Question ryzen 5 3600 load voltages between 1.35-1.45 normal?

Markhad93

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Apr 29, 2016
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Hey all, so I have a ryzen 5 3600 with a asrock b450m pro4 motherboard and im really happy with the performance. However, when i am playing games my voltages stick around 1.35-1.45. Is this normal? I remember seeing the thread by an AMD representative saying voltages of 1.2-1.3 are perfectly normal, but why are my voltages so much higher then that? Should I adjust my voltage in the bios or try to change something? temps dont exceed 77c while playing CPU intensive games so temp isnt so bad (fyi im using a wraith prism cooler i bought off kijiji so im guessing because my load voltages are so high. I am using windows balanced power plan with 85% minimum cpu power since I believe that is what is recommended.

I can provide any additional info if needed thanks!
 
Jun 15, 2019
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I have same rig as yours and face the same problem of voltages being around 1.4 in cpu intensive games and temps crossing 80 since I use the stock cooler. If you get any solution for this problem please let me know
 

jon96789

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Aug 17, 2019
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My 3900X runs 50 degrees on idle and about 85 degrees under load with a Corsair H115i RGB Platinum AIO... I had the stock AMD cooler and the temps hit 95 degrees under load.

I changed the max CPU speed to 99% in the Power Settings in the control panel and the idle temps dropped to 40 degrees and 70-75 degrees under load...
 

stark11

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Nov 10, 2012
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Don't worry, its intended as normal, though the chip is non PBO, it still has core performance boost, so with given thermals, if there is scope of higher clocks the boost will be there. Do update the BIOS (from Motherboard vendor website) as newer ones have better temperatures and performance, along with chipset driver (from AMD website).
Also in BIOS set CPU Voltage to OFFSET (-) and use anything from 0.0100 to 0.0500 volts to have better temperatures and longer boost.
Currently am on my 2700x with (-0.0500v) offset and system runs much cooler, holds the 4.2+GHz boost longer under gaming loads and under core heavy i can see individual core jumping around 3.8 to 4GHz, temperature never exceeds 65-67 °C, with a measly after market air cooler.
Just enjoy your build. May your frame-rate be high and temperatures low.
 
Last edited:
Sep 8, 2019
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I have same rig as yours and face the same problem of voltages being around 1.4 in cpu intensive games and temps crossing 80 since I use the stock cooler. If you get any solution for this problem please let me know

Sorry this is not a solution and I want to learn more about cpu... is that 1.4v in cpu is bad? with 3600
 

jon96789

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IMHO, running at 1.4 volts all the time is bad... The CPU should be dropping the voltage when idling and increasing only under load. The problem is the BIOS settings that AMD provided to the board mfrs is buggy... I know MSi has made some BIOS updates for some of their mobos but not on mine so I still have the same high voltage issue.

My "fix" for this is by clamping down on the CPU speed to 99%. To do this, you go to Control Panel, Power Options, select whatever power mode you want (High, Balanced, Power Saver, Ultimate Performance, etc), Change Plan Settings, Change Advanced Power Settings, Processor Power Management, change Minimum Processor Management to 85% and Maximum Power Management to 99%.

This will restrict your CPU to 99% of its rated speed and drop the CPU speed to 85% when idling (you can even lower this further to about 50% or even 5%. The CPU will just drop to a speed it is comfortable with, never 5%, mine dropped to a minimum of 2.2 GHz for greater power efficiency), so my 3.8 GHz 3900X will be restricted to 3.72 GHz, a loss of 1%. But what it also does is prevents your CPU from going to Turbo mode (in my case, 4.6 GHz). Supposedly a loss in speed of 20% but it's not that bad. AMD rates their CPUs for only one core, e.g. one core is supposed to hit the 4.6 GHz (in reality, the maximum my CPU ever hit is 4.5 GHz on a single core) and the rest usually hits about 4.2 GHz or a 15% loss.

But what this does is drop the CPU idle temp from the 50 degree range to 37-40 degrees. The maximum CPU temp under load dropped from 80-85 degrees to 70-75 degrees. The CPU voltage dropped from 1.375-1.45 Volts to 0.9-1.1 volts (depending on the selected Power Plan). Heat is the killer for CPUs. It will shorten the lifespan of any IC, whether it is a CPU or a LSIC or DSP (TI had supplied a DSP to audio manufacturers several years ago which failed after a year or two because of thermal issues, bricking all AVRs using that DSP which affected Onkyo, Pioneer and Yamaha for a couple of years which they had to repair. Users just had to add a heat sink to the ICs to avoid this issue).

I don't play any games so speed drop did not really bother me. I use my PC for rendering videos... The power restriction only added a minute or two to my work so that was inconsequential. My old i7 6700K workstation would take about 90-120 minutes to render a video (the CPU would run 100% on all cores), now the Ryzen 3900X does the same task at 35-45 minutes, so another couple of minutes was nothing compared to my gains (I also noted that the Ryzen would only run about 80-85% on all cores, which means the speed is no longer CPU dependent), so I think that is why the impact was so minimal.

AMD and the board mfrs are going through teething problems with the new generation of chipsets and CPUs. I am hoping that new BIOS updates will correct the issues (not reaching advertised clock speed, controlling voltage and allowing the CPUs go into low power modes when idle). AMD has acknowledged that there was an issue with the BIOS supplied to the OEMs and that they will provide an update about Sept 10 which should fix the maximum CPU clock speed. Unfortunately, they did not mention anything about the high voltage situation. I am hoping that the new BIOS update will also remedy that.