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?

 

[falselight]

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.

So essentially the quickest way to tell if a board is good enough is if it's advertised specifically for that line of CPUs. I can just discount everything that's advertised for anything older than the CPU I have/want.

 

[drea.drechsler]

So essentially the quickest way to tell if a board is good enough is if it's advertised specifically for that line of CPUs. I can just discount everything that's advertised for anything older than the CPU I have/want.

Actually, board marketing and adverts is probably the one of the worst resources to rely on. They don't just mislead, but flat out lie at times.

But you're lucky because pretty much any B550 board has a VRM that's more than good enough for your 5600 CPU, so just look for one of those and you'll be fine. But I would suggest staying with one of the major AM4 mfr's: MSI, Gigabyte, Asrock and or Asus. Biostar can be OK but they can also be junk, as you're finding out.

When you find two or three affordable candidates available to you come back online here to ask which would be good for your application.

A great resource for research are tier lists, although they can be a bit basic. A much better one are feature databases that provide a breakdown of VRM components by board model. But they can be a bit hard to understand, especially without knowing something about how a VRM works. This website provides some fairly basic information about that.

And lastly, you have to beware personal references on the internet. That's because there is a large population of so-called overclockers who (think they) need extreme capability VRM's and anything that's not is junk in their opinion. They'll steer you into far more expensive boards than your CPU, or your budget, needs.