PC Processors

[John_Sane]

Dear community,

my recent workstation built for the company threw me into a huge rabbit hole of issues.

Specs: 

CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 5965WX

Cooler: BeQuiet Dark Rock TR4

Mainboard: ASUS WRX80E Sage Wifi II

RAM: 512GB (8x64GB) 2666Mhz LRDIMM (Samsung)

GPU: RTX 4090

OS: Windows 10 Pro / Ubuntu 24.04

Tasks: Simulation / ML

Problem: The CPU "throttle's extremely, even when not running into thermal limits, while reporting clock speeds of 4550Mhz.

After a fresh restart when running tests in Cinebench 2024 - I get a performance forecast of 1900 Points (which seems fair for the CPU) .

Once the CPU comes close to the Thermal limit (92 degrees Celsius) it throttles down. Temperature goes down and stays around 68 degrees. CPU Clocks stay at reported 4550Mhz (all cores) and total package power is around 130 Watts. The OS lags and I end up with 250pts in the Cinebench score. The condition remains until a full restart.

Same goes for single core tasks - we see less than halved performance than what should be expected.

Reproduced with Windows 10 Pro and Windows 11 Pro.

I would really appreciate some support as this condition renders our machine unusable for its intended purpose.

Best regards,

Johannes

[misterj]

John_Sane, please post screenshots of Ryzen Master (RM) when you are having problems, including Cinebench R24 Multicore. It is hard to believe you are trying to run it on an Air Cooler. Have any changes been made via RM or BIOS? Please do a Clear CMOS and run your test again. John.

[John_Sane]

Hello Misterj, thanks for the quick reply. No major changes were done in the bios and no tweaking with ryzen master. Yet I cleared the CMOS and ran the test again.

Same results.

Here RM in the idle state of the CPU:

Here the state when Cinebench just started:

 

 After a short while the CPU reaches the thermal limit, as expected, and throttles a little to keep the temperature. Package Power at that Point around 220 Watts. All as expected. A little while later, the Package Power drops to 130 Watts, Temps fall to 72 degrees and clocks raise to 4501MHz. At the same time the whole OS starts lagging and the cinebench score slowly decreases and bottoms out at 250 pts.

For me, this has nothing todo with normal thermal throttling.

 Hope that can give some hints as of whats going on here.

Thanks again for your help and best regards.

[misterj]

Thanks, John_Sane. This is really weird. What is your ambient temperature? I am still looking, but can you try a run with your CPU cooler fan connected directly to 12 Volts? Thanks, John.

If you are running any MB software or other applications that claim to improve performance, please uninstall them and test again. This time please post no images of Cinebench.

[John_Sane]

Hi @misterj ,

today i could test your suggestions. The CPU cooler fans run at full speed (100% RPMs declared by BeQuiet) when connected to 12V and also when being CPU Temp Controlled and hitting >60 degrees. I don't run any "improvement software". Actually right now the only thing installed is Cinebench, Ryzen Masters, FanControl and Chrome...

Best regards

[misterj]

John_Sane, please post your ambient temperature and a screenshot of RM running CB multicore with the fan connected to 12Volts. Thanks and enjoy, John.

[John_Sane]

@misterj  Thanks, here the screenshot of RM running multicore Cinebench at 25°Celsius / 77° Fahrenheit ambient temperature.

 

[misterj]

Thanks, John_Sane. Was the Cinebench score good on this run or still bad? John.

EDIT: Did you set CO in the BIOS or in RM? Why do you have CO - OFF in RM? Please do a Clear CMOS and see it that turns it off. If not update BIOS to the latest even if it is the same as installed. Re do the test.

[John_Sane]

@misterj  yes the Cinebench score was dramatically bad in this run (as you can see on the left of the picture it’s half of a M1 CPU). I’m a bit confused: isn’t „Curve Optimizer“ - OFF the default? I didn’t set it, neither in RM nor in the BIOS.

Wouldn‘t a CMOS reset just keep it OFF, as it is right now? 

I‘ve updated the BIOS to the latest version as one of the first steps of my own troubleshooting (from 1201 to 1401). But I can overwrite it with the latest version again. Best regards

[misterj]

John_Sane, I suspect you are correct. I run an old 3970X that does not have Curve Optimizer. Please open an online support ticket here. Sorry I could not resolve this. I am very interested in what AMD has to say. Thanks, John.

[John_Sane]

@misterj Thanks for your support, I've forwarded the issue to AMD as suggested. Best regards, Johannes.

[misterj]

John_Sane, have you received any response from AMD? If you have not since encountering this problem, please format your C: disk in GPT and install a fresh copy of Windows. Install no applications, except as required and see how it runs. Thanks, John.

[elstaci]

All of your Ryzen Master under stress is showing that the processor is being throttled by the motherboard either by PPT or CPU POWER.

When Ryzen Master at the top icons shows in RED indicates the Processor is being throttled either by the Motherboard itself or the processor.

Did you plug in both AUX CPU Power connectors to your motherboard?  Since the CPU POWER is showing to be throttling your processor under stress all the time.

From your Asus Manual:

You can max out your PPT/EDC/TDC  for your Motherboard I suggest you ask Asus. normally it can be done in BIOS or Window's Power Plan.

EDIT: AMD generally recommends a powerful Liquid CPU Cooler for all ThreadRippers due to its high TDP Ratings.

[John_Sane]

Thanks for the reply. As suggested, I could upgrade the system with a large AiO liquid cooler. Unfortunately, the issue remains only with on average 20 degrees lower temperatures.

During the cooler exchange, I also could reseat the CPU.

I did connect all power connectors according to the manual and your screenshot. Just the additional PCIE_PWR_1 and PCIE_PWR_2 are not installed, since I only use a single GPU.

---

You can max out your PPT/EDC/TDC  for your Motherboard I suggest you ask Asus. normally it can be done in BIOS or Window's Power Plan.

---

When I played around with the Power Targets, I could observe some interesting behavior:

When I reduce the PPT to 220 Watts, the throttling occurred straight after booting.

When I raised the limits to 340 Watts, the throttling occurred later (~3 min after applying high load).

From my interpretation, that does exclude any issue with the power delivery, as for the 3 minutes the CPU draws almost the entire 340 Watts constantly.

Thanks for the support and best regards.

[elstaci]

Seems like your processor is overpowered for the motherboard but I know that it isn't possible since it is listed under your Motherboard's CPU LIST.

Downloaded your Motherboard BIOS Manual.

1- Just for troubleshooting purposes try "disabling" or in "Manual" PBO  (AMD Overclocking feature) and see if in Ryzen Master any icons turns red indicating throttling.

See what happens with PBO "Disabled", "Manaul" or on "Auto"  See if the processor continues to throttle under CPU Power or PPT.

I would ask ASUS SUPPORT why the processor is using more power than the maximum limit of the Motherboard (CPU POWER or PPT).

I would also open a AMD SUPPORT-WARRANTY  TICKET and ask them also: https://www.amd.com/en/forms/contact-us/support.html

So if your processor is not overheating but still throttling due to the motherboard it could be a BIOS Setting or hardware issue.

NOTE: Maybe adjusting the processor's voltage to run cooler but I not experienced in that area. Someone else would need to help you there or maybe AMD or Asus would can recommend something.