[SOLVED] Ryzen Overclock Newbie

[heavyarms003]

I have a Ryzen 1500X on a Asus Rog Strix B450 F Gaming motherboard. I changed the bios to overclock it to 3.7 instead of the stock 3.5
In ryzen master when I run something heavy like cinebench It will show all cores up to 3.7. After the test they will drop back down to around 1.55
When you overclock are all the cores always supposed to stay at the higher frequency? In this case 3.7 or are you just setting the max for when it is needed?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Totally normal. So long as the power saving features are enabled in the BIOS, which is fine, recommended in fact, and so long as the power plan in the control panel power options is either set to balanced, or to performance with the advanced power settings setting for processor power management set to a minimum of about 8% and maximum of 100%, you could see anything from 800mhz to 1.55Ghz like you're seeing when that core is not under a load.

It is fine that way so long as any core under a load goes to full speed as it should and so long as everything is stable. And by stable I do not mean just stable enough to not blue screen or freeze, or restart. I mean, enough voltage applied to the overclock that there are NO signs of stability while testing.

Quick and dirty overview of overclocking/stability validation procedure.

Set CPU multiplier and voltage at desired settings in BIOS. Do not use presets or automatic utilities. These will overcompensate on core and other voltages. It is much better to configure most core settings manually, and leave anything left over on auto until a later point in time if wish to come back and tweak settings such as cache (Uncore) frequency, System agent voltage, VCCIO (Internal memory controller) and memory speeds or timings (RAM) AFTER the CPU overclock is fully stable.

Save bios settings (As a new BIOS profile if your bios supports multiple profiles) and exit bios.

Boot into the Windows desktop environment. Download and install Prime95 version 26.6.

Download and install either HWinfo or CoreTemp.

Open HWinfo and run "Sensors only" or open CoreTemp.

Run Prime95 (ONLY version 26.6) and choose the "Small FFT test option". Run this for 15 minutes while monitoring your core/package temperatures to verify that you do not exceed the thermal specifications of your CPU.

(This should be considered to be 80°C for most generations of Intel processor and for current Ryzen CPUs. For older AMD FX and Phenom series, you should use a thermal monitor that has options for "Distance to TJmax" and you want to NOT see distance to TJmax drop below 10°C distance to TJmax. Anything that is MORE than 10°C distance to TJmax is within the allowed thermal envelope.)

If your CPU passes the thermal compliance test, move on to stability.

Download and install Realbench. Run Realbench and choose the Stress test option.

Choose a value from the available memory (RAM) options that is equal to approximately half of your installed memory capacity. If you have 16GB, choose 8GB. If you have 8GB, choose 4GB, etc. Click start and allow the stability test to run for 8 hours. Do not plan to use the system for ANYTHING else while it is running. It will run realistic AVX and handbrake workloads and if it passes 8 hours of testing it is probably about as stable as you can reasonably expect.

If you wish to check stability further you can run 12-24 hours of Prime95 Blend mode or Small FFT.

You do not need to simultaneously run HWinfo or CoreTemp while running Realbench as you should have already performed the thermal compliance test PLUS Realbench will show current CPU temperatures while it is running.

If you run the additional stability test using Prime95 Blend/Small FFT modes for 12-24 hours, you will WANT to also run HWinfo alongside it. Monitor HWinfo periodically to verify that no cores/threads are showing less than 100% usage. If it is, then that worker has errored out and the test should be stopped.

If you find there are errors on ANY of the stability tests including Realbench or Prime95, or any other stress testing utility, you need to make a change in the bios. This could be either dropping the multiplier to a lower factor or increasing the voltage while leaving the multiplier the same. If you change voltage or multiplier at ANY time, you need to start over again at the beginning and verify thermal compliance again.

A more in depth but general guide that is still intended for beginners or those who have had a small amount of experience overclocking can be found here:


*CPU overclocking guide for beginners

 

[heavyarms003]

Totally normal. So long as the power saving features are enabled in the BIOS, which is fine, recommended in fact, and so long as the power plan in the control panel power options is either set to balanced, or to performance with the advanced power settings setting for processor power management set to a minimum of about 8% and maximum of 100%, you could see anything from 800mhz to 1.55Ghz like you're seeing when that core is not under a load.

It is fine that way so long as any core under a load goes to full speed as it should and so long as everything is stable. And by stable I do not mean just stable enough to not blue screen or freeze, or restart. I mean, enough voltage applied to the overclock that there are NO signs of stability while testing.

Quick and dirty overview of overclocking/stability validation procedure.

Set CPU multiplier and voltage at desired settings in BIOS. Do not use presets or automatic utilities. These will overcompensate on core and other voltages. It is much better to configure most core settings manually, and leave anything left over on auto until a later point in time if wish to come back and tweak settings such as cache (Uncore) frequency, System agent voltage, VCCIO (Internal memory controller) and memory speeds or timings (RAM) AFTER the CPU overclock is fully stable.

Save bios settings (As a new BIOS profile if your bios supports multiple profiles) and exit bios.

Boot into the Windows desktop environment. Download and install Prime95 version 26.6.

Download and install either HWinfo or CoreTemp.

Open HWinfo and run "Sensors only" or open CoreTemp.

Run Prime95 (ONLY version 26.6) and choose the "Small FFT test option". Run this for 15 minutes while monitoring your core/package temperatures to verify that you do not exceed the thermal specifications of your CPU.

(This should be considered to be 80°C for most generations of Intel processor and for current Ryzen CPUs. For older AMD FX and Phenom series, you should use a thermal monitor that has options for "Distance to TJmax" and you want to NOT see distance to TJmax drop below 10°C distance to TJmax. Anything that is MORE than 10°C distance to TJmax is within the allowed thermal envelope.)

If your CPU passes the thermal compliance test, move on to stability.

Download and install Realbench. Run Realbench and choose the Stress test option.

Choose a value from the available memory (RAM) options that is equal to approximately half of your installed memory capacity. If you have 16GB, choose 8GB. If you have 8GB, choose 4GB, etc. Click start and allow the stability test to run for 8 hours. Do not plan to use the system for ANYTHING else while it is running. It will run realistic AVX and handbrake workloads and if it passes 8 hours of testing it is probably about as stable as you can reasonably expect.

If you wish to check stability further you can run 12-24 hours of Prime95 Blend mode or Small FFT.

You do not need to simultaneously run HWinfo or CoreTemp while running Realbench as you should have already performed the thermal compliance test PLUS Realbench will show current CPU temperatures while it is running.

If you run the additional stability test using Prime95 Blend/Small FFT modes for 12-24 hours, you will WANT to also run HWinfo alongside it. Monitor HWinfo periodically to verify that no cores/threads are showing less than 100% usage. If it is, then that worker has errored out and the test should be stopped.

If you find there are errors on ANY of the stability tests including Realbench or Prime95, or any other stress testing utility, you need to make a change in the bios. This could be either dropping the multiplier to a lower factor or increasing the voltage while leaving the multiplier the same. If you change voltage or multiplier at ANY time, you need to start over again at the beginning and verify thermal compliance again.

A more in depth but general guide that is still intended for beginners or those who have had a small amount of experience overclocking can be found here:


*CPU overclocking guide for beginners

Thanks a lot. Ya Im still newish to the computer world and this is my first build. I did notice if I set the power mode to high performance in control panel it immediately jumps all 4 cores up to 3700. I didn't think about the power mode at all haha. And I ran aida64 stress test for about 12 hours over night and it never crashed So I feel pretty confident with the overclock. I just wanted to make sure that the overclock was actually working. Thanks again

 

[Darkbreeze]

I recommend running it on Performance, but then click on "change plan settings", then click on change advanced power settings, then scroll down to "processor power management", expand the settings and set the "MIN" setting to 8 or 10%. Allowing the cores to cool when they don't need to be at full strength not only helps keep the package temps lower, it will likely extend the life of the CPU as well.

Aida64 is worthless.

Prime95 version 26.6 for thermal testing. Realbench for stability. Other tests are either not sufficient or unreliable, for the most part.

regardless of architecture. P95 v26.6 works equally well across all platforms. Steady-state is the key. How can anyone extrapolate accurate Core temperatures from workloads that fluctuate like a bad day on the Stock Market?

I'm aware of 5 utilities with steady-state workloads. In order of load level they are:

(1) P95 v26.6 - Small FFT's
(2) HeavyLoad - Stress CPU
(3) FurMark - CPU Burner
(4) Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool - CPU Load
(5) AIDA64 - Tools - System Stability Test - Stress CPU

AIDA64's Stress CPU fails to load any overcloked / ovevolted CPU to get anywhere TDP, and is therefore useless, except for giving naive users a sense of false security because their temps are so low.

HeavyLoad is the closest alternative. Temps and watts are within 3% of Small FFT's.

-Computronix

So, Prime95 26.6 and choose the Small FFT option, for 15 minutes, to validate the thermal compliance.

Then, Realbench, for 8 hours, and choose HALF of your installed memory capacity in the memory to use field on the stress test option.

There are obviously other things you can run to test thermals and stability, but they do not offer the same level of assurance as these two tests.

You are new to overclocking. I have been overclocking for 20+ years. And even so, I know squat compared to many others, who have recommended this procedure to me as what they MOST rely on when it comes to verification of stability and thermal compliance.