Question CPB feature is red HWINFO, brand new Ryzen 5 5600. CPU is stuck on base clock and does not boost at all. No CPB option visible in BIOS.

[falselight]

Ordered this CPU online and while it provided a marked improvement from my previous Ryzen 3 chip, I couldnt help but notice that I wasnt getting the right amount of bang for my buck. Sure enough, I bring up the CPU clock reading on MSI afterburner and the CPU never goes above the base frequency of 3.5 ghz. Now, I figured maybe the games I threw at it were just not that much of a challenge for it (Afterburner was reporting more GPU than CPU usage, after all) so I threw on Cinebench and CPU-Z benchmarks. Never done either of those before so I may have done it wrong, but for both multi-core and single-core bench and stress tests, the clock speed reading never went above 3.5 ghz. Not on task manager, not on AMD Adrenalin, not on CPU-Z, and not on HWInfo, which showed me the red-colored CPB feature which is now my main suspect for this weird behavior.

I called the tech support team of the online store I got this from, and they said that my Biostar A320MH is "too weak" for this CPU. I know it's a budget board, but I've never heard of a mobo preventing a CPU from boosting, and A320MH boards support Ryzen 5s with the latest BIOS version, which is installed. Then again, I also have a 550W power supply which I understand may be inadequate considering I'm also running an RX 5600XT, plus I'm using the stock wraith cooler, but I think it should at least boost between 3.5 and 4ghz even if power and temp are unideal. My previous CPU, a Ryzen 3 4350g PRO, came with an aftermarket tower-type cooler that wasnt all that great either, but would often fluctuate between its base clock and max boost depending on the workload, so this is certainly new to me. Unfortunately, no CPB option appears in my BIOS, even with a CMOS reset. How do I go about enabling CPB or otherwise allowing this CPU to boost?

 

[CountMike]

Ordered this CPU online and while it provided a marked improvement from my previous Ryzen 3 chip, I couldnt help but notice that I wasnt getting the right amount of bang for my buck. Sure enough, I bring up the CPU clock reading on MSI afterburner and the CPU never goes above the base frequency of 3.5 ghz. Now, I figured maybe the games I threw at it were just not that much of a challenge for it (Afterburner was reporting more GPU than CPU usage, after all) so I threw on Cinebench and CPU-Z benchmarks. Never done either of those before so I may have done it wrong, but for both multi-core and single-core bench and stress tests, the clock speed reading never went above 3.5 ghz. Not on task manager, not on AMD Adrenalin, not on CPU-Z, and not on HWInfo, which showed me the red-colored CPB feature which is now my main suspect for this weird behavior.

I called the tech support team of the online store I got this from, and they said that my Biostar A320MH is "too weak" for this CPU. I know it's a budget board, but I've never heard of a mobo preventing a CPU from boosting, and A320MH boards support Ryzen 5s with the latest BIOS version, which is installed. Then again, I also have a 550W power supply which I understand may be inadequate considering I'm also running an RX 5600XT, plus I'm using the stock wraith cooler, but I think it should at least boost between 3.5 and 4ghz even if power and temp are unideal. My previous CPU, a Ryzen 3 4350g PRO, came with an aftermarket tower-type cooler that wasnt all that great either, but would often fluctuate between its base clock and max boost depending on the workload, so this is certainly new to me. Unfortunately, no CPB option appears in my BIOS, even with a CMOS reset. How do I go about enabling CPB or otherwise allowing this CPU to boost?

A320 MBs generally have no OC options.

 

[falselight]

A320 MBs generally have no OC options.

But like I said I was running a Ryzen 3 4350g before this, and it reached its boost clock of ~4Ghz just fine. I understand that it has fewer cores etc but I thought my Ryzen 5 would at least hit 4 Ghz or just shy of it.

 

[CountMike]

But like I said I was running a Ryzen 3 4350g before this, and it reached its boost clock of ~4Ghz just fine. I understand that it has fewer cores etc but I thought my Ryzen 5 would at least hit 4 Ghz or just shy of it.

Maybe so but you can't adjust it from BIOS. Try using Ryzen Master

 

[falselight]

Maybe so but you can't adjust it from BIOS. Try using Ryzen Master

I have tried Ryzen Master but I don't really have prior experience with it. I just clicked on optimize, activated auto-OC on all cores, no difference. Is there a setting in the advanced tab that could activate CPB for me? I was too scared to experiment myself.

 

[CountMike]

I have tried Ryzen Master but I don't really have prior experience with it. I just clicked on optimize, activated auto-OC on all cores, no difference. Is there a setting in the advanced tab that could activate CPB for me? I was too scared to experiment myself.

Maybe activate Game Mode > Auto OC.

 

[falselight]

Maybe activate Game Mode > Auto OC.

That didn't work, but thank you for your input.

 

[drea.drechsler]

That didn't work, but thank you for your input.

Probably the best and easiest thing to do is to set your XMP profiles to get the most out of your memory. All Ryzen processors respond really well to faster memory.

Another fairly easy thing to do is put much-better-than-stock cooling on the CPU. Ryzen 5000 is thermally constrained, meaning it only boosts to high clocks if there's sufficient thermal headroom which much improved cooling provides.

And the last improvement can be a bit techie. Even though A320 boards do not allow overclocking I believe you should be able to use a utility called PBO2Tuner for enabling PBO and, especially important, undervolting with Curve Optimizer (CO). CO all alone can improve performance of a 5000 CPU significantly by helping it run cooler so it boosts high longer even while putting less stress on the VRM, typically weak in A320 boards. CO along with an improved CPU cooler has a compounding effect.

While setting up a good custom CO curve can be a bit techie the PBO2Tuner app itself is actually pretty easy to use for it. By default you do have to run the utility and apply the curve after every system restart since an A320 BIOS doesn't let you make changes there. But, once you've found a custom curve you set it up (startup task created in Task Scheduler) to run at every restart to apply the custom curve for you, although doing that can be a bit techie too.

It comes included in CoreCycler, an app which helps in testing your CO settings for stability, linked at the bottom of the instructional link below. It's based on 5800X3d but the techniques they use apply to any Ryzen 5000 CPU.

How-to-undervolt-AMD-RYZEN-5800X3D-Guide-with-PBO2-Tuner/README.md at main · PrimeO7/How-to-undervolt-AMD-RYZEN-5800X3D-Guide-with-PBO2-Tuner

Get the Most out of your 5800X3D using PBO Curve Optimizer! - PrimeO7/How-to-undervolt-AMD-RYZEN-5800X3D-Guide-with-PBO2-Tuner

github.com

 

[Misgar]

The BIOS in my Gigabyte A320M-H includes 'Core Performance Boost', 'Core Performance Boost Ratio' and 'Turbo Performance Boost Ratio' settings but I've never used them.

Your Ryzen 5600 has a nominal TPD of 89W and should at least "work" on your mobo, but it's true that most A320M builds skimp on the VRM section. Even so, I'd expect the 5600 to boost above 3,500 MHz occasionanally. Check the BIOS again to see if there are any obscure settings you've missed.

When I upgraded my Gigabyte A320M-H from an A6-9500 dual core APU to a 2600X, I added small metal heatsinks to the bare MosFET transistors in the VRM area. I'm using a standard Wraith down cooler which blows plenty of air over the VRMs and the new heatsinks are only warm to the touch. Most of the heat from the VRMs is dissipated in the motherboard's copper layers.

MosFETs can operate at 110C or even higher, but I won't be trying to overclock the 2600X. I can't check the system at the moment to confirm if it boosts, but I don't recall any problems. For more critical work I use a 7950X in a mobo with much better VRM cooling.

Is there any chance of upgrading your current mobo? More importantly, do you really need CPB and PBO, or are they merely on your wish list?

 

[thestryker]

While I wouldn't trust that motherboard to properly boost under high load it should still boost. I did some searching to see if anyone else had reported this behavior and there's a post on AMD's community forums with the exact same problem and they didn't seem to have a resolution. I'm going out on a limb and assuming it's a problem with the motherboard BIOS itself. I would certainly try to see if the shop you got the CPU at could perhaps verify the CPU is working properly, but I imagine it is.

 

[falselight]

The BIOS in my Gigabyte A320M-H includes 'Core Performance Boost', 'Core Performance Boost Ratio' and 'Turbo Performance Boost Ratio' settings but I've never used them.

Your Ryzen 5600 has a nominal TPD of 89W and should at least "work" on your mobo, but it's true that most A320M builds skimp on the VRM section. Even so, I'd expect the 5600 to boost above 3,500 MHz occasionanally. Check the BIOS again to see if there are any obscure settings you've missed.

When I upgraded my Gigabyte A320M-H from an A6-9500 dual core APU to a 2600X, I added small metal heatsinks to the bare MosFET transistors in the VRM area. I'm using a standard Wraith down cooler which blows plenty of air over the VRMs and the new heatsinks are only warm to the touch. Most of the heat from the VRMs is dissipated in the motherboard's copper layers.

MosFETs can operate at 110C or even higher, but I won't be trying to overclock the 2600X. I can't check the system at the moment to confirm if it boosts, but I don't recall any problems. For more critical work I use a 7950X in a mobo with much better VRM cooling.

Is there any chance of upgrading your current mobo? More importantly, do you really need CPB and PBO, or are they merely on your wish list?

Honestly right now MSI Afterburner reports that my bottleneck is my RX 5600 XT, so in most cases I don't need it that bad. There are just times when I feel like it should be outputting a lot more frames than it is, especially when GPU usage drops below 70% and CPU usage hits a wall, seemingly indicating that the CPU could tell the GPU to output more frames if only it had more clock speed. I bought a 1440p 144hz display and was hoping to at least get up to a stable 120fps at 2k, but in its current state my machine struggles to hit even 90. I was also hoping that I could get away with not upgrading my mobo and just focusing on a GPU upgrade instead in the future. I'd also just like to have that good single core performance when I need it, particularly with emulators.

Which BIOS settings could enable CPB or otherwise give me a max core boost that's at least as high as advertised? This is the manual I'm referencing, but the CPB option as shown in it does not appear on my BIOS. I've verified that I'm using the latest version for my specific model and I've cleared the CMOS as well (Just took it out, wiped the underside a bit with a Q-tip, and reseated it. Some sources say this is sufficient, some say I gotta take it out for 10 mins and even unplug the motherboard's 24-pin connector. From the video tutorials it shows that it's gotta show you the "American Megatrends" screen, and I did see that screen so I figure I did it right). In the event that there's no equivalent option, should I reflash or maybe flash the BIOS with a BIOS version that's for other A320M models from Biostar? There's a newer version but it's for the PRO version which I do not have.

 

[falselight]

Probably the best and easiest thing to do is to set your XMP profiles to get the most out of your memory. All Ryzen processors respond really well to faster memory.

Another fairly easy thing to do is put much-better-than-stock cooling on the CPU. Ryzen 5000 is thermally constrained, meaning it only boosts to high clocks if there's sufficient thermal headroom which much improved cooling provides.

And the last improvement can be a bit techie. Even though A320 boards do not allow overclocking I believe you should be able to use a utility called PBO2Tuner for enabling PBO and, especially important, undervolting with Curve Optimizer (CO). CO all alone can improve performance of a 5000 CPU significantly by helping it run cooler so it boosts high longer even while putting less stress on the VRM, typically weak in A320 boards. CO along with an improved CPU cooler has a compounding effect.

While setting up a good custom CO curve can be a bit techie the PBO2Tuner app itself is actually pretty easy to use for it. By default you do have to run the utility and apply the curve after every system restart since an A320 BIOS doesn't let you make changes there. But, once you've found a custom curve you set it up (startup task created in Task Scheduler) to run at every restart to apply the custom curve for you, although doing that can be a bit techie too.

It comes included in CoreCycler, an app which helps in testing your CO settings for stability, linked at the bottom of the instructional link below. It's based on 5800X3d but the techniques they use apply to any Ryzen 5000 CPU.

How-to-undervolt-AMD-RYZEN-5800X3D-Guide-with-PBO2-Tuner/README.md at main · PrimeO7/How-to-undervolt-AMD-RYZEN-5800X3D-Guide-with-PBO2-Tuner

Get the Most out of your 5800X3D using PBO Curve Optimizer! - PrimeO7/How-to-undervolt-AMD-RYZEN-5800X3D-Guide-with-PBO2-Tuner

github.com

I think I'll give this a try. In your experience, has this trick been able to let a CPU that's stuck on base clock boost? I tried enabling PBO in BIOS but there was no change, though. Another thing worth noting is that my voltage is stuck at 0.975 at peak load, whereas my Ryzen 3 4350g tended to exceed that even under load. What settings in PBO2 do you recommend for me?

 

[thestryker]

You should absolutely not try to flash a BIOS version that isn't for this board. It looks like there are two BIOS versions which support the 5600 so perhaps try both of those (A32ES311.BSS is the first to support it and A32ES505.BSS is the most recent BIOS). Unless PBO replaced the CPB option in the BIOS the CPB option missing is a pretty big red flag.

 

[drea.drechsler]

....Another thing worth noting is that my voltage is stuck at 0.975 at peak load...?

That really does suggest something's amiss. Even if your motherboard isn't suitable for a 5600 (which I tend to doubt since there's no way to do a fixed all-core overclock) it shouldn't behave like that if everything's correct.

Are you sure the CPU's heatsink is properly mounted? Do you vividly recall taking off any protective plastic film on the bottom of the heatsink...or that there was none to remove?

I would expect core voltage at a heavy all-core workload, like Cinebench, to be in the 1.2-1.3V range, possibly even going as high as 1.35V. But in lightly threaded work you should see 1.45 to 1.5V during individual core boosts. That's the (SVI2 TFN) voltage reading in HWInfo64, the best utility to use for Ryzen CPU's.

If the VRM is going into a protection mode you can try running Cinebench on fewer than 12 threads. Reduce them one at a time until it behaves more normally, hitting the correct voltages.

 

[falselight]

You should absolutely not try to flash a BIOS version that isn't for this board. It looks like there are two BIOS versions which support the 5600 so perhaps try both of those (A32ES311.BSS is the first to support it and A32ES505.BSS is the most recent BIOS). Unless PBO replaced the CPB option in the BIOS the CPB option missing is a pretty big red flag.

What's strange to me is that this board came with the most recent BIOS (Purchased in late 2022, latest BIOS is from May 2022), and like I said it let my Ryzen 3 boost just fine. I didn't check then whether CPB was enabled back then, as I didn't really have any need to delve into all this type of stuff and I wasn't interested in overclocking my first build.

I suppose I'll try rolling back the BIOS if there's no other option. Is there no registry option that could enable CPB for me though? From what I've gathered online Intel has one, doesn't AMD?

 

[falselight]

That really does suggest something's amiss. Not sure what but even if your motherboard isn't suitable for a 5600 (which I tend to doubt) it shouldn't behave like that if everything's correct.

Are you sure the CPU's heatsink is properly mounted? Vividly recall taking off any protective plastic film on the bottom of the heatsink...or that there was none to remove?

There wasn't any. Just using the stock AMD wraith cooler. Temps are worse than with my Ryzen 3 but I thought that was a given cause of the stock cooler and the fact that there's more cores. This is my first time upgrading a CPU (sales person who sold my Ryzen 3 that was bundled with this board installed it for me), so I was afraid that I did it wrong, but upon googling it seems that improperly seated CPUs wouldn't boot at all, so I'm good there right?

Checked CPU and fan power connections as well and they were good. Could power delivery be the culprit? I'm using an AVR (dirty power is rampant in my country) and plugged it into two outlets at this point with the same result. Should I try to plug the PSU in directly?

Also what exactly would count as "improperly mounted"? I managed to screw it snugly onto the CPU, however I am concerned that Speedfan isn't detecting it. BIOS does though.

 

[drea.drechsler]

There wasn't any. Just using the stock AMD wraith cooler. Temps are worse than with my Ryzen 3 but I thought that was a given cause of the stock cooler and the fact that there's more cores. This is my first time upgrading a CPU (sales person who sold my Ryzen 3 that was bundled with this board installed it for me), so I was afraid that I did it wrong, but upon googling it seems that improperly seated CPUs wouldn't boot at all, so I'm good there right?

Checked CPU and fan power connections as well and they were good. Could power delivery be the culprit? I'm using an AVR (dirty power is rampant in my country) and plugged it into two outlets at this point with the same result. Should I try to plug the PSU in directly?

Also what exactly would count as "improperly mounted"? I managed to screw it snugly onto the CPU, however I am concerned that Speedfan isn't detecting it. BIOS does though.

It depends on how poorly the cooler is seated as only if cocked severe enough to not make contact at all would it not boot. Make sure each of the four fasteners are all equally and fully tightened all the way around.

Ignore speedfan. Get HWInfo64. It's the only monitoring program you should need.

Again: use Cinebench to test your CPU. Run single threaded and look at SVI2 TFN voltage, add threads and check again. If the VRM is grossly inadequate for that CPU it will go into protect mode at some point as you add threads. If it's barely adequate it will only go into protect mode as it gets really hot, after several minutes of operation with all 6 cores / 12 threads working hard.

Check the +12V condition in HWINfo64. It should vary no more than +/-10% in use but modern PSU's hold it much tighter than that if working correctly. If it's holding in tolerance in heavy and light loads then power delivery is at least adequate, although a cheap PSU can cause problems in other ways.

 

[falselight]

It depends on how poorly the cooler is seated as only if cocked severe enough to not make contact at all would it not boot. Make sure each of the four fasteners are all equally and fully tightened all the way around.

Ignore speedfan. Get HWInfo64. It's the only monitoring program you should need.

Again: use Cinebench to test your CPU. Run single threaded and look at SVI2 TFN voltage, add threads and check again. If the VRM is grossly inadequate for that CPU it will go into protect mode at some point as you add threads. If it's barely adequate it will only go into protect mode as it gets really hot, after several minutes of operation with all 6 cores / 12 threads working hard.

Check the +12V condition in HWINfo64. It should vary no more than +/-10% in use but modern PSU's hold it much tighter than that if working correctly. If it's holding in tolerance in heavy and light loads then power delivery is at least adequate, although a cheap PSU can cause problems in other ways.

Would a poorly seated cooler really have such an effect as to make this motherboard disable CPB? Still I'll make sure to tighten it up real good this time.

Where exactly would I be able to see that the CPU has gone into protect mode?

EDIT: Just conducted 3 benchmarks -- the first with one thread, the second with 2, and the third with all 12.

Maximum values that I think are relevant:

The CPU hit 99.7% of TJMax
Core effective clocks hit 3,500 Mhz instead of 3,499.99
SV12 TFN hit 1.000 V
Core VIDs hit 0.988V where it was previously 0.975
Max +12V was 12.144V (this was consistent for all three trials)

Are these healthy numbers or do I really need to go back and find at what point it goes into protect mode? I think the last benchmark ended abruptly -- was that protect mode? It stayed close to 95C for a little while though.

Also idk if it's of note, but chassis intrusion is flagged as "yes".

 

[drea.drechsler]

Would a poorly seated cooler really have such an effect as to make this motherboard disable CPB? Still I'll make sure to tighten it up real good this time.

Where exactly would I be able to see that the CPU has gone into protect mode?

Absolutely yes! The way Ryzen works is it will only boost if the algorithm sees sufficient thermal and power margin.

When the VRM puts the CPU into protect mode it starts running at very low clocks...possibly as low as 800Mhz, maybe 1.7Ghz. The CPU will do the same for itself if it overheats.

 

[falselight]

Absolutely yes! The way Ryzen works is it will only boost if the algorithm sees sufficient thermal and power margin.

When the VRM puts the CPU into protect mode it starts running at very low clocks...possibly as low as 800Mhz, maybe 1.7Ghz. The CPU will do the same for itself if it overheats.

Wait, so given that my system is at around 50+C on startup, if I could get that down to around 45 would the BIOS just automatically flip CPB back on? Also while this CPU does tend to heat up quicker I can bring it down to what I remember my old temps being at peak CPU load with external cooling measures, such as a fan and air-conditioning. Still no boost there. Does the BIOS have to be happy with temps at POST for it to flip CBP on itself?

As for power, based on my HWInfo results I'm not deficient there am I?

 

[falselight]

You should absolutely not try to flash a BIOS version that isn't for this board. It looks like there are two BIOS versions which support the 5600 so perhaps try both of those (A32ES311.BSS is the first to support it and A32ES505.BSS is the most recent BIOS). Unless PBO replaced the CPB option in the BIOS the CPB option missing is a pretty big red flag.

Just flashed A32ES311.BSS and while it changed up some options in the advanced tab in my BIOS, still no CPB option to be found. Could there be something wrong with the CPU? If so, is there any way to verify it without having to install an identical CPU on my system?

 

[falselight]

It depends on how poorly the cooler is seated as only if cocked severe enough to not make contact at all would it not boot. Make sure each of the four fasteners are all equally and fully tightened all the way around.

Ignore speedfan. Get HWInfo64. It's the only monitoring program you should need.

Again: use Cinebench to test your CPU. Run single threaded and look at SVI2 TFN voltage, add threads and check again. If the VRM is grossly inadequate for that CPU it will go into protect mode at some point as you add threads. If it's barely adequate it will only go into protect mode as it gets really hot, after several minutes of operation with all 6 cores / 12 threads working hard.

Check the +12V condition in HWINfo64. It should vary no more than +/-10% in use but modern PSU's hold it much tighter than that if working correctly. If it's holding in tolerance in heavy and light loads then power delivery is at least adequate, although a cheap PSU can cause problems in other ways.

I made sure the screws were tight as possible this time , but they were already screwed on as tightly as they'll go. I also popped the tempered glass off of my case and now it's sitting at a comfortable 45C on idle with the room air conditioned and a fan pointed at it. I think I could do without the aircon and still get sub-50C. But still, no CPB. Like I said above I already flashed to an older BIOS version and the option still didn't appear. Really at a loss here.

Could it be possible that the VRMs were just powerful enough to allow a Ryzen 3 4350G to boost but not a Ryzen 5 5600?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Wait, so given that my system is at around 50+C on startup, if I could get that down to around 45 would the BIOS just automatically flip CPB back on? Also while this CPU does tend to heat up quicker I can bring it down to what I remember my old temps being at peak CPU load with external cooling measures, such as a fan and air-conditioning. Still no boost there. Does the BIOS have to be happy with temps at POST for it to flip CBP on itself?

As for power, based on my HWInfo results I'm not deficient there am I?

It's looking for temperatures during boosts and that's very hard for you to see in any monitoring utility as it happens extremely rapidly.

Update to the latest BIOS for your board and after updating be sure to reset CMOS.

And do what I've said about testing for one thread and look for boosting, then incrementally adding more threads.

Look at the SVI2 TFN voltage, not the VID. The SVI2 TFN is based on telemetry from the CPU and it's the actual voltage the core is seeing. The VID is basically a suggestion the CPU sends the VRM controller about what voltage it should output.

The behaviour of the +12V line suggests power delivery is OK from the PSU and therefore mains too.

Get a better CPU cooler than the Wraithe Stealth. It's barely adequate for keeping the CPU from burning itself up and little more.

EDIT added...
OK...all along I was thinking your board was a Gigabyte board, A320M-H. But now I'm thinking it may be a Biostar, A320MH. I took a look at it...and wow. All it has is a 3 phase CPU VCore VRM with two lonely uncovered FET's on each phase. It may very well be completely inadequate for any 6 core/12 thread processor.

I strongly suggest running the VRM compliance test sequence I describe above: start with one thread in Cinebench and look for boosting, then add threads incrementally looking for when it stops. When it stops is doubtless about the point the VRM can no longer deliver the power that CPU requires so tells it to stop boosting, especially if the Core (Tctl/Tdie) temperature hasn't been up around 90-95C in any of the tests to that point.

Running at base clock (3.5Ghz) is probably to be expected with insufficient power delivery just as it would be with insufficient cooling. That's the way the boost algorithm works.

 

[falselight]

It's looking for temperatures during boosts and that's very hard for you to see in any monitoring utility as it happens extremely rapidly.

Update to the latest BIOS for your board and after updating be sure to reset CMOS.

And do what I've said about testing for one thread and look for boosting, then incrementally adding more threads.

Look at the SVI2 TFN voltage, not the VID. The SVI2 TFN is based on telemetry from the CPU and it's the actual voltage the core is seeing. The VID is basically a suggestion the CPU sends the VRM controller about what voltage it should output.

The behaviour of the +12V line suggests power delivery is OK from the PSU and therefore mains too.

Get a better CPU cooler than the Wraithe Stealth. It's barely adequate for keeping the CPU from burning itself up and little more.

EDIT added...
OK...all along I was thinking your board was a Gigabyte board, A320M-H. But now I'm thinking it may be a Biostar, A320MH. I took a look at it...and wow. All it has is a 3 phase CPU VCore VRM with two lonely uncovered FET's on each phase. It may very well be completely inadequate for any 6 core/12 thread processor.

I strongly suggest running the VRM compliance test sequence I describe above: start with one thread in Cinebench and look for boosting, then add threads incrementally looking for when it stops. When it stops is doubtless about the point the VRM can no longer deliver the power that CPU requires so tells it to stop boosting, especially if the Core (Tctl/Tdie) temperature hasn't been up around 90-95C in any of the tests to that point.

Running at base clock (3.5Ghz) is probably to be expected with insufficient power delivery just as it would be with insufficient cooling. That's the way the boost algorithm works.

Yes I did say that I had a Biostar board in the OP, and yes I was looking at the SV12 TFN. The motherboard was also on the latest BIOS version to begin with and I reset the CMOS multiple times (However when I flashed to the second most recent BIOS version, I didn't -- still, the options in the BIOS changed so I figure it still worked).

I ran a test with 12 threads and the CPU reached up to 94 point something degrees, but I don't think it boosted. I do think the test stopped abruptly though (wasn't paying that much attention, was too busy freaking out over how close to TJMax I got -- never experienced that on a desktop before!). I think I'll see about the incremental test when I have free time, but I'm guessing this essentially confirms that the reason for no CPB is because my board is insufficient because they cheaped out on the VRMs, right?

On the topic of VRMs, is there any sort of primer out there that a noob like me can read up on to at least get a handle on what makes a motherboard's VRMs good, or at least good enough for the CPUs we have and the ones we're targeting on our upgrade path? Is it possible to determine, at a glance, that a board won't be good enough for a CPU? Like how were you able to judge that those features were insufficient for a 6-core/12-thread CPU? Was it just from comparing it to boards that can? I read here that you just buy a board with a high max processor TDP, but I'm wondering if there's some other, more refined metric to go by.

 

[thestryker]

Unfortunately motherboard makers are rarely transparent about their VRM setups unless it's something they're trying to use as a selling point. Usually boards based on the lowest end chipsets are going to have poor VRM setups. Many reviews will describe the VRM layout which gets around the lack of data provided by motherboard makers.

An easy way to tell is compare a board like yours to something slightly more expensive just count the number of chokes on the board. Low end boards a lot of the time only have 5 around the CPU on both Intel and AMD. With 12th/13th gen Intel and Zen 4 based AMD platforms the VRM setup is much better than prior generations so most boards are good to go for any CPU.