Ryzen 5 3600, PBO+AutoOC and Manual OC

[Xinayder]

I've bought a Ryzen 5 3600 last november and I've been struggling to get the most out of it since then.

I read several resources for Zen2 overclocking and sadly none of them work for me as everyone reports as working.

I've done a bunch of tests and I've come to two possible outcomes for the results I've achieved: either I got a CPU with bad die, or I'm doing something wrong.

The tests I've done were exclusively on Cinebench 20 and these are my results:

• Default (stock mobo settings)
  • Max frequency: 3.7 GHz
  • Temperature: 75 °C
  • Score: 3406, no single core test
• Default (PBO set to manual, limits set to 395/255/255)
  • Max frequency: 3.7 GHz
  • Temperature: 78 °C
  • Score: 3380, 467
• Default, PBO disabled
  • Max frequency: 3.7 GHz
  • Temperature: 75 °C
  • Score: 3393, 470
• Default (PBO auto, -0.05 offset voltage)
  • Max frequency: 3.7 GHz
  • Temperature: 72.5 °C
  • Score: 3380, 465
• Core Ratio 40
  • Max frequency: 4.0 GHz
  • Temperature: 79°C
  • Score: 3584, 462

I noticed that PBO doesn't work on my CPU. I tried enabling it both via Ryzen Master and BIOS, but none worked. Setting custom limits didn't work as well. The max frequencies reached with stock settings, on Cinebench, were 3.7 GHz, no thermal throttling, on idle I'd reach up to 4.2 GHz on one or two cores at a time (same results with both PBO enabled and disabled). By setting Core Ratio to 4.0 GHz, all cores would be at 4.0 GHz when running Cinebench, though the temperatures aren't that pleasing for me, as I have a Hyper 212X air cooler (bought in 2016) - I managed to do some workarounds and fit the mounting bracket in the AM4 socket, and no, it's not loose or anything, otherwise my temperatures would be waaaay higher.

The weirdest of all of this is not being able to set an offset voltage when I have set a multiplier. I thought I was already at 1.1V, but turns out I was reading it wrong; the Core VID was set to 1.1V, but the CPU Core Voltage was still high, around 1.35-1.4V, and there was no way to reduce it. Ryzen Master's peak core voltage setting would only change the VID (voltage per core), but not the CPU Core Voltage as a whole. I have a friend that just bought the same processor as me and we managed to set it up to reach up to 4.2 GHz with multipliers and 1.1V core voltage, meaning his temperatures are much lower than mine (something around 50 °C on Cinebench).

 

Is there anything I'm doing wrong, or is it another case of a CPU with a bad die? I'd be satisfied with setting the multiplier to 4.0 GHz if I could undervolt a bit to decrease my temperatures.

EDIT: I noticed that in my BIOS, I have the AI Tweaker category for PBO, and another one under AMD Overclocking. I've tried setting the PBO limits under the advanced menu (AMD Overclocking) to motherboard, but my CPU won't reach higher TDC/EDC/PPT values (max were 44A, 72A and 80W, not even close to 30% of what the mobo can offer).

 

• CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 w/ CM Hyper 212X
• Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B450M-GAMING, BIOS v2006
• RAM: Team Group T-Force Vulcan Z 3000 MHz 2x8 GB (16-18-18-38)
• PSU: Corsair CX650M

[MartinKweh]

I did my oc on my 3600 with my Giant ass cooler (ID cooling SE207)

 

what i did first was Auto OC and PBO. it only boosts up to 4050 Mhz all core and about 4225 mhz single core boost. which reaches about 70-78C 

 

then i tried to OC manually. 

 

What I did first was all core OC of 4.2Ghz @ 1.325V it was unstable but usable at about 40C idle and 73C load. 

 

then i tried a per CCX OC of CCX1 4.2Ghz and CCX2 4.15 Ghz @ 1.325V. Lo and behold. it passed all the tests, scored 20 points lower in R15 than the first manual oc config but its stable and only reaches 73C load. 

[Xinayder]

2 minutes ago, MartinKweh said:

I did my oc on my 3600 with my Giant ass cooler (ID cooling SE207)

 

what i did first was Auto OC and PBO. it only boosts up to 4050 Mhz all core and about 4225 mhz single core boost. which reaches about 70-78C 

 

then i tried to OC manually. 

 

What I did first was all core OC of 4.2Ghz @ 1.325V it was unstable but usable at about 40C idle and 73C load. 

 

then i tried a per CCX OC of CCX1 4.2Ghz and CCX2 4.15 Ghz @ 1.325V. Lo and behold. it passed all the tests, scored 20 points lower in R15 than the first manual oc config but its stable and only reaches 73C load. 

I suppose you used Ryzen Master for it, right?

[MartinKweh]

Nope. i went for the bios OC. Ryzen master kinda confuses me.

[Xinayder]

Just now, MartinKweh said:

Nope. i went for the bios OC. Ryzen master kinda confuses me.

Sadly my mobo doesn't allow per CCX clock, it's just a Core Ratio setting that applies to all cores.
I'm still intrigued by the fact that PBO doesn't even make a difference in my setup.

[MartinKweh]

Just now, Xinayder said:

Sadly my mobo doesn't allow per CCX clock, it's just a Core Ratio setting that applies to all cores.
I'm still intrigued by the fact that PBO doesn't even make a difference in my setup.

same. PBO does some higher boost but not much. my stock settings boosts at about 3.95Ghz all core . with PBO+AutoOC it boosts to 4.05 all core and 25mhz higher single core boost which is nothing lol. 

 

also, wait. my motherboard (MSI B350m Bazooka) allows per CCX OC. how come yours, which is a more advanced motherboard, doesnt allow it?

[Statik]

1 hour ago, Xinayder said:

-snip-

Do you have a temperature setting in Ryzen Master? Because it looks like you might be hitting a thermal limit and just throttling?

[Xinayder]

15 minutes ago, MartinKweh said:

same. PBO does some higher boost but not much. my stock settings boosts at about 3.95Ghz all core . with PBO+AutoOC it boosts to 4.05 all core and 25mhz higher single core boost which is nothing lol. 

 

also, wait. my motherboard (MSI B350m Bazooka) allows per CCX OC. how come yours, which is a more advanced motherboard, doesnt allow it?

I don't know, there's simply no way to set per CCX clock; the Core Ratio setting text box is Auto by default but you can input any ratio you'd like. And the setting below it, OC Tuner, iirc, has two options as well: OC Tuner and Keep Current Settings. I've just contacted ASUS technical support because, in theory, per CCX clock setting should be available since AGESA 1.0.0.4B, but it's not available in the latest BIOS version.
EDIT: it's literally the same settings as in this image below

11 minutes ago, Statik said:

Do you have a temperature setting in Ryzen Master? Because it looks like you might be hitting a thermal limit and just throttling?

If by setting you mean a limit, it's set to 95 °C, but running Cinebench on any of these situations described in the OP hasn't even reached 80 °C.

[Statik]

1 hour ago, Xinayder said:

I don't know, there's simply no way to set per CCX clock; the Core Ratio setting text box is Auto by default but you can input any ratio you'd like. And the setting below it, OC Tuner, iirc, has two options as well: OC Tuner and Keep Current Settings. I've just contacted ASUS technical support because, in theory, per CCX clock setting should be available since AGESA 1.0.0.4B, but it's not available in the latest BIOS version.
EDIT: it's literally the same settings as in this image below

If by setting you mean a limit, it's set to 95 °C, but running Cinebench on any of these situations described in the OP hasn't even reached 80 °C.

I'm not too sure man, best of luck! The only thing I can think of is I believe PBO allows you to boost, and autoOC sets a "goal" if you will. It doesn't necessarily achieve that if something it causing it to throttle (i.e. voltage, temp, etc), but I'm not sure what's limiting it in this situation.

 

If it's any consolidation my scores aren't much better at all with PBO + autoOC. I don't remember them off hand, but I do have a manual spreadsheet from when I tinkered with manual OC's, and my scores went from 4886 at bone stock, to only 5102 at 4.4GHz. So I would hardly expect good R20 results from PBO + AutoOC.

[MartinKweh]

have you checked in the advanced options?

[Xinayder]

1 minute ago, MartinKweh said:

have you checked in the advanced options?

I did, and even then there's no mention of per CCD/CCX clock. The Advanced options has a menu, AMD Overclocking, where you can tweak some things but there's one or two menus for overclocking, one being PBO (where you can set it to use mobo voltage/current limits and has the same options as the Ai Tweaker one). I searched for CCX and there's nothing, CCD there's a voltage setting and that's it.

Maybe it will ship in the next version, as AGESA 1005 was announced officially by AMD in the last week. It's just weird that they choose to not ship this setting on Prime B450M-Gaming motherboards.

[Xinayder]

15 minutes ago, Statik said:

I'm not too sure man, best of luck! The only thing I can think of is I believe PBO allows you to boost, and autoOC sets a "goal" if you will. It doesn't necessarily achieve that if something it causing it to throttle (i.e. voltage, temp, etc), but I'm not sure what's limiting it in this situation.

 

If it's any consolidation my scores aren't much better at all with PBO + autoOC. I don't remember them off hand, but I do have a manual spreadsheet from when I tinkered with manual OC's, and my scores went from 4886 at bone stock, to only 5102 at 4.4GHz. So I would hardly expect good R20 results from PBO + AutoOC.

Just to be sure, did your frequencies increase under load with PBO + AutoOC? I just sent an email to AMD hoping that they can shine some light on the issue because every single resource I searched says the same thing, that PBO + AutoOC should increase performance, but it's not working on my CPU; I get the exact same results with the settings disabled.

[Statik]

1 hour ago, Xinayder said:

Just to be sure, did your frequencies increase under load with PBO + AutoOC? I just sent an email to AMD hoping that they can shine some light on the issue because every single resource I searched says the same thing, that PBO + AutoOC should increase performance, but it's not working on my CPU; I get the exact same results with the settings disabled.

I honestly can't recall. But I think one thing that's important to stress, is I believe that PBO and such is designed to boost in lower core/threadcount workloads. For instance if you have all your cores pinned like in R20, it's not going to do much, but when you're just gaming, or ripping something that doesn't use all your cores/threads THEN PBO will kick in and boost those certain cores. So that's where you'll see extra performance.