Question PBO auto vs disabled? (Power efficiency)

[Phil_33]

For the 7600, which is the most power efficient? PBO auto or disabled? Or doesn't this matter?
Should I put it to auto when I know I'm going to play heavier games and pbo disabled if I know I'm going to do light work?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Determining when to enable or disable PBO really shouldn't be about power efficiency. Cool N Quiet (If equipped) and the BIOS C-states configuration, so long as you haven't disabled any of these, should automatically handle idle or low load power efficiency. Make sure that all C-states in the BIOS are either enabled or set to Auto and if there is an option for Cool N Quiet, make sure that is enabled as well. Also, make sure the Windows power plan is set to Balanced or Ryzen balanced, depending on what you see as options in the power settings section of Windows system settings or control panel.

What SHOULD control whether you leave PBO enabled or not is thermal compliance. If under an all core full load you are seeing thermal throttling (Use HWinfo and check under full load, if there is thermal throttling happening it will say so to the right of the appropriate section. Download, install and choose "Sensors only" in HWinfo) or temperatures are in excess of specification, then you should probably either disable PBO or get a better cooler. If temperatures are not exceeding specification and no throttling is occurring, then it's up to you if you leave it enabled or not but you'll definitely take a performance hit with it disabled.

What are your full hardware specifications including CPU cooler, motherboard, case and case cooling configuration, etc?

You're really not "saving power" with it disabled, because if you are thermally compliant and it's on, it will complete a task in a shorter amount of time due to the higher sustained clocks, whereas with it disabled, yes it will likely use a slightly lower core voltage but it will take longer to complete the same task so in effect you really aren't saving any power in that way. You would need to manually configure the various voltages, whether under or over, changes in line load calibration and other relevant settings much the same as with overclocking, to see any reduction in power while completing the same level of task.

 

[Phil_33]

Determining when to enable or disable PBO really shouldn't be about power efficiency. Cool N Quiet (If equipped) and the BIOS C-states configuration, so long as you haven't disabled any of these, should automatically handle idle or low load power efficiency. Make sure that all C-states in the BIOS are either enabled or set to Auto and if there is an option for Cool N Quiet, make sure that is enabled as well. Also, make sure the Windows power plan is set to Balanced or Ryzen balanced, depending on what you see as options in the power settings section of Windows system settings or control panel.

What SHOULD control whether you leave PBO enabled or not is thermal compliance. If under an all core full load you are seeing thermal throttling (Use HWinfo and check under full load, if there is thermal throttling happening it will say so to the right of the appropriate section. Download, install and choose "Sensors only" in HWinfo) or temperatures are in excess of specification, then you should probably either disable PBO or get a better cooler. If temperatures are not exceeding specification and no throttling is occurring, then it's up to you if you leave it enabled or not but you'll definitely take a performance hit with it disabled.

What are your full hardware specifications including CPU cooler, motherboard, case and case cooling configuration, etc?

You're really not "saving power" with it disabled, because if you are thermally compliant and it's on, it will complete a task in a shorter amount of time due to the higher sustained clocks, whereas with it disabled, yes it will likely use a slightly lower core voltage but it will take longer to complete the same task so in effect you really aren't saving any power in that way. You would need to manually configure the various voltages, whether under or over, changes in line load calibration and other relevant settings much the same as with overclocking, to see any reduction in power while completing the same level of task.

Specs:
MSI Tomahawk b650 wifi, Ryzen5 7600 non x, arctic freezer R34 duo, Corsair vengeance 32gb DDR5 6000mhz CL30 expo, kingston KC3000 1tb, XFX RX590 (should be a 7700xt soon), fractal design meshify 2, psu: corsair rmx 750w, LG 1080p144hz1ms 24inch display

There is no cool n quiet, there is no BIOS C states setting or what the hell that means... There is just PBO enable, auto, disabled and advanced. as I said before I'm not a techguy at all. Instead, I don't understand ANY of this...

https://ibb.co/qY5518r (idle)
https://ibb.co/0YqKRxj (load 1)
https://ibb.co/tDsYMNV (load 2)
https://ibb.co/qRq2bgK (idle 2 pbo auto) (5minutes out of load)

When I set the PBO to auto: the spikes went from 62W max to 75W max when starting windows. And in game as you see on the last shard, it went max 90W. However, with PBO disabled, it went to 84W.

Honestly, this is all SOOO confusing to me. PBO disabled should give me quiet nice and easy and power efficient gaming performance...

I'm testing and testing and testing, so much that I'm going to be busy testing next year as well and I'll never enjoy gaming this way. It makes me crazy.
I do NOT want to overclock anything at all. I just want to game as power efficient as possible and relax.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you don't understand any of this, then you should definitely not be deviating from the default configuration, especially if, as it seems, you have serious hesitations about doing it or learning to do it. People who say "not a techguy at all" should either move away from that mindset and learn, or just leave things set to the default configuration. You need to make up your mind which one it's going to be before doing anything.

It's impossible to make recommendations if you refuse to offer your hardware specifications like I asked for before.

CPU, motherboard, memory kit, CPU cooler, case, case fans (How many, WHERE are they located, WHAT direction is EACH of them blowing, WHAT sort of fan curve or preset are you using)

As far as the C-states and BIOS settings go, yes, you probably aren't seeing those settings because you probably have your BIOS set to show only the options for "EZ mode" or basic view. You need to change that to the advanced view which you can do, and which basically every board tells you that you can do and how to do it, from within the BIOS. Or you can google how to set your BIOS view to advanced for your board model. Then you WILL see the C-state settings in one of the submenus for the CPU advanced settings.

But honestly, if you are using the stock cooler, you should simply have PBO disabled ALL THE TIME, period, because the stock coolers are not good enough to keep any of the Ryzen 5 though Ryzen 9 coolers within thermal spec. Especially without running full speed and driving you up the wall.

 

[Phil_33]

If you don't understand any of this, then you should definitely not be deviating from the default configuration, especially if, as it seems, you have serious hesitations about doing it or learning to do it. People who say "not a techguy at all" should either move away from that mindset and learn, or just leave things set to the default configuration. You need to make up your mind which one it's going to be before doing anything.

It's impossible to make recommendations if you refuse to offer your hardware specifications like I asked for before.

CPU, motherboard, memory kit, CPU cooler, case, case fans (How many, WHERE are they located, WHAT direction is EACH of them blowing, WHAT sort of fan curve or preset are you using)

As far as the C-states and BIOS settings go, yes, you probably aren't seeing those settings because you probably have your BIOS set to show only the options for "EZ mode" or basic view. You need to change that to the advanced view which you can do, and which basically every board tells you that you can do and how to do it, from within the BIOS. Or you can google how to set your BIOS view to advanced for your board model. Then you WILL see the C-state settings in one of the submenus for the CPU advanced settings.

But honestly, if you are using the stock cooler, you should simply have PBO disabled ALL THE TIME, period, because the stock coolers are not good enough to keep any of the Ryzen 5 though Ryzen 9 coolers within thermal spec. Especially without running full speed and driving you up the wall.

I'm sorry, PBO disabled does help a bit. the spikes don't go over 80W now anymore. So it's working just as I expected it to be.
I was just wondering if auto-pbo would have been better. But in the end, I'm better of to just set it to disabled. That's the easiest way and I don't need to be bothered at all about power consumption or temps or voltages or whatever...

For the record: I'm using fractals stockfans (3 of them) in right order so 2front intake, 1 rear exhaust. And then the 2 cpufans. All casefans are stock default and are at 65%.
CPUfans of arctic freezer R34: manual curve set to: 40 degrees/40%, 60 degrees/70%, 70 degrees/80%, 80 degrees/100%.
And all other specs are there. I've given all the specs now.

As for C states, I did click on the advanced tab and couldn't find C states. But I'll keep looking.
Anyway, seems like it's better for me to stay off of the PBO setting untill I really need it. CPU is doing fine without atm. No complains about it.

And why I'm asking this all is because we live in a country where the power bills are really expensive, so we try to cut some power where we can.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Auto and enabled would be exactly the same if the system has PBO active while it's set to Auto. Auto only changes whether PBO is enabled automatically or not. It has nothing to do with PBO being more efficient. If the system determines that the available power and thermal response are within acceptable limits, it will enable it. If it doesn't, then it won't.

So, bottom line is, you won't have the same level of CPU performance with PBO disabled and that might affect your frame rates or potentially even cause some issues with stuttering, but if you aren't having any of those problems then having it disabled is fine. The CPU cooler you have should be perfectly fine in the event you do want to run with it disabled. The difference in power consumption between enabled and disabled over the course of an entire year, regardless of where you live, is probably less than like a 10% difference, if that, so I wouldn't disable it just for that reason if that is the only reason.