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rlemieux
Journeyman III

New 3900x Owner; Idle temps, optimization, etc.

Recently upgrade to a Ryzen 3900x with a GIGABYTE X570 AORUS ELITE WIFI Motherboard. I'm new to AMD CPUs so just want to make sure everything is looking good.

After the upgrade, noticed the stock cooler for the 3900x whirring up a lot randomly and then calming down. Went into the advanced power settings in Windows and turned the Minimum Processor State to 20% as it was at 99%.  I think this helped for the most part, but has anyone else noticed this issue and how did you resolve it?

I also went ahead and grabbed Ryzen Master to help monitor my temps. Usually sitting in the high 30's and will occasionally move into the 40s. This is only with a browser up, watching a stream and listening to music. Are these normal temps with a stock cooler?

In addition, by recommendation of a post on these forums, I set my Peak Voltage in Master Ryzen to 1.3v. Is this okay?

Currently using the AMD Ryzen Balanced plan, but I'm reading some posts of people saying to use the Windows Balanced plan?

Overall, not noticing any performance issues, but any suggestions, advice, etc. to optimize my 3900x is greatly appreciated as I'm reading lots of different information when researching idle temps issues and the fan issue. As a note, I think I've already downloaded the latest chipset drivers.

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33 Replies

Ryzen processor cores clock down extremely low when idle, and can shift power states in 1ms, so it's not uncommon to see temperature swings of 10-15*C under idle conditions even with liquid cooling, which depending on your fan speed curve could cause fan swings of hundreds of RPM. Depending on ambient room temperature, upper 30s to mid 40s is pretty normal since if you use Ryzen Master to monitor the core load levels, web browsing will show them all rising and falling pretty regularly, like below, which again is normal because of the fast power switching and low clocking capabilities.

As for voltage, AMD's really aggressive with voltage and state 1.5v over short bursts is fine with 1.4s being fine for extended periods, but there's nothing wrong with using a lower voltage, but it will hinder the Turbo capability.

As for power plan, Balanced is what you should be using, AMD collaborated with Microsoft and rolled in Ryzen Balanced's optimizations into Windows Balanced back in...1803 or 1808 I believe, so for all intents and purposes the Ryzen power plans are redundant.

If you want to optimize your processor, and are comfortable "overclocking", fiddle around in BIOS with the multiplier and CPU voltage, start with the highest Turbo frequency and 1.45v, hit it with AIDA64's FPU stress test for about 5 minutes, then start working down the voltage and then multiplier, charting out where stability falls off for each speed, and pick the optimal one. For my 3700X, it was 4300mhz (43x100) at 1.2v. I "lost" 100mhz max turbo, which it never hit anyway, and gained a much higher all core clock with a much, much lower voltage (1.2v vs 1.45v).

Thanks for all of this. Couple follow ups.

I have the peak voltage set to 1.3, but from what you said it wouldn't hurt to put it back to 1.4 or higher. I'm assuming that setting the Peak Voltage caps the voltage at the the value you set it to?

In regards to plans, if you use Ryzen's Balanced or Windows Balanced, it doesn't matter?

For overclocking, I tried that a little with Ryzen Master. I think my 3900x was defaulted to 3800mhz and I moved it up by 100 each time before hitting "Apply and Test" in Ryzen Master. As long as that test in Ryzen Master finishes with success is it okay? I'm not familiar with AIDA64, but if it is pretty straight forward to use I could try that too. Do I have to use the BIOS to fiddle around with the multiplier and CPU voltage or is what I described above in Ryzen Master ok?

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It does cap the voltage to what you set it at, but like I said since higher Turbo frequencies depend on (excessive) voltage, you'll lose some low core count higher end turbo speed.

It doesn't matter if you use Balanced or Ryzen Balanced, both are the same.

I've never trusted any software to modify the CPU speed and voltage properly, but I've been doing it since overclocking meant physically flipping switches on the jumper box. While Ryzen Master is a lot more advanced software tool, it's still best to set the final values in BIOS, but you can use them to test with.

As for AIDA64, it's simple to use, and you'll run the Cache benchmark, not FPU. Cache is used to test stability, FPU is for the cooling system.

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I'm somewhat afraid of messing around with things in BIOS as I'm just not as familiar with it.

For the heck of it, I did mess around in Ryzen Master and was running CINEBENCH R15 tests and was tweaking the values based on the scores that were coming back there. Currently set to 4300MHz and 1.3v and it seems okay. I ran the Stress cache test with the same settings (Still not going into BIOS, all through Ryzen Master) and it ran for 5 minutes. Temps got up to 80, but I'm not sure how to tell if there were any stability drop offs.

Regardless, is the goal to get the voltage down, but the clock speeds up? Lower voltage means lower temps typically, right? And if you can get away with a higher clock speed, but lower voltage then it is a win-win.

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The goal is optimization, having the highest clock speed without having to drastically increase the voltage which results in lower temperatures and lower noise and while at the same time increases performance above the all core boost speed is, which on the 3900X is 4100mhz according to the results of the reputable review sites. 4300mhz is pretty good, only 300mhz off the top end Turbo and 200mhz higher than the reported all core boost speed on the reputable review sites, but see if you can get a higher speed or lower voltage.

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Is the score generated from CineBench R15 a good metric to determine if it is better? I never found an explanation on how that value is calculated after the test is done.

Also, what's the best course of action in terms of tweaking? Take my current settings, 4300 and 1.3. Should I start by upping the speed first or the volt? Does it matter? Is there a rule of thumb for this or just keep messing with both until you achieve the best possible result?

Also, is there a temperature max that I shouldn't go over and if it does turn things back down?

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Cinebench R20 is a good metric, R15 is too old.

Up the speed first until it becomes unstable, then up the voltage and repeat.

Keep it under 90C.

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Hah! I watched an older video and he was using R15 so I assumed that's what I needed. I grabbed R20. Thanks!

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Went to 4400, PC restarted. Dropped it back to 4300 and lowered the voltage to 1.2v, blue screen and restart. Guess that means 4300mhz at 1.3v is where I have to stay? Are there other things I can do to give me more wiggle room? I'm using the stock cooler, but I have an AIO coming in. Not sure if that would make a difference outside of keeping temps down.

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That'll definitely lower the noise and let you go higher in voltage without going nuts, but all CPUs are different, which is why AMD has to use such a high voltage by default on their Turbo tables.

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Yeah I'll stick with my current settings of 4300mhz at 1.3v since it works and then once my AIO comes in I'll see if I can get it even better.

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Just make sure your pump is right side up before you install it, unlike me

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Haha for sure. I didn't realize there was a right side up so thanks for the note. I think the one I have only fits a certain way with the mounting brackets. Unfortunately, I don't think mine came with or I misplaced the AMD mounting brackets so I had to reach out the manufacturer. Luckily, they did have them and are sending me them, but it's all the way from China so might be a while.

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Which one did you get?

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I got the DEEPCOOL Captain 120EX a while back. When I switched to my Ryzen I realized I didn't have the mounting brackets for AMD. I did read that the first batch of this cooler actually didn't come with the AMD mounting brackets, but I probably just misplaced them as I never thought I'd buy AMD. Luckily, their customer support has been great and they just got them shipped out to me. Can't wait to have it back. Was so much quieter.

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rlemieux wrote:

I got the DEEPCOOL Captain 120EX a while back. When I switched to my Ryzen I realized I didn't have the mounting brackets for AMD. I did read that the first batch of this cooler actually didn't come with the AMD mounting brackets, but I probably just misplaced them as I never thought I'd buy AMD. Luckily, their customer support has been great and they just got them shipped out to me. Can't wait to have it back. Was so much quieter.

For power pig processors, the Hyper 212 still stands as one of the best air coolers out there. The Deepcool is a good cooler as well.

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Not bad for an entry level AIO closed loop cooler, though I was hoping you would have been using a beefier 240/280mm unit considering that is a 12 core processor.

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Yeah it was definitely an entry level one...Are you suggesting I go with something else? Any recommendations?

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See what your temps are first and then go from there.

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I wanted to give this to you as a point of reference:

3700X 4300mhz (43x100) 1.2000v

Corsair H115i drawing external air

Arctic MX-4 TIM

Ambient temperature 75*F (24*C)

AIDA64 FPU stress (high heat generation), sustained temperature 77.5*C

Yes I'm using a lot lower voltage and have 4 fewer cores...But what does Ryzen Master say your PPT is?

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My PPT during the AIDA64 FPU stress? I can check.

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The stated PPT will be the same in idle or under stress, it's the amount of power the CPU can draw and it's a product of the speed and voltage, the percentage will be low under idle and near, at, or above 100% under artificial stress, like AIDA64 FPU.

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This is what mine looked like for the majority of the test Stress FDU. There was one spike, but then everything settled down and it stayed constant at these values.

pastedImage_1.png

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I was about to say something but then I noticed your peak speed dropped to an abysmal 3725mhz, and that's not good.

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Yeah when I ran this I was wondering the same thing. If my speed is set to 4300mhz why isn't it going higher?

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You're using software to tweak, whereas you should be using BIOS like I told you a few days ago, and use the Balanced power plan, not Power Saver.

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You are correct in that I'm not using BIOS to make these tweaks. I'll need to look up how to do so as I'm not confident in using BIOS to do so yet.

As a note, in both the Ryzen Master test and Cinebench R20, the CPU gets to 4300MHz, but I ran Cinebench R20 just now and my PC restarted. Not sure what that means.

I'm using Ryzen Balanced.

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Restart means its not stable.

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I feel like I should just set things back to default for now until my AIO gets in and I feel comfortable doing things via BIOS instead of Ryzen Master.

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I use the power saver plan and use the defaults for the CPU 

any processor that gets over 65C should have the thermal material replaced immediately, I use MX-4 and a small amount is all that is needed

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Are you saying 65C ever or are you referring to an idle CPU? Because I'm pretty sure a processor can go over 65C and be fine.

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hardcoregames™ wrote:

I use the power saver plan and use the defaults for the CPU 

 

any processor that gets over 65C should have the thermal material replaced immediately, I use MX-4 and a small amount is all that is needed

my cpu at idle is 30-35C

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Oh yeah, my idle is in the high 30's. No where near 65C. 

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