CPU/Bios/Ram Optimization

[LARPStrong_Carter]

I keep reading on things talking about Ryzen Master, DRAM Calculator and bios settings but I will be honest I haven't really been in the game for years.

Whats the best way to make sure you are making the most out of your rig without making it unstable?

I am not tech dumb but after looking at Ryzen Master and DRAM Calc I was slightly intimidated and afraid to break stuff.

My previous rig I had for almost 9 year, never OCd or tweaked in any way and it worked great.

I plan to do plenty of gaming (specially during these crazy times), some streaming of said games likely and then also streaming my Dungeon and Dragons games. I tend to multitask a lot with TONs of tabs open (chrome RAM SUCK lol). But also going to do a bit of video editing of my Dungeons and Dragon streams (post stream).

I know I put a lot into somethings that probably wont matter (i.e. 64gb ram) but really my request in this is for some help just optimizing it so its stable and I get the money I put in worth if that makes sense.

TIA

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fqD3k6

[Statik]

Ok. So for starters, don't OC Ryzen. There's very little headroom, it's usually more hassle than it's worth, and if you don't know what you're doing in regards to voltage you'll ruin your CPU.

 

As far as RAM, I just ran mine with XMP, then I downloaded DRAM Calc, and Thaiphoon. If you watch a tutorial with those it's very simple. You run Thaiphoon to get all the info about your RAM (samsung, etc), then plug that all into the DRAM calc, and it will tell you the exact values to plug into your RAM via the BIOS, then you run a memory test over night to ensure it's stable, and viola. It's very simple.

 

As far as your GPU it's as simple as ever, get MSI afterburner, and slowly turn up your core clock until it's unstable, then back off a bit, and rinse and repeat for the memory.

[LARPStrong_Carter]

1 minute ago, Statik said:

Ok. So for starters, don't OC Ryzen. There's very little headroom, it's usually more hassle than it's worth, and if you don't know what you're doing in regards to voltage you'll ruin your CPU.

 

As far as RAM, I just ran mine with XMP, then I downloaded DRAM Calc, and Thaiphoon. If you watch a tutorial with those it's very simple. You run Thaiphoon to get all the info about your RAM (samsung, etc), then plug that all into the DRAM calc, and it will tell you the exact values to plug into your RAM via the BIOS, then you run a memory test over night to ensure it's stable, and viola. It's very simple.

 

As far as your GPU it's as simple as ever, get MSI afterburner, and slowly turn up your core clock until it's unstable, then back off a bit, and rinse and repeat for the memory.

Ok so if I OC barely and it fails then I pull back that wont fry it?

[Parideboy]

Just now, LARPStrong_Carter said:

Ok so if I OC barely and it fails then I pull back that wont fry it?

GPUwise as long as you don't hit the voltage to hard (over 100+mv) you should be fine. Worst case scenario the pc crashed and you have to reboot

[adm0n]

Tweaking like that has become a little less usefull to be honest.

CPU's and GPUs try to get the most out of themselves as possible.

But for overclocking ryzen there is somethings to worry about. They don't really have much headroom unless you go into exotic cooling (and even then), but they do profit from more memory bandwidth. As far as I know, the memory speed is linked to the infinity fabric (the link between the modules on the CPU). If you overclock that, it can greatly impact performance, as it is usually a bottleneck. (look at the performance difference between the ryzen 3 3100 and 3300x, the former has 2 modules with 2 cores each, that are linked, and the latter one has one module with 4 cores. The latter one outperformce the former in games by a lot)

 

Also I think you can overclock each module by itself, because they can be of different quality.
 

If you aren't willing to read up on all of this and just want to touch some sliders, I'd say don't bother with it.

[BigDamn]

Overclocking with Ryzen Master is good for testing and/or benchmarking, but isn't recommended for those seeking to use their OC permanently. If you want to overclock properly you should be doing it in your BIOS, as this gives you many more options and applies your overclock at all times, rather than waiting for an application to do it. If you plan on using the DRAM Calculator you will need to OC in your BIOS, as all of those RAM timing options are only available in BIOS. The process is fairly simple, just look for all the options you see on the Calculator and enter them in the RAM timings section of your motherboard.

 

Keep in mind that the Calculator isn't always going to give you stable settings. It's an approximation based on your hardware configuration, so if it doesn't work you may be better off OC'ing on your own. OC'ing RAM on Ryzen 3000 is much easier than it was on 1000 and 2000, as the Infinity Fabric speed is now independent of memory speed. The Infinity Fabric is the connection between CCX modules on your CPU, so the faster it is, the faster your separated CPU cores can communicate with each other. If you want to get the most out of your CPU I would recommend researching this and OC'ing your infinity fabric.

 

As far as ensuring stability goes, you'll want to download a few programs. A popular test is the BMW Blender Scene. Just load it into Blender and render the animation for 30-60 minutes between OC's. While running, use CPU-Z to monitor clock speed, and HWInfo to monitor temperatures and CPU utilization. High temps, drops in clock speed, and a single core dropping to 0% usage are all signs of a bad overclock (keep in mind that Blender will drop to 0% CPU usage between renders, this is normal). For testing memory you can load Memtest on to a USB drive and let that run overnight. Run a test without your OC first to ensure there aren't any errors (bad RAM) and run again with your OC applied. Even a single error is a sign of a bad OC.

 

Remember to OC your RAM and CPU separately to avoid confusion about which one is causing a crash (you will crash!). I personally OC the CPU first, but it technically doesn't matter. I know this is a lot to take in, the OC process is actually quite fun and can teach you many things about computer hardware. Stick with it and push your shit to the max.

[Magmacream187]

21 minutes ago, LARPStrong_Carter said:

 

To be honest man that is a really beefy pc. I don't think that you'll have any problems doing anything on the pc that you've described that you want to do.If you do want to overclock, just make sure you have good temps on everything beforehand.

[Statik]

8 minutes ago, LARPStrong_Carter said:

Ok so if I OC barely and it fails then I pull back that wont fry it?

If you're talking about your GPU, if you're using MSI Afterburner no. Just turn up your Power % and you're fine. It's locked away in the GPU Bios or something that you can't go over a certain voltage to avoid damaging your chip.

 

If your computer crashes/bluescreens/etc OCing either CPU or GPU it's not bad at all. It just means that the OC was stable, and you need either more voltage/low clock speed. It's a balancing act. I strongly suggest you do research into your specific components and watch tutorials before you start messing with things in the bios though.