PC Processors

[DjElasticDetective]

Recently, I noticed a sudden spike in my CPU (3900X) temperature (55-56 C) and voltage (1.4 - 1.45 V). The spike hits on start up and then never comes down. The clock speed hangs >4 MHz and doesn't go down. I have scoured everything I can find online and have tried countless solutions to removing Dragon Center (MSI Board and GPU) to chipset and BIOS updates. Nothing seems to work the way a reddit response from AMD said it should https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/cbls9g/the_final_word_on_idle_voltages_for_3rd_gen_ryzen/. The only solution I've found is to set the windows power plan to Power Saver. This decreases the voltage and temps significantly (<1.0 V and 38-40 C). I've run a few Cinebench runs to test performance and nothing seems to break 80 C, 4.3 MHz, or 1.4 V despite maximum values being higher and idle values being higher. I've turned off PBO and have turned on XMP settings, but that's it aside from some fan tweaks. I feel like I'm missing something critical here as this issue comes and goes regularly with each boot/wake-up when not in Power Saver. If anyone has any knowledge of how to fix this I would be greatly appreciative. Looks like most solutions are from over a year ago and some are out of date. 

Thanks in advance!
Tom

Build-
CPU: Ryzen 3900X |
GPU: MSI RTX 2060 Gaming X
Cooler: bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
MB: MSI x570 Godlike
Mem: 64gb 3600 gskill
PSU: EVGA 1000 w 80+ Gold

[marcel95]

Hi Tom,

my system is quite similar to yours

Ryzen 7 3700X cooled by Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4
16GB DDR4 3200 (XMP)
Gigabyte x570 Aorus Elite
RX 5700XT

First (coming from an i5 3570k) I also freaked out about the high idle temps.
But after searching the internet, it's perfectly normal for our CPUs to spike to 1.4V in "idle" scenarios.
To be exact, when an application is being started, the load rises.

I've set my Win10 power plan to "AMD Ryzen Balanced", which came with the latest Chipset Drivers.

Monitoring the temps with "HwInfo64", my CPU sits between 40°C - 51°C while in idle.

Other than that, it is not normal that your Voltage stays at 1.4V and doesn't come down. Have you tried clearing CMOS in your BIOS after the BIOS update ?

Also, some options like "Load optimized defaults", should always be used after a BIOS update.

Did you  install the latest chipset drivers directly from AMD or from your board manufacturer?

Regards

[DjElasticDetective]

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@marcel95 wrote:

Hi Tom,

my system is quite similar to yours

Ryzen 7 3700X cooled by Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4
16GB DDR4 3200 (XMP)
Gigabyte x570 Aorus Elite
RX 5700XT

First (coming from an i5 3570k) I also freaked out about the high idle temps.
But after searching the internet, it's perfectly normal for our CPUs to spike to 1.4V in "idle" scenarios.
To be exact, when an application is being started, the load rises.

I've set my Win10 power plan to "AMD Ryzen Balanced", which came with the latest Chipset Drivers.

Monitoring the temps with "HwInfo64", my CPU sits between 40°C - 51°C while in idle.

Other than that, it is not normal that your Voltage stays at 1.4V and doesn't come down. Have you tried clearing CMOS in your BIOS after the BIOS update ?

Also, some options like "Load optimized defaults", should always be used after a BIOS update.

Did you  install the latest chipset drivers directly from AMD or from your board manufacturer?

Regards

---

Hi,

Since the last update I've cleared cmos multiple times for multiple reasons including this one. As for the drivers, I've gone straight from AMD the last time I updated them (1-2 days ago). I'll probably do one more cmos clear, since I completely Uninstalled Dragon Center and I know that's caused issues, and I'll see what happens keeping in mind the default value comment you mentioned. I'll report back if it helps. The Ryzen power plans have so far done nothing different with the only major change coming from the Power Saver one.

Thanks

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[DjElasticDetective]

Update: I cleared CMOS and started the machine with default values. Temperature seems to be a bit cooler (now 53-54 C) but voltages are still the same as are the clock speeds. I will likely turn the AMP settings back on to see if there's a difference there. Otherwise, it looks like the issue persists.

- Tom

[DjElasticDetective]

Update: I couldn't find any solution, so just for kicks and giggles I flashed the BIOS again since that has been the only time this issue has been solved. Sure enough the bios flash worked and temps were reasonable again!

But then...

I recently got a new AIO and realized I put some fans in wrong. Turned everything off, fixed the fans, and sure enough upon reboot everything was at high constant voltage again. The cooler is working better than my other one (55 down to 51 C) but that voltage is still sitting at a constant 1.4+ V. I've become convinced this is either a bios issue OR there is some program trying to take control of the voltages. In a previous test I removed Dragon Center which I heard caused some people problems. Did nothing on my end. Looks like the only solution is to leave it on Power Saver or flash the BIOS every time I want to reboot. This kind of sucks since I'm under the impression that the Ryzen power plans let me take advantage of the faster response times. But they're useless if I want my CPU to last.