Question Having problems with my 3700X All-Core Boost Clock...

[DUAL33s]

My Issue:
I've been tweaking and overclocking my new system now for about the past 3 weeks or so and everything was going great. But then yesterday out of nowhere I noticed my 3700X is no longer boosting to its normal 'all-core' frequency when under full load. Ever since I setup my new system, my 3700X has been consistently hitting between 4.1 - 4.25ghz when under full load from Cinebench R15 and R20. But now, it's only going up to around 3.9ghz when under load and I have do not understand why this is happening all the sudden.

What I've tried:
At first I thought it might have something to do with my Asus ROG Strix X570-E bios setting called: 'Performance Enhancer', which is supposed to increase the amount of time that your CPU can boost to it's all-core 'boost' frequency before down-clocking. In other words it will allow the CPU to boost longer when under full load. I've been messing around with its' settings, which are as follows: 'Level 1', 'Level 2' and 'Level 3 (OC)'. I've never touched the 'Level 3 (OC)' setting and have found that the 'Level 1' setting provided the best performance for my particular chip. But now, no matter what setting I adjust the 'Performance Enhancer' setting to, my chip will only do 3.9ghz MAX when under full load.

It may also have to do with the fact that I downloaded Ryzen Master (against my better judgement) just to mess around with it and see if it has gotten any better since last generation ((SPOILER ALERT: It didn't.)) But other than that I'm not sure what is going on here.

I thought maybe my bios was bugged or something, so I went ahead and downloaded the latest bios for my X570-E and successfully flashed it. But this changed nothing as far as my CPU boosting behavior. Then I went ahead and did a fresh install of Windows 10, just to be safe. Did not fix the problem. I then decided to try various power plans, including the new '1usmus Ryzen Universal Plan', but nothing is fixing my boost clock.

If anyone has experience with Asus X570 boards or if anyone has any tips or suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it, as I'm kinda stuck ATM and not sure what to do next.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. :/

-DUAL33s

My Specs:
Ryzen 7 3700X
Trident Z Neo 3600 (16-16-16-16-36)
Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming (Bios 1405)
PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT OC
Corsair CX650 (80+ Bronze)

 

[zx128k]

AGESA 1.0.0.4 patch b did not raise boost clock for me. So I went back to 1.0.0.3 ABBA.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I'd suggest backing out all CPU overclock settings in BIOS for now, just put everything full-auto. For now even PBO settings, and especially any 'auto-overclocking' features your motherboard may offer.

Since you've got the latest BIOS I'm assuming you have 1004b AGESA. I'm also assuming you have Windows10 updates to build ver. 1909 (do a Winver in Cortana box to check). In the BIOS, set following to enabled:

AMD Cool-n-Quiet to ENABLED
Advanced C-States to ENABLED
CPPC to ENABLED
CPPC Preferred Cores to ENABLED

Don't leave those in AUTO assuming the motherboard mfr. knows what works. They often don't.

Re-install the chipset drivers, the latest ones obtained only from the AMD website (even if you had them installed previously). DO USE the Ryzen Balanced power plan (or the 1Usmus plan if you want) and leave minimum processor state at 99%, as is it's default.

This should be your 'baseline', remember this and/or save it as an OC profile. Now check boosting. It should be hitting the highest max clocks but you'll only see that in light bursty loads. Neither CB15 nor CB20 are that...instead look at clock boosting in HWinfo64 while running a Defender quick scan.

As for me, I get very few boosts to 4.4 until tweaking my motherboard to improve it. I put in a slight voltage offset (+0.0125V) to keep VCore high and a light LLC. I also enable PBO, with parameters maxed and a PBO Scalar setting at 7X.

Now I get regular and extended boosting to 4.4Ghz on my 3700x in Defender scans with 3 different cores switching out. In CB20 i get generally sustained boosting at 4.1-4.2, with occasional hits up to 4.35 Ghz.

But I do not focus on clock speed alone. Because it really does jump around so much, just like a GPU does, it's hard to tell just whether it's better or actually worse. Instead I'm interested in the benchmark scores.

I can't say how your motherboard works but if I try any of the 'auto-overclocking' features on mine it either tanks performance (as yours does apparently) or flat out crashes it.

 

[zx128k]

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/1usmus-custom-power-plan-for-ryzen-3000-download.html

• Global C-state Control = Enabled
• Power Supply Idle Control = Low Current Idle
• CPPC = Enabled
• CPPC Preferred Cores = Enabled
• AMD Cool'n'Quiet = Enabled
• PPC Adjustment = PState 0

These settings caused my 3800x to act funny and single thread performance to die in Cinebench R20. It would reach a point in the single thread benchmark then stop boosting correctly. All the cores on my 3800x boost to 4.5GHz in hwmonitor. The good part is that all core performance went up.

If you want a good boost and have water. Then turn PBO on, set the limits to motherboard and set scalar to x5-10. Scalar will control how long the boost will be held. Note higher boost speeds will mean higher vcore. Scalar does not 'appear' to increase vcore but because you will boost to a higher clocks you will have the higher vcore for that clock. Scalar will also hold this higher boost for longer. So you will need better cooling. This is what it appears to do anyway.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
These settings caused my 3800x to act funny and single thread performance to die in Cinebench R20. It would reach a point in the single thread benchmark then stop boosting correctly. ...

This sounds like something Ryzen will do as thermals increase the cores, even in single thread. The new scheduler observes preferred cores (which is what CPPC settings does) so it's going to throw the thread, and boosts, around to the best ones so they should warm up a little with the sustained activity, it only makes sense. I have three cores that get the higher boosts, with one getting the most, so it's not really throwing the heavy work around to all 8 cores in CB20 ST. Would be interesting to know if a 3800X gets more boost-worthy cores.

It's really interesting to watch CPU utilization graphs in HWinfo, looking only at the 6 threads on the 3 cores that are getting the work in a CB20 ST BM run. I can actually follow the worker thread as the scheduler throws it from one core/thread to the next. Fascinating.

But in my case, ST performance has definitely not degraded. I do have a 240mm AIO on it to help, though.

Incidentally, I've understood this to be what Steve (at GN) meant when stating that Ryzen behaves a lot more like a GPU does. My GPU will pull back it's clock speeds with time as a BM progresses. It's hard to see it, have to sorta look at the trendline, but it's there. If you didn't realize what's happening I think it would appear as 'funny'. I also think if I could put it on a waterblock I'd get way better performance, sustained.

EDIT add: a thought... this might have something to do with why some people report dialing in a slight NEGATIVE VCore voltage offset helps. It's probably motherboard-sensitive, maybe 3800x different from 3700x, but a slightly LOWER vcore would help keep the core cooler during ST boosts and thus hold clocks longer.

 

[zx128k]

This sounds like something Ryzen will do as thermals increase the cores, even in single thread. The new scheduler observes preferred cores (which is what CPPC settings does) so it's going to throw the thread, and boosts, around to the best ones so they should warm up a little with the sustained activity, it only makes sense. I have three cores that get the higher boosts, with one getting the most, so it's not really throwing the heavy work around to all 8 cores in CB20 ST. Would be interesting to know if a 3800X gets more boost-worthy cores.

It's really interesting to watch CPU utilization graphs in HWinfo, looking only at the 6 threads on the 3 cores that are getting the work in a CB20 ST BM run. I can actually follow the worker thread as the scheduler throws it from one core/thread to the next. Fascinating.

But in my case, ST performance has definitely not degraded. I do have a 240mm AIO on it to help, though.

Incidentally, I've understood this to be what Steve (at GN) meant when stating that Ryzen behaves a lot more like a GPU does. My GPU will pull back it's clock speeds with time as a BM progresses. It's hard to see it, have to sorta look at the trendline, but it's there. If you didn't realize what's happening I think it would appear as 'funny'. I also think if I could put it on a waterblock I'd get way better performance, sustained.

EDIT add: a thought... this might have something to do with why some people report dialing in a slight NEGATIVE VCore voltage offset helps. It's probably motherboard-sensitive, maybe 3800x different from 3700x, but a slightly LOWER vcore would help keep the core cooler during ST boosts and thus hold clocks longer.

Single thread boost dies for me and the cpu drops to base clock. Temperatures are 50c. So I get 508 instead of 526-528. All cores increases from 2175-2214. This is with PBO on and full copper water block, D5 pump and 360 rad (60mm thickness) with 6 push/pull fans @ 1800rpm. Maybe pbo likes the settings. Or something else different. Maybe I have a setting or two wrong.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...So I get 508 instead of 526-528. All cores increases from 2175-2214....

It's possibly as much to do with your motherboard's BIOS presets as anything else. I'd do some experimenting, going from slight negative offset to slight positive offset, varying LLC and even dialing PBO scalar up and down. I'm not really afraid of VCore hitting 1.5V in light threaded work.

But in the end, the practical difference between 508 and 520 (CB 20 score) is not ever going to be noticeable. It's just a line in the sand.