Setting CPU speed instead of boosting

[Quivz]

So i upgraded to a 3700x, and this thing's clocks bounce around like a hyperactive flea even when i'm just watching youtube or netflix. The voltages are all over as well. I'm still running the stock cooler (which is soooo loud at high speeds, so i adjusted the fan curves). But none of that is really important to my question. I'm just still buzzed with my schtuff and want to tell everyone.

 

So whats the advantages of boosting rather than just pegging the clocks at max speed (or a light overclock 4.5 or 4.6ghz). I'm only gaming at 1080 and if i do this I'll be cooling with a 240mm radiator AIO.

 

[HanZie82]

I think thats a power saving feature. Low clock speeds low power usage, but when needed it goes up.
(ps love the first part of your post. hahaha)

[xKr1Sx]

5 minutes ago, Quivz said:

So i upgraded to a 3700x, and this thing's clocks bounce around like a hyperactive flea even when i'm just watching youtube or netflix. The voltages are all over as well. I'm still running the stock cooler (which is soooo loud at high speeds, so i adjusted the fan curves). But none of that is really important to my question. I'm just still buzzed with my schtuff and want to tell everyone.

 

So whats the advantages of boosting rather than just pegging the clocks at max speed (or a light overclock 4.5 or 4.6ghz). I'm only gaming at 1080 and if i do this I'll be cooling with a 240mm radiator AIO.

 

Boosting boosts 1core to the advertised speed and in games mainly first couple cores are used. 
You would be better with a litlle oc here, but first check if you have the newest BIOS installed because AMD was fixing issues with weir boosts

[jaslion]

It's simple power saving. If it doesn't need a lot of performance it will just keep it's clocks low to conserve power and stay more quiet.

[Ichoumaz]

6 minutes ago, Quivz said:

So i upgraded to a 3700x, and this thing's clocks bounce around like a hyperactive flea even when i'm just watching youtube or netflix. The voltages are all over as well. I'm still running the stock cooler (which is soooo loud at high speeds, so i adjusted the fan curves). But none of that is really important to my question. I'm just still buzzed with my schtuff and want to tell everyone.

 

So whats the advantages of boosting rather than just pegging the clocks at max speed (or a light overclock 4.5 or 4.6ghz). I'm only gaming at 1080 and if i do this I'll be cooling with a 240mm radiator AIO.

 

i dont know if this is still the case with ryzen cpus, but when i first got mine, which is a ryzen 5 3600, the voltage was set to something stupid like 1.42, and it actually stayed at that when it was idle, i would recommand playing around a little bit with your clocks and voltages if its sitting at something stupid like mine was, higher voltage means higher temps which in turn requires more cooling which results in more speed and it all means louder fan.
Pegging puts all the cores at that clock speed at all times, boosting only boosts 1 or 2 cores to that speed,the ones that are being used to that speed,

[Quivz]

2 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

i dont know if this is still the case with ryzen cpus, but when i first got mine, which is a ryzen 5 3600, the voltage was set to something stupid like 1.42, and it actually stayed at that when it was idle, i would recommand playing around a little bit with your clocks and voltages if its sitting at something stupid like mine was, higher voltage means higher temps which in turn requires more cooling which results in more speed and it all means louder fan.
Pegging puts all the cores at that clock speed at all times, boosting only boosts 1 or 2 cores to that speed,the ones that are being used to that speed,

It did have a VCORE of 1.4 something when i first booted it, but after a reboot for windows things it now bounces around all the time (HWMonitor readings). I get a Min of 0.660v and a max of 1.500v. I'll do a quick Shadow of the Tomb Raider bench and see what it does.

 

I did forget to update the bios, but i don't see anything in the updates thats relevant to me and i've always believed that unless there's a really good reason to upgrade (incompatibilities, security issues etc.) its fine to stick with a bios that works and does everything you need. Maybe I'll do it later...

[Ichoumaz]

if you dont feel confident in updating your bios, or you are afraid of risking it, i would recommand that you tinker with your clocks a little bit, lower the voltage and set a clock for all that is stable for your rig,you get more performance, it will probably run at a more constent temp instead of bouncing between high and low, making your fans ramp up and down, and if the cpu is sitting at a high voltage at idle, like mine was, it will also stay at a high idle temp, i think mine was at like 60C on idle ( might be wrong, i forgot) which means when it gets a burst of work to do, like a quick render or something like that, it will be hit higher temps easier than if it was stitting at colder idle temps.

[Jurrunio]

if you can see 4.5GHz in short bursts, then you can probably only do 4.2GHz on all cores at best. At low current loads it can run higher voltages and clock speed without crashing or degradation beyond normal aging than you do by locking it to a multiplier overclock.

[Quivz]

4 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

if you dont feel confident in updating your bios, or you are afraid of risking it, i would recommand that you tinker with your clocks a little bit, lower the voltage and set a clock for all that is stable for your rig,you get more performance, it will probably run at a more constent temp instead of bouncing between high and low, making your fans ramp up and down, and if the cpu is sitting at a high voltage at idle, like mine was, it will also stay at a high idle temp, i think mine was at like 60C on idle ( might be wrong, i forgot) which means when it gets a burst of work to do, like a quick render or something like that, it will be hit higher temps easier than if it was stitting at colder idle temps.

I'm fine with doing bios updates, im just lazy about it if it doesn't seem necessary.

 

Voltages while benching tomb raider stayed 1.38v -1.40, but HWMonitor did catch a max of 1.45v. But it was running about 4.3ghz during that period. It idles at 2.2ghz as soon as i quit out of the game again and it dropped to 0.95v. My idle temps come down to about 40-45, but it does ramp up under load (saw 75 in tomb raider bench for example), but i did adjust my fan curves to be low until it hits 65, then it can start the hurricane noise if it needs it (did i mention the stock wraith cooler is really loud).

 

I am much less confident with overclocking and playing with voltages, but i know a bit and have done it before. But i cheaped out on the mobo (gigabyte x570 UD) so maybe pushing these high voltages through it when it boosts is bad and i haven't even looked in the bios to see what kind of overclocking options i have?

[Quivz]

10 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

if you can see 4.5GHz in short bursts, then you can probably only do 4.2GHz on all cores at best. At low current loads it can run higher voltages and clock speed without crashing or degradation beyond normal aging than you do by locking it to a multiplier overclock.

So its an ageing thing (besides thermals and power usage) if i peg the clock somewhere high. I hadn't thought of that. But i'm also okay with it since i'd know it was my fault and not AMDs if it fails early. 4.2ghz isn't bad for my needs either. I'd be happy with that. This is all still theoretical too. Once i put the AIO on it i may not even bother (probably be too busy playing with RGB effects), i was just sort of wondering why manufacturers dont just run the things at a max stable speed out of the box. I mean i remember the turbo button on my old 486 and what that did to when running Dune 2, but for modern computing?... I guess i'm just a numpty for not thinking about these things (or doing my own research honestly, but i was already browsing the forums when the thought occurred to me).

[Ichoumaz]

12 minutes ago, Quivz said:

I'm fine with doing bios updates, im just lazy about it if it doesn't seem necessary.

 

Voltages while benching tomb raider stayed 1.38v -1.40, but HWMonitor did catch a max of 1.45v. But it was running about 4.3ghz during that period. It idles at 2.2ghz as soon as i quit out of the game again and it dropped to 0.95v. My idle temps come down to about 40-45, but it does ramp up under load (saw 75 in tomb raider bench for example), but i did adjust my fan curves to be low until it hits 65, then it can start the hurricane noise if it needs it (did i mention the stock wraith cooler is really loud).

 

I am much less confident with overclocking and playing with voltages, but i know a bit and have done it before. But i cheaped out on the mobo (gigabyte x570 UD) so maybe pushing these high voltages through it when it boosts is bad and i haven't even looked in the bios to see what kind of overclocking options i have?

1.4 is too high from what i've seen, you can check jayztwocents video on that, though you still have the stock cooler, it should support a tiny bit of overclocking, but i wouldnt push it, for my case, i'm using the stock cooler as well, and overclocking my cpu actually lowered my temps because i was able to run at the same clock speeds or slightly higher on all cores at a lower voltage, which reduced my temps, or let me hit higher clocks with the same temps, i personally dont own the wraith cooler, so i dont know how loud yours is, i would say give OC a try, it wont do you any harm, it just takes a little bit of time to get into a stable clock, just start slow and keep going up untill you reach your max, i would suggest putting the voltage at something like 1.35 or 1.3 even then play with your clock speeds,and once you are happy with your clocks and the system is stable, try and play with the voltage, see if you are able to lower it a little bit and still remain stable, or if you want more performance and you still have a temp headroom, raise it and play with your clocks a little more untill you either reach the limit of your chip or are comfortable with your clocks and noise levels
But you should try and get yourself a better cooler, air or water, both works, just a matter of which you prefer
Out of curiosity, whats speed is your ram running at?

 

[Quivz]

7 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

1.4 is too high from what i've seen...
But you should try and get yourself a better cooler, air or water, both works, just a matter of which you prefer
Out of curiosity, whats speed is your ram running at?

 

1.4 - 1.5 did sound high to me from what i've seen too, but I'm waaaay less experienced with overclocking, so I'll give the vid a watch and do some research. Its interesting then that AMD lets the voltage go that high out of the box, but i suppose it is a boost voltage and is only supposed to be there for short periods.

 

Yeah i'm getting a 240mm rad AIO soon, but i didn't have the budget at the time (i actually went broke getting the mobo and CPU and had to wiat 2 weeks to get the ram since i forgot that i wouldnt be able to use my old ram). I'm also getting a pcie gen4 nvme (man thats a lot of initialisms [although i guess gen4 is a true acronym]) soon, but thats neither here nor there.

 

My ram is currently at 2666, but its 3200 ram. I completely forgot about this too and will have to find that in the bios as well. This is only day 2 with this system and i only got to mess with it for a few hours yesterday.

[Ichoumaz]

2 minutes ago, Quivz said:

1.4 - 1.5 did sound high to me from what i've seen too, but I'm waaaay less experienced with overclocking, so I'll give the vid a watch and do some research. Its interesting then that AMD lets the voltage go that high out of the box, but i suppose it is a boost voltage and is only supposed to be there for short periods.

 

Yeah i'm getting a 240mm rad AIO soon, but i didn't have the budget at the time (i actually went broke getting the mobo and CPU and had to wiat 2 weeks to get the ram since i forgot that i wouldnt be able to use my old ram). I'm also getting a pcie gen4 nvme (man thats a lot of initialisms [although i guess gen4 is a true acronym]) soon, but thats neither here nor there.

 

My ram is currently at 2666, but its 3200 ram. I completely forgot about this too and will have to find that in the bios as well. This is only day 2 with this system and i only got to mess with it for a few hours yesterday.

its less of amd's fault and more of the motherboard manufacturares faults for setting the voltages that high, but 1.5 is really high, you should lower it asap, its dumping a ton of heat into your system, and as for the gen4 nvme, i suggest watching LTTs latest video on sata ssd vs gen3 nvme vs gen 4 nvme before deciding to buy it, it might clear up your mind before you decide to spend money on that.
And yeah XD, putting my ram to its advertised speed was the first thing i did after i booted my PC, gotta get me that speed goodness
if anything else comes up, a Quote or tag and i'll try to respond asap

[Quivz]

7 minutes ago, Ichoumaz said:

and as for the gen4 nvme, i suggest watching LTTs latest video on sata ssd vs gen3 nvme vs gen 4 nvme before deciding to buy it, it might clear up your mind before you decide to spend money on that.

I watch all LTT videos. I'm buying it anyway. Its more of a leetist thing than a need thing. I actually clicked the wrong mobo when i bought it and didn't notice my mistake until I'd dropped the CPU in the socket, this one only has one nvme slot, i'd intended to raid 2 of them to be a total snob, but i effed up and now i'll just wear it. Otherwise the returns policy for where i bought it from wants to charge me a 15% restocking fee to return it and get the one i actually had my eye on.

[Quivz]

So i updated to latest bios although i don't see any differences, but i did it anyway.

 

And i did some reading and watching and from what i can see the voltages only jump to those high values (1.4v and up) for very short periods, like 1-2 seconds. Once there's a sustained load it always drops down into sub 1.3v territory. I verified this by running cinebench r20 a bunch of times. Incidently i got an extra 150ish points by fixing my ram speed. Just used the xmp profile because i was looking for an automatic solution here for now, but i might look into it more later.

 

So for now I'll trust that gigabyte understands my CPU enough to not break it and not freak out over weird voltages. When i do get a decent cooler i will look into overclocking more thoroughly, because this stock cooler isn't up to the task of keeping me sub 80s under sustained 100% load on all threads. I tested this by running multiple instances of r20 and running them staggered (ran one waited till it was half way, started 2nd one and immediately restarted first one when it finished) to keep the load high for longer. By the time i started the second one it was already thermal throttling.

 

Oh and if anyone's interested i got a max of 4677 in r20, with the clocks running at 4ghz and vcore 1.27v with temps reaching 75. But again thats still with its automatic boosting/throttling thing going on.