Processors

[turnzi]

Hello. I have been doing a lot of reading lately about voltages and that 1.4 can cause degeneration. looking at ryzen master ( when idol ) my temp is 37 , but my voltage kind of sits at 1.31 average and does not drop any lower. will usually go to 1.4 when clock speeds are going to 4.4 however. Does this seem normal for idol voltage ? 

[turnzi]

[goosethesecond]

I mean, what you read is true for ALL electronics. It would take countless years of continuous use for your Ryzen processor to "deterioate" enough to not work due to voltages being above 1.4v.

As soon as electricity passes through any chip, transistor, capacitor, and wire in your computer, those parts are being very very very very slowly "deteriorated." It's a normal thing.

I wouldn't worry too much about it my man, it's one of those things that is just a part of nature. It would take a LONG time for you to witness your CPU die from heavy use. Just know that AMD processors do an excellent job of managing power and voltage according to its needs and current load and your Ryzen will be performing just fine for a while to come.

EDIT:

The BEST thing you can do to keep your PC parts lasting as long as possible is proper heat management. Make sure you are cleaning/blowing dust out of your PC every month. Don't let dust build up on the CPU fan/heatsink. Also, invest in a nice AIO cooler for your CPU to keep its temps lower. Keeping your PC as cool as possible is the only thing you can do to increase the lifespan of all its components so focus on keeping your tower clean and fans maintained.

It's not the voltage that degrades the CPU, it's the heat that these voltages produce. A CPU running at 1.4v consistently that is hooked up to an AIO cooler that keeps it at a temp of 50 or below under full load is going to last much longer than a CPU at 1.4v hooked up to a stock fan cooler running at 80 celcius under the same load. So again, this is all about keeping your parts as cool as possible. 

EDIT 2: (lol)

ONE MORE THING and also VERY important. You should be applying new thermal paste on your CPU at least every 18 months or so. This is for those who use regular thermal paste like Arctic Silver or some options from Grizzly. There are more permanent thermal solutions out there that don't require annual reapplication but in case you have regular paste, change it out every year or so. 

[turnzi]

Thank you very much for the reply.

Temperature is the least of my worries. i got a very good cooling system that even when i apply the auto overclock , my temperature will not go over 60 degrees. I even have a manual overclock setting that boost the cores up 4.5 @ 1.35v  and still wont go over 60 degrees , even when playing warzone and streaming same time. 

My only initial worry was the voltage cause you do reading and people breaching that no voltage should do above 1.3v and seeing my voltage never drop below 1.3 even in idol ( even though the temp is 30 degrees ) just got me wondering

[goosethesecond]

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@turnzi wrote:

Thank you very much for the reply.

Temperature is the least of my worries. i got a very good cooling system that even when i apply the auto overclock , my temperature will not go over 60 degrees. I even have a manual overclock setting that boost the cores up 4.5 @ 1.35v  and still wont go over 60 degrees , even when playing warzone and streaming same time. 

My only initial worry was the voltage cause you do reading and people breaching that no voltage should do above 1.3v and seeing my voltage never drop below 1.3 even in idol ( even though the temp is 30 degrees ) just got me wondering

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Oh awesome! Yeah you definitely have a great cooling setup. So I have the R5 3600, not the X. Right now at idle, the voltage sits around 0.73-0.80. As I type here, it goes up to 1.20 or so and only hovering around 750MHZ. When I launched Photoshop 2021, it jumped right up to 4.1-4.2GHz and voltage up to 1.41-1.42. 

I am actually on the stock AMD cooler unfortunately on my machine. Ok so your voltage never drops below 1.3... hmm... 

Which motherboard do you have? And are you on its latest BIOS update and latest AMD chipset update? Did you set your motherboard to any sort of "Performance Mode" or using any of the profiles in Ryzen Master other than default?

EDIT: I saw your Ryzen screenshot on Default mode so it's not that. Do you have anything open at all when you measure your idle voltages? My voltages in the screenshot below is with only my Chrome open with the tab for this forum and two other tabs. Only background program that isn't Windows related is Corsair's iCUE. 

To go along with how interesting AMD processors handle their power management, when I take my mouse and make constant circles with it my clock speed jumps up to 1900MHz but with a full voltage load of 1.42v which is what is used for the full boost of 4.2GHz earlier when I opened Photoshop. I think it's a way to keep consistent and stable lower clock speeds as well when you're not doing such intensive things. So this is why I ask what your background programs are. There could be something that is asking just enough of the processor for it to decide to keep its voltage at 1.3 in order to "quickly" process anything it needs to. Think of it like spooling up a turbo before it kicks in lol. 

[turnzi]

asus® prime b450-plus is the motherboard. i updated the version today on it. it was about 2 or 3 behind.

I actually noticed i was on the Ryzen performance power plan. when put to balance i can dip to the 1.2v mark when not doing anything. on the windows balance power plan i can get a bit lower than that even which is good.

im just tryng to make sure there is nothing out of the 0rderinary cause last thing i want is my chip to get bad quickly ha

[ScotchFury]

Slightly different chip (I have the 3700x) but mine drops from close 1.4V to around 1.22 when under full load in Cinebench. No OC just memory profile & standard auto precision boost. (Runs up to around 4GHz) Only has a baby 120MM RAD for the moment and runs totally fine in 34c summer temps, CPU barely cracks 70c while @ 100%.

They're hard to kill unless disabling thermal protection & running massive manually set OCs etc. More likely to have a system freeze / blue creens & restarts if it undervolts too low for an OC etc.

You can use Ryzen Master or similar and it will show on a scale, Green, yellow, red for voltage, temp, peak mhz, CPU & socket power draw etc. That and check the spec for the CPU. They normally list recommended ranges and maximums for various components. 

[goosethesecond]

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@turnzi wrote:

asus® prime b450-plus is the motherboard. i updated the version today on it. it was about 2 or 3 behind.

I actually noticed i was on the Ryzen performance power plan. when put to balance i can dip to the 1.2v mark when not doing anything. on the windows balance power plan i can get a bit lower than that even which is good.

im just tryng to make sure there is nothing out of the 0rderinary cause last thing i want is my chip to get bad quickly ha

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I am also on the Ryzen High Performance Plan. You could always try resetting your BIOS settings then don't forget to enable your RAM's XMP profile back on and see what happens. This COULD be something to do with yours being the "X" model since they are set to draw more wattage than the regular non "X" models. I also say this because of the other poster in here with the 3700X saying his voltages are the same as yours. 

I'm going to lean back towards the whole "yeah all our chips are very slowly degrading by normal operation but you probably will never be able to use it enough to see it actually die because it takes a long time" know what I mean?

BUT I'm always down to keep troubleshooting because it's my passion ;) so time for more research on these "X" models...

[turnzi]

Thanks very much for the reply. Im a bit of a noob when it comes to bios stuff . but can do more research into it .

i can OC my profile in ryzen master to get 4.5ghz @ 1.34 v. Woulod you consider this good ? Temp doesnt tend to go over 60* either even when streaming and gaming warzone same time

[goosethesecond · Accepted solution]

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@turnzi wrote:

Thanks very much for the reply. Im a bit of a noob when it comes to bios stuff . but can do more research into it .

i can OC my profile in ryzen master to get 4.5ghz @ 1.34 v. Woulod you consider this good ? Temp doesnt tend to go over 60* either even when streaming and gaming warzone same time

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That's an excellent clock speed for just 1.34v AND your temps don't go over 60 when streaming/gaming? That is actually very solid. Again, I understand your worries and it wasn't wrong to double check your CPU would be fine but again I can say its operation is normal and as long as your temps are nice, that's really what will help it last as long as possible. 

Also, I would be more than willing to connect with you via Discord or Messenger and I can personally walk you through updating your BIOS. It's VERY important.

Let's connect, it's my passion to help others with these things.

[turnzi]

cool , sounds good to me my friend. PM me and we can sort it out. Thank you

[goosethesecond]

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@turnzi wrote:

cool , sounds good to me my friend. PM me and we can sort it out. Thank you

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It looks like this forum doesn't have a PM function unless it's incredibly hidden?

Just add me on Discord: GooseTheSecond#0748