Question CPU is always on high clock speed

[VeeK]

Hi. I was looking into some system monitoring tools and installed AMD Ryzen master and MSI afterburner. I like the MSI afterburner and in its graphs I noticed my CPU clock speed is always around 3.6ghz or over. I just want to confirm with you guys whether this is normal or should I be concerned? Did I do something? I played around with the sliders in Afterburner but I don't think they come in affect unless you save it which I didn't.

My configuration:
MSI B450M Pro-VDH Max Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 3500x
Adata XPG Gammix 8GB Memory x 2
Samsung 980 Pro M.2 SSD 500GB
MSI Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4Gb
Antec 450W PSU
LG Ultragear 144hz 24" Monitor

Here's a screenshot of the graph. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SfrH04lDuQ0nuq7Fu-grfadtnMZMUocV/view?usp=sharing
There's a game running in the background (L.A. Noire) during this screenshot.

 

[Deleted member 362816]

It is boosting. I wouldn't be to worried about it unless your temps are high.

 

[mdd1963]

Assuming no BIOS-derived OC schemes (i.e, a quick '10% increase' selected, etc)for increased performance hae been initiated, then Balanced power plan, selectable within WIidows' 'Edit Power Plan' , should allow clocking down to much moderate clock speeds when just loafing at the desktop, watching Youtube, etc... (I've never seen a need for Hi Performance power plan option, given the perfect clock speed behavior I observe within Balanced plan, but, perhaps AMD's mainboards and CPUs might be different/not as optimized)

(My own 7700K goes as low as 800 MHz if just staring at desktop icons, and hovers between ~1.13 - 2.0 GHz while reading forums, but, jumps to 4.7 GHz on all cores or even a single core occasionally if under a load, or, even for just a fraction of a second when opening HWMonitor)

 

[VeeK]

Changing power plan did not have any effect.

What is the difference between core clock and cpu clock? In the screenshot, the core clock is ~600mhz and seems to fluctuate with load. CPU clock is pretty much locked in at 3.6ghz.

 

[KananX]

This is normal, the actual clock of Ryzen can only be seen in Ryzen Master because it behaves in a way that programs that aren’t made for it, can only detect the clocks when it’s under load. Install Ryzen Master and give it a try you’ll see.

 

[Koekieezz]

Changing power plan did not have any effect.

What is the difference between core clock and cpu clock? In the screenshot, the core clock is ~600mhz and seems to fluctuate with load. CPU clock is pretty much locked in at 3.6ghz.

if you dont have amd ryzen power plan than you would need to install the latest chipset driver from amd support web.
try to install the latest agesa 1.2.0.7 bios or just do the bios that use agesa 1.2.0.3 any revision and install the latest chipset driver from amd, and make sure it is set at amd ryzen balanced power plan

 

[VeeK]

I've updated bios and chipset drivers. Bios to 1.2.0.6 since ver 7 is currently in beta and I don't want to install that. I still don't have AMD balanced power plan and core clock is still the same.

What KananX said, is this correct? I see he's been banned so I'm doubting it.

 

[CountMike]

I've updated bios and chipset drivers. Bios to 1.2.0.6 since ver 7 is currently in beta and I don't want to install that. I still don't have AMD balanced power plan and core clock is still the same.

What KananX said, is this correct? I see he's been banned so I'm doubting it.

What KananX said is close but no banana. Ryzen Master in simple view shows Effective frequency and that means as if it was a single core CPU. In Advance view you can see each core frequency and speeds can range from Sleep to full boost. Depending on load it could reach higher frequency on on core and that would translate to those 3.6GHz as effective frequency.
Ryzen Power Plan(s) do not do much any more, all power savings are done in BIOS and settings. You can modify any Windows PP to for instance 5% minimum CPU but that could help only in case of proper idle (1%) speeds, as soon you run anything, one ore more cores will boost according to particular programs. Some are optimized for single or more cores.

 

[VeeK]

@CountMike you have Ryzen too. Does your graph on MSI afterburner looks similar? More importantly, do you think this is problematic? Should I be doing anything about this?

 

[CountMike]

@CountMike you have Ryzen too. Does your graph on MSI afterburner looks similar? More importantly, do you think this is problematic? Should I be doing anything about this?

Sorry, I don't use Afterbuner any more, it's not working well with my AMD/Asus ROG GPU.

 

[VeeK]

More importantly, do you think this is problematic? Should I be doing anything about this?

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Deleted member 362816]

Any thoughts on this?

There is nothing problematic with a CPU clocking high unless your temperatures are also high.

 

[VeeK]

Thank you sir

 

[hotaru.hino]

The processor can enter idle states where the CPU core is sleeping and basically not responsive until explicitly woken up by the OS to do something. Until then, it may appear "stuck" in some state because said state isn't being updated anymore. Some frequency reporting tools don't account for this.

If you want something comprehensive, HWiNFO provides a lot of information, including the power consumption of each CPU core. If the CPU core is basically sipping power, it's sleeping, even if its clock speed is being reported as 3.6GHz.