AMD FX-9590 optimization. Help please?

[x-eagleeye-x]

When I finished reading your first post, which detailed your PC's specs, your CPU-GPU combo stood out.

 

I get that you're trying to find more ways to squeeze that extra bit of performance from that CPU, but I won't sugar coat my words and just say you'll be wasting your time. It runs too hot as it is, and any incremental increase in performance will probably just increase your temps and electric bill far more than those extra numbers in benchmarks.

 

I honestly think if you sell your CPU, mobo, ram, and both GPUs, you'll have the budget to buy a Ryzen 5 1600, a decent B350 or B450 mobo, decent ram and a 1660 Super or the new radeon 5600XT. Either brand new or used.

 

From reading all your replies, it seems like you're very attached to this CPU, since you said you want to hang on to it for 2 more years. Each month you wait (not even each year) and cling to those parts, their resell value is significantly diminished, which also decreases your purchasing power to upgrade and save on electricity.

[Phil Cunningham]

Awsome!! Thank you guys for the responses, its really appreciated. =D

 

So i took a peek into my BIOS last night just to get a better idea of what needs to be done. I noticed that my turbo was disabled, so i decided to try an experiment. I enabled turbo, double checked that all power saving was disabled, and fired it up. I then opened windows task manager to just see what the cpu was reporting, and then booted up AMD overdrive. I set the turbo to 6 cored (The max allowed in the program) and ran a stress test with CPU-Z.

 

Now with my old Phenom II x6, this would put all cores at turbo clock and maintain. 

 

With the 9590 it stayed at 4.7Ghz for 10 seconds, then all cores would drop to 1,3Ghz for a moment before climbing up to 4.7Ghz and the cycle repeated. I found this very odd as if nothing else, if it could not turbo at all it should have just stayed at stock speed. (At least i would THINK it should) but for all 8 cores to bottom out like that seemed very strange. (Anyone have any thoughts on that??)

 

I rebooted with the same BIOS settings still in place. Left Overdrive off and ran the stress and it maintained the 4.7Ghz. As of right now, the BIOS is configured to the baseline of the guide i first posted minus turbo control which i left on. (Ill disable that once i get in there and start tweaking voltages.)

 

 

So if i am understanding everyone correctly, my first step is going to be drop the voltages to the point where it can still maintain 4.7Ghz under load. Then attempt to step up the clock speed multiplier in 0.5 increments. If instability occures, bump up the voltages and try again.

 

 

Question: should i drop the voltages as far as i can first? Or would it make more sense to set them at, say 1.45v and then attempt to step up the clock? 

 

While i am at it, the guide was talking about the "Vcore loadline calibration" option in the BIOS and changing its settings around. (Its options are Auto, Low, Standard, Medium and Extreme. Can anyone explain what exactly this is doing? Should i be worried about this?

[Phil Cunningham]

12 hours ago, x-eagleeye-x said:

From reading all your replies, it seems like you're very attached to this CPU, since you said you want to hang on to it for 2 more years.

Its not so much that i am attached to this CPU. If i had an option on hand, or if i had the money in pocket, i would toss it out and not think twice. I am glad everyone is concerned with my power bill, but the honest truth is, the power consumption isn't going to change anything for me. I have been running this CPU for 3 years now. Trying to justify to the wife "Hey, im going to dip into our savings and buy 400-500$ worth of hardware for my computer so we can save 10$ each month on the power bill!" Yeeeaaaahhhhh.... I get that it will eventually pay for itself, but if paying for itself takes 2 or 3 years, then its a little pointless when i am trying to replace everything in that time frame ANYWAY. As for selling the hardware i have, the motherboard will net me 100$. Cpu, 40$ to 60$. the GTX 970, 60$. And thats if i wait for someone willing to pay those prices. (those prices are from referencing Ebay and averaging whats available) So lets say that drops me 220$. Thats a motherboard. I still need to come up with 300$ for a CPU and another 100-200 for Ram. Meanwhile i now no longer have a computer cause i just sold the components.

 

So while i am not disagreeing that replacing it all is the best solution, again i have to point out that its not an option. Selling all my stuff may net 1/3 of the cost of new parts, but that means i still need to come up with the other 2/3. Even second hand parts might break me at 50/50 but then i would be buying them knowing i would want to replace them again very soon, so im still throwing money out.

 

The "I want to hold onto this setup for another 2 years" is simply a budget issue. Selling what i have won't get me to a point where i can afford to replace everything. So i would rather wait until i can afford something that will carry me for a few years, versus buying the bare minimum upgrade.

 

I mean, if i could afford to replace everything, i wouldn't be asking for advice on how to squeeze a bit more out of this poor CPU! LOL! And if i can't get anymore out of it, then i am totally fine with that, but i don't know what i can try, so here i am.

 

Long story short: Yes, replacing everything is the best option. Not arguing that point. But its not an option. Telling me to do so is... well... not helpful. (Simply saying  "you can't get more out of it, give up now." is much more helpful.) But some here seem to think i might be able to, and i am really interested in hearing how. Might work. Might not. And, hey, if i do everything and waste a weekend tinkering and it was all for nothing, at least i can say "Hey! At least i learned about overclocking first hand!"

[Phil Cunningham]

For the record, i am aiming for a Ryzen 7 3700x CPU.  Maybe an i7-9700k. Something like that. But again, thats end goal.