doing. In such circumstances, it's best to just leave everything in factory stock settings and trust the engineers at Asus and AMD to know their jobs. It's certainly true you can be confident of full warranty protection throughout the coverage period by doing that.

 

[Noobpunk]

You can do either with or without curve optimizer. I'd only do one (PTL or PPT) though. It won't harm your CPU doing this.

You seem to be operating under considerable concern for harming your CPU. That's normal if you don't understand what is going on or what you're doing. In such circumstances, it's best to just leave everything in factory stock settings and trust the engineers at Asus and AMD to know their jobs. It's certainly true you can be confident of full warranty protection throughout the coverage period by doing that.

Ok thank you for all of the help!

I will leave it the way it is for now and if I see a gradual increase then I will do what you explained.

Which way is the most simple and safest way in regards to just reducing the temperatures?

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
Which way is the most simple and safest way in regards to just reducing the temperatures?

The Platform Thermal Limit is the simplest...it simply and directly dials back CPU boost clocks if it tries to go above the set value. I have it set at 85C for my 5800X and it never exceeds that....although it only gets close during long video transcoding. I set it at 65C for a test and I really couldn't tell the difference...except a video transcode took a lot longer.

Setting PPT takes some set/test/adjust cycles to get a maximum temp you like.

 

[Noobpunk]

The Platform Thermal Limit is the simplest...it simply and directly dials back CPU boost clocks if it tries to go above the set value. I have it set at 85C for my 5800X and it never exceeds that....although it only gets close during long video transcoding. I set it at 65C for a test and I really couldn't tell the difference...except a video transcode took a lot longer.

Setting PPT takes some set/test/adjust cycles to get a maximum temp you like.

what would you recommend be a good start and to build from there? I’m sorry I have no idea how it works!

 

[drea.drechsler]

what would you recommend be a good start and to build from there? I’m sorry I have no idea how it works!

Previously answered...look back for several ways to proceed.

The easiest way to do something unsafe for the CPU is to take the CPU Vcore setting or the CPU Clock setting out of AUTO. If you don't do that then the CPU's boost algorithm can keep it safe for almost any other setting you make.