[SOLVED] Why am I getting higher CPU bench marks but lower game performance?

[Billykid527]

Hey guys, I’m brand new to overclocking, really dont know much about computers, please don’t sh*t on me i know im inexperienced lol.

Anyway, ive been trying to overclock my cpu and ive had success in reaching stability and even raised my cinebench bench mark scores significantly after doing so. The problem is, when ive loaded up in game ive noticed my frames have dropped significantly, probably around 30-40 frames.

My specs are:
-AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6 core/12 threads @3.2 ghz
-GTX 1080
-MSI B350M Bazooka motherboard
-16 gigs of ram @ 2400 Mhz
Running with a stock cooler...😬

In bios I:
-upped core voltage to 1.275 from 1.2 and set speed to 3600 mhz
-I turned off smart fan and went full speed
-I upped my NB voltage to 1 Volt from .87
-I set my DRAM speed to 2400 mhz as for some reason they were running slightly slower in bios

As i said my bench marks went higher and i was stable but my game performance dropped. I monitored cpu temperature while in game and never went past the mid-50’s degrees C. My guts telling me its the stock cooler thats causing cpu to throttle but im not sure that would happen at the temperatures im getting. Please someone help me out, im really in experienced in this stuff, just want a slight boost in game performance. Thanks in advance yall.

 

[rgd1101]

make and model of the psu?
cpu/gpu temp and usage during the game?
ram/ssd/hdd usage?

 

[Billykid527]

make and model of the psu?
cpu/gpu temp and usage during the game?
ram/ssd/hdd usage?

Is there anyway to tell make and model of psu without disassembling my PC? Its hidden under a plate so i cant tell. Cpu temp is around 47-52, usage is around 40-43%. Gpu temp is around 50 but have seen it go to mid 60s in intense moments, usage is around 35-39% but drops sometimes.
Ram is about 2.2gs beings used for the game.

not sure how to tell ssd usage, i do not have hdd.

all of the usage info above was just for the game by the way, not cumulative.

 

[zx128k]

VRM are not strong with that motherboard. RAM speed is also below stock https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-1600 and the motherboard supports 3200 CL14 Samsung b-die https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B350M-BAZOOKA#support-mem-12. I worry about the PSU as well given the build and also vrm temps. HWInfo64 hopefully will show vrm temps. https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

With a GTX 1080 you need a quick CPU and fast RAM. A 1600 and 2400MT/s RAM is not what I would expect. Stock RAM is 2667MT/s. Was expecting a 3600x or a 9700k. Or for an older build a 8600k or 8700k. 7700K etc.

I would overclock the 1600 as close too 4GHz as I could get and the RAM as close too 3200MT/s as I could get.

 

[Karadjgne]

2133MHz is stock for 1st gen Ryzens. 2400MHz for 2nd Gen Ryzens. Anything past that is (OC) requiring xmp/docp enabled or manual OC. Doubtful you'll get 2400MHz ram past 2667, seriously doubtful it'll hit 2933, and I've yet to see any ram rated that slow make a leap to 3200MHz. Although I guess it might be possible, depending on how it was (if it was) binned. Your ram speeds will de determined by single/dual channel, slots populated and single/dual rank. Single channel, dual rank in anything except A2 will get you 2133, 2400 if you are lucky. Dual channel, single rank in A2/B2 will get you upto 2933/3200. Dual channel, dual rank and you might see 2667 at best. Ryzen are very particular about channel, slot, rank.

You'll need to upgrade your bios, to the last 2nd Gen supported, NOT a 3rd Gen latest bios. You'll brick it if you do.

7A38v1F
- MSI strongly recommend to update AMD chipset driver 18.10xxxxxxx or latest version before update BIOS.
7A38v1H
7A38v1LP(Beta version)

So 4 updates in that order. That'll bring up memory compatibility, agesa compliance and fix as many bugs as it can. If you have already updated some, you can skip the ones lower, but the chipset drivers will be important.

Save your OC profile in bios first. Export it to file if you can or you'll need to start over.

Cinebench is a benchmark, and higher scores are always nice. But if they impact real world usage, they become useless numbers. I'd rather have lower benchmarks and better gaming than the other way around.

 

[zx128k]

2133MHz is stock for 1st gen Ryzens. 2400MHz for 2nd Gen Ryzens. Anything past that is (OC) requiring xmp/docp enabled or manual OC. Doubtful you'll get 2400MHz ram past 2667, seriously doubtful it'll hit 2933, and I've yet to see any ram rated that slow make a leap to 3200MHz. Although I guess it might be possible, depending on how it was (if it was) binned. Your ram speeds will de determined by single/dual channel, slots populated and single/dual rank. Single channel, dual rank in anything except A2 will get you 2133, 2400 if you are lucky. Dual channel, single rank in A2/B2 will get you upto 2933/3200. Dual channel, dual rank and you might see 2667 at best. Ryzen are very particular about channel, slot, rank.

You'll need to upgrade your bios, to the last 2nd Gen supported, NOT a 3rd Gen latest bios. You'll brick it if you do.

7A38v1F
- MSI strongly recommend to update AMD chipset driver 18.10xxxxxxx or latest version before update BIOS.
7A38v1H
7A38v1LP(Beta version)

So 4 updates in that order. That'll bring up memory compatibility, agesa compliance and fix as many bugs as it can. If you have already updated some, you can skip the ones lower, but the chipset drivers will be important.

Save your OC profile in bios first. Export it to file if you can or you'll need to start over.

Cinebench is a benchmark, and higher scores are always nice. But if they impact real world usage, they become useless numbers. I'd rather have lower benchmarks and better gaming than the other way around.

AMD thinks stock RAM is 2667MT/s for the 1600. https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-1600 Just going off AMD website, I never got to play with any of the first gen Ryzens. It's not worth the effort overclocking low performance RAM anyway. It's just a lot of time for little performance increase.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hey guys, I’m brand new to overclocking, really dont know much about computers, please don’t sh*t on me i know im inexperienced lol.

Anyway, ive been trying to overclock my cpu and ive had success in reaching stability and even raised my cinebench bench mark scores significantly after doing so. The problem is, when ive loaded up in game ive noticed my frames have dropped significantly, probably around 30-40 frames.

My specs are:
-AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6 core/12 threads @3.2 ghz
-GTX 1080
-MSI B350M Bazooka motherboard
-16 gigs of ram @ 2400 Mhz
Running with a stock cooler...😬

In bios I:
-upped core voltage to 1.275 from 1.2 and set speed to 3600 mhz
-I turned off smart fan and went full speed
-I upped my NB voltage to 1 Volt from .87
-I set my DRAM speed to 2400 mhz as for some reason they were running slightly slower in bios

As i said my bench marks went higher and i was stable but my game performance dropped. I monitored cpu temperature while in game and never went past the mid-50’s degrees C. My guts telling me its the stock cooler thats causing cpu to throttle but im not sure that would happen at the temperatures im getting. Please someone help me out, im really in experienced in this stuff, just want a slight boost in game performance. Thanks in advance yall.

Do you know if your processor is an AE or an AF processor? When did you get it?
Fixing clock at 3600 isn't really overclocking that 1600, just locking it at a fairly low clock speed. But knowing what to advise depends on whether it's an AF or not. The AF processors were sold only recently and they're actually based on the 2nd gen 2600 die but using the 1st gen spec's. If you got the CPU or computer more than 6 months ago it's probably an AE though.

I wouldn't worry about the Bazooka VRM. I have a B350m Mortar with the exact same VRM and it's running a 1700 OC'd to 3.85G just fine while Folding@Home. For a 1600 it will work even better.

1st gen CPU's were rated for 2666 memory but early BIOS' had terrible memory compatibility and wouldn't do even that reliably. Updating to AGESA 1006, ver. 7A38v1H, is highly advised. DO NOT go any later than that as you're getting into Gen3 Ryzen BIOS's that disable a lot of features you may not like seeing and they do nothing for either Gen1 or Gen2 processors. If you do update to one, you may find it difficult to impossible to roll back when you find you don't like it.

 

[Billykid527]

Do you know if your processor is an AE or an AF processor? When did you get it?
Fixing clock at 3600 isn't really overclocking that 1600, just locking it at a fairly low clock speed. But knowing what to advise depends on whether it's an AF or not. The AF processors were sold only recently and they're actually based on the 2nd gen 2600 die but using the 1st gen spec's. If you got the CPU or computer more than 6 months ago it's probably an AE though.

I wouldn't worry about the Bazooka VRM. I have a B350m Mortar with the exact same VRM and it's running a 1700 OC'd to 3.85G just fine while Folding@Home. For a 1600 it will work even better.

1st gen CPU's were rated for 2666 memory but early BIOS' had terrible memory compatibility and wouldn't do even that reliably. Updating to AGESA 1006, ver. 7A38v1H, is highly advised. DO NOT go any later than that as you're getting into Gen3 Ryzen BIOS's that disable a lot of features you may not like seeing and they do nothing for either Gen1 or Gen2 processors. If you do update to one, you may find it difficult to impossible to roll back when you find you don't like it.

Its been a while, im sure its an AE.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Its been a while, im sure its an AE.

Then it's got 1st gen, 14nm Ryzen cores (Summit Ridge).

That means it's comfortable with 1.38V Vcore; with that you should be able to find a stable OC at around 3.8Ghz. Going higher it gets hotter and hotter really fast and demands a lot more voltage to stay stable but it can safely handle up to 1.425V Vcore but only so long as you have cooling sufficient to keep temps below 70C. That would allow up to 4.0Ghz if you have good silicon, more likely 3.9 to 3.95 and very rarely as high as 4.1Ghz.

Something to try for if you're willing. And of course, once you find a stable OC you like always try to find the lowest vcore voltage you can. You don't need to be 'prime 95' stable in day to day work, including games. Use something like RealBench to stress test. If it passes a couple hours running that and staying below 70C it should be good enough for daily work.

 

[Billykid527]

Then it's got 1st gen, 14nm Ryzen cores (Summit Ridge).

That means it's comfortable with 1.38V Vcore; with that you should be able to find a stable OC at around 3.8Ghz. Going higher it gets hotter and hotter really fast and demands a lot more voltage to stay stable but it can safely handle up to 1.425V Vcore but only so long as you have cooling sufficient to keep temps below 70C. That would allow up to 4.0Ghz if you have good silicon, more likely 3.9 to 3.95 and very rarely as high as 4.1Ghz.

Something to try for if you're willing. And of course, once you find a stable OC you like always try to find the lowest vcore voltage you can. You don't need to be 'prime 95' stable in day to day work, including games. Use something like RealBench to stress test. If it passes a couple hours running that and staying below 70C it should be good enough for daily work.

3.8 Ghz is highest ive gotten it to stay stable, i was using 1.35 vcore. Like i said, bench marks went up, but frames were still down in game though. I think its due to my bios version and memory compatibility. Im using bios version 1.0.
Im just scared to update bios because i dont want to brick it and im kinda tight on cash. Im just at a loss because whatever i overclock it to, small or big, it produces higher bench marks, but lower game performance.

 

[drea.drechsler]

3.8 Ghz is highest ive gotten it to stay stable, i was using 1.35 vcore. Like i said, bench marks went up, but frames were still down in game though. I think its due to my bios version and memory compatibility. Im using bios version 1.0.
Im just scared to update bios because i dont want to brick it and im kinda tight on cash. Im just at a loss because whatever i overclock it to, small or big, it produces higher bench marks, but lower game performance.

You are completely correct as running with BIOS Ver 1.0 is going to absolutely inhibit performance and memory compatibility, and considerably too. The release BIOS's for B350 were horrible and barely adequate to boot the computer in many cases even leading to 'cold bricks' for some that were hard to recover from.

But then, I can understand your hesitancy to to do so if you're seem to be OK now (except obviously you're really not). Still, it's really very safe if you follow process carefully. It's laid out in your manul in even more detail.

The most important thing is to avoid power interruptions once the update starts so don't do this if there are thunderstorms in the area. And some find it worthwhile to ban the cat from the room too .

Of course, download the BIOS from MSI web site... get ver. 7A38v1H as it's highly recommended to not go higher for a Gen 1 Ryzen processor. Once you have it, extract the BIOS file itself and put it on a USB stick drive.
First thing to do is shut down and reset CMOS BEFORE you start the update, it just helps later.
With the USB stick inserted go into the BIOS update utility from within the current BIOS. It should reboot the computer into the utility so it's safest for doing this. NEVER use an in-windows utility to do this.
Once in the utility locate the file on the USB stick and start the update. Let it run, be patient.
Once done it might just reboot. That's normal, but be ready and go back into BIOS first thing and confirm the new version.
Then shut down and do ANOTHER CMOS RESET. Just do it, it helps.
Now start back up and go into BIOS to make settings you like. Reboot into Windows.
WITH THIS VERSION you should be able to get better memory clocks and stability that will enable better FPS in games with high processor clocks.