Question Noob here with some really basic overclocking questions.

[SHjiwani]

I've never overclocked my pc before but I just built my first computer and I wanted to iverclock my cpu and ram and I'm just a bit confused about some things. I overcloacked my ram from its default speed of 2666 MHz to 3600 MHz which is what it's rated for. My cpu is where I'm a bit confused. I have a Ryzen 7 5800x which has a base clock of 3.8 GHz and I want to overclock it to 4.5 GHz, which is just bellow it's rated max boost clock speed of 4.7 GHz. There are a couple ways I can do this and I'm not sure which one is best. The first one is to use the cpu core ratio option and set it to 45, and the second is to go into advanced settings and select amd overclocking and use the manual cpu overclocking option to set the speed to 4.5 GHz that way. I'm not really sure which of these is the better option. Also regardless I also know I have to change the voltage but I'm not sure what to change it to. And with so many different voltage options like cpu core voltage, cpu soc voltage, dram voltage, etc. I'm not sure which one to use and what to set it too. From what I hear the only downside to setting it too high is higher temps but I'm not really worried about that since I'm custom watercooling my setup anyway. Also I'm using an asus rog bord of that makes a difference.

 

[SkyNetRising]

From what I hear the only downside to setting it too high is higher temps

And also

silicon degradation,​

reduced life-span.​

With extreme voltages you also get instant cpu death.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The thing with Ryzen CPUs is touching the CPU ratio means all the cores will run at that speed all the time. This will result in higher power draw and more heat dissipating from the part.

In any case, you only need to touch the CPU ratio and CPU core voltage. If you need a starting point with voltage, run Cinebench R23 or 2024 with HWiNFO running, then note what the CPU voltage and clock speeds are at, though start with a slightly higher voltage than what you see.

If it's below your target, then adjust the clock speed until the system crashes. Then adjust the voltage by increasing it step by step (you can usually press + or - on the option to change it by a step), checking to see if the system at least boots with each step. Once you have something that boots, run Cinebench again. If it crashes, you need more voltage.

Ryzens are designed to run up to 1.5V, but I'd stop at 1.45V.

 

[CountMike]

I've never overclocked my pc before but I just built my first computer and I wanted to iverclock my cpu and ram and I'm just a bit confused about some things. I overcloacked my ram from its default speed of 2666 MHz to 3600 MHz which is what it's rated for. My cpu is where I'm a bit confused. I have a Ryzen 7 5800x which has a base clock of 3.8 GHz and I want to overclock it to 4.5 GHz, which is just bellow it's rated max boost clock speed of 4.7 GHz. There are a couple ways I can do this and I'm not sure which one is best. The first one is to use the cpu core ratio option and set it to 45, and the second is to go into advanced settings and select amd overclocking and use the manual cpu overclocking option to set the speed to 4.5 GHz that way. I'm not really sure which of these is the better option. Also regardless I also know I have to change the voltage but I'm not sure what to change it to. And with so many different voltage options like cpu core voltage, cpu soc voltage, dram voltage, etc. I'm not sure which one to use and what to set it too. From what I hear the only downside to setting it too high is higher temps but I'm not really worried about that since I'm custom watercooling my setup anyway. Also I'm using an asus rog bord of that makes a difference.

First, with so called OC at 4.5GHz you may be loosing performance as you are preventing it from full boost. Mine boosts on all cores up to 4.78GHz and single core up to 5.05GHz.
The "trick" is in cooling so temps don't go much over 80c and proper voltage management. In my case up to 1.32v including all core Core Optimizer at -30.

 

[CelicaGT]

Don't bother overclocking Zen3, there's not much extra performance on the table and more often or not (as has been pointed out) there is performance degradation. Fast RAM, a good quality cooler and leave Ryzen to its own devices. Besides, it's been a long time since there was any tangible reason to overclock most CPUs. A few percent of extra performance won't even be noticed day to day. Back when one could get an extra Ghz....that was a reason, but those days are long gone.

 

[CountMike]

Don't bother overclocking Zen3, there's not much extra performance on the table and more often or not (as has been pointed out) there is performance degradation. Fast RAM, a good quality cooler and leave Ryzen to its own devices. Besides, it's been a long time since there was any tangible reason to overclock most CPUs. A few percent of extra performance won't even be noticed day to day. Back when one could get an extra Ghz....that was a reason, but those days are long gone.

At forced 4,5GHz it's more of an underclock.

 

[hotaru.hino]

First, with so called OC at 4.5GHz you may be loosing performance as you are preventing it from full boost. Mine boosts on all cores up to 4.78GHz and single core up to 5.05GHz.

This doesn't make sense to me unless you have PBO turned on as the official specs are 4.7GHz max. And CPUs tend to adhere to their clock speeds specs than GPUs do.

 

[CountMike]

This doesn't make sense to me unless you have PBO turned on as the official specs are 4.7GHz max. And CPUs tend to adhere to their clock speeds specs than GPUs do.

4.7GHz is official ALL CORE boost, with some luck and good cooling even single core is higher.

 

[hotaru.hino]

4.7GHz is official ALL CORE boost, with some luck and good cooling even single core is higher.

No it's not. It's the maximum single core turbo boost speed.



And I tested the behavior on my system and giving it an all-core workload drops the "Frequency Limit" parameter below the maximum boost speed according to HWiNFO

 

[CountMike]

https://imgur.com/a/t91Qdey

View: https://imgur.com/a/t91Qdey

https://imgur.com/a/t91Qdey

View: https://imgur.com/a/t91Qdey

 

[drea.drechsler]

I've never overclocked my pc before but I just built my first computer and I wanted to iverclock my cpu and ram and I'm just a bit confused about some things. I overcloacked my ram from its default speed of 2666 MHz to 3600 MHz which is what it's rated for. My cpu is where I'm a bit confused. I have a Ryzen 7 5800x which has a base clock of 3.8 GHz and I want to overclock it to 4.5 GHz, which is just bellow it's rated max boost clock speed of 4.7 GHz. There are a couple ways I can do this and I'm not sure which one is best. The first one is to use the cpu core ratio option and set it to 45, and the second is to go into advanced settings and select amd overclocking and use the manual cpu overclocking option to set the speed to 4.5 GHz that way. I'm not really sure which of these is the better option. Also regardless I also know I have to change the voltage but I'm not sure what to change it to. And with so many different voltage options like cpu core voltage, cpu soc voltage, dram voltage, etc. I'm not sure which one to use and what to set it too. From what I hear the only downside to setting it too high is higher temps but I'm not really worried about that since I'm custom watercooling my setup anyway. Also I'm using an asus rog bord of that makes a difference.

I definitely agree with opinions on the futility of all-core overclocking of Gen 3 and later Ryzen processors. They do better on single core boosts than you can generally get on all-core fixed clocks unless also using sub-ambient cooling. What's more, when you give one really good ambient cooling it will probably perform better than the official specs. My 5800X, on a 240mm AIO and at full-stock settings, boosts quite regularly to 4.8Ghz while gaming . With optimized PBO Curve Optimizer settings and a +200Mhz boost clock over-ride, it will do 5.0Ghz quite regularly while gaming.

Obviously those are single core boosts, not all-core, and gaming is the ideal lightly threaded/bursty workloads that work best for it. But even in Prime95, or other all-core AVX workloads, it will do 4.4-4.5Ghz on all but the most aggressive FFT's if I also limit the boost clock to +50Mhz to control core heat-up. On a real-world all core workload...Cinebench....it's running 4.6-4.7Ghz all cores!

So yeah, fixing clocks at 4.5Ghz will be a significant underclock for gaming type workloads (bursty, lightly threaded) and not give much, if any, advantage for all-core heavy workloads. Just give it really good cooling and an optimized PBO / Curve Optimizer setup to get the most out of it. Also, be careful about pointers you may see about getting high all-core OC's as many also use some sort of sub-ambient cooling to get really good results, and frequently run that way just long enough to get a benchmark result then tuned back to reasonable for 24/7 to save their CPU from permanent damage.

As far as memory goes, running your RAM at 3600 is indeed technically overclocking because Gen 3 and Gen 4 CPU memory controllers are rated to 3200. But they are robust enough and typically do handle it very well with one stick on each channel with most motherboards. Two sticks per channel gets a bit dicey except with the few motherboards designed for it..

 

[Order 66]

The thing with Ryzen CPUs is touching the CPU ratio means all the cores will run at that speed all the time. This will result in higher power draw and more heat dissipating from the part.

In any case, you only need to touch the CPU ratio and CPU core voltage. If you need a starting point with voltage, run Cinebench R23 or 2024 with HWiNFO running, then note what the CPU voltage and clock speeds are at, though start with a slightly higher voltage than what you see.

If it's below your target, then adjust the clock speed until the system crashes. Then adjust the voltage by increasing it step by step (you can usually press + or - on the option to change it by a step), checking to see if the system at least boots with each step. Once you have something that boots, run Cinebench again. If it crashes, you need more voltage.

Ryzens are designed to run up to 1.5V, but I'd stop at 1.45V.

And I thought 1.25V was a lot when I was overclocked my 7700x to 5.4Ghz

 

[drea.drechsler]

And I thought 1.25V was a lot when I was overclocked my 7700x to 5.4Ghz

Keep in mind OP's talking about a Gen 4 CPU...5800X. What are the performance specs for Gen 5?

Also, any Ryzen processor should NEVER run at even 1.45V continuously. It's designed to run at (up to 1.5V) for short duration when individual cores boost and when core temperature and other factors allow based on it's FIT parameters. That requires the boost algorithm running to protect the processor. It will also drop voltage under 1.0V as often as possible for both energy efficiency and further improvement to useful life. So running a fixed clock and voltage OC where the boost algorithm doesn't run and can NEVER drop clocks or voltage then even 1.25V could be way too much for a decently long processor life.

But then, a long and useful life isn't really a consideration for many overclockers who're more interested in just seeing it pass a benchmark run.