AORUS M BIOS Analysis + Open Discussion For Overclock Stability Settings

[OGKRG]

The main purpose of this thread is to be informative as well as having it be an open discussion to help other users of the AORUS M, navigate and feel confident within the BIOS of this motherboard. Another highlight of this thread is to help users feel confident in their overclocking by maximizing the settings within the AORUS M BIOS for stability in manual overclocking, as well as PBO. When you first arrive in the AORUS M BIOS you are welcomed with a "SYSTEM INFORMATION" screen.

.

 

This screen in the BIOS displays current BIOS version, as well as date, time, and board model. The first indication of any level of tweaking would be the "M.I.T." 

 

(Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker) tab. Inside this tab you are greeted with multiple subsections including (Frequency, Memory, & Voltage adjustments, as well as current voltage and temp status under PC Health, as well as Flashing Option, and Fan Speed Settings, under the Smart Fan, and Q-Flash tabs. Moving along, under the first tab Advanced Frequency Settings, you will see options on how to change the Core Clock Speed, and XMP profiles. If you hover over CPU Clock Ratio and input numbers manually you can change the Auto to a different CPU Multiplier Ratio, but only in Increments of 0.25MHz, example 44.25 or 36.75, you can not do 44.10 or 36.15, etc. The Advanced CPU Settings in the same menu will show another screen displaying, another section showing the same CPU Clock Ratio, as well as Core Performance Boost, AMD Cool'n'Quiet, and C-State Options, and other Power Optimizing Settings. Back to the main M.I.T. tab underneath Advanced Voltage Settings, we are greeted with options on how to change Dynamic CPU voltage, SOC voltage, and DRAM voltage. I have found that leaving DRAM voltage on AUTO will show the XMP voltage as what it needs to be still in Ryzen Master, and leaving the Dynamic Vcore on AUTO, while changing the Voltage in AMD Overclocking will show the change in Ryzen Master too, but not the other way around. AMD Overclocking voltage adjustments do not affect Dynamic Vcore, or make it higher or lower, but I feel that Dynamic Vcore values are always a little lower by 0.010v on average. 

 

 

 

 

The next chapter in this thread is the "AMD Overclocking Menu" under the "Peripherals Tab". A lot of these menus are disconnected and out of place it seems like, definitely not a super straight forward user friendly approach. The AMD Overclocking Menu greets you with a warning, when you accept the warning message and agree it then takes you to the Manual Overclocking Menu, that let's you manually set the CPU Clock Speed and Voltage to whatever values you want, even in between the limited values of 0.25MHz of the AORUS M default overclocking menu. 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the next important tabs that I have been experimenting with is the PBO Tab. This shows options for Auto, which sets the PBO Limits really low in Ryzen Master. I am experimenting to test OC stability, and so far have found that it has helped stabilize some higher OC's on my Ryzen 5 3600. I have it set to Advanced, Motherboard Limits currently, but you can set it to Manual and set your own custom values for PPT, TDC, and EDC.

 

 

 

I am not sure if one Menu overrides the other, which I have found to be a main discussion topic among various Youtubers, but I have used both AORUS M, and AMD Overclocking and have found from my experiences that AMD Overclocking was more stable, not to mention you can go above 1.400v in AMD not in AORUS M for Dynamic voltage. Dynamic Voltage maxes out @ +0.300v which is a little above 1.400v

 

The other main area I have confused about is AMD CBS here

 

 

If you Click XFR Enhancement it bring you to another Menu where you can Accept and Decline the warning message, doing so does not boot you back to the main menu, but in turn takes you to another menu. 

 

 

Declining this message bring you to this screen. This area of the BIOS is still foreign to me. If you click Accept however you can change all the same SOC/VDDP/VDDG, and FCLK settings as in the AMD Overclocking Menu. I have no touched the CBS area, but would like to know if leaving it alone has no affect on changing the settings in AMD Overclock. Does AMD Overclock Override CBS?  

 

 

These are my current settings, and would like to open the discussion to more experienced users to share their opinion on the settings within the BIOS to help others feel confident in overclocking, for maximum stability. I am currently stable with a 4.45GHz @ 1.400v OC on my Ryzen 5 3600. Temps do not go above 75c with my AIO. A lot of this is trial and error. I have had this board for almost a month and have been night and day tweaking settings, it's been a nightmare at times, but also rewarding knowing that so far I have dialed in some stable settings. 

 

Let's open the floor to questions and see what we can accomplish together! 

[Quackers101]

I'm kinda unsure how good OC actually is on ryzen and it's lifespan.

Hearing about some ryzen chips that might degrade a lot quicker OC'ed, but not sure to what or by how long etc. But it would be nice to know the rate before things go bad, and there was a small talk about it before due to some high voltages or something. But else people have done some good undervolting with PBO2. unsure about everything else.

[OGKRG]

26 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

I'm kinda unsure how good OC actually is on ryzen and it's lifespan.

Hearing about some ryzen chips that might degrade a lot quicker OC'ed, but not sure to what or by how long etc. But it would be nice to know the rate before things go bad, and there was a small talk about it before due to some high voltages or something. But else people have done some good undervolting with PBO2. unsure about everything else.

This is one of the most asked question of Ryzen, "Is it worth it to OC" it's subjective because I think any OC is an accomplishment as long as it makes sense. Voltage, and such. If you have to crank voltage up beyond what makes sense and run the risk of to much heat then it's not worth it. I am currently 250Mhz over boost clock running the same voltage as max boost clock. Max boost clock from what I gauged in an hour of stress testing on PBO was 1.416v - 1.419v Ryzen is capable of reaching over 1.400v boost clock easy. Temps need to be maintained however, and also adjusting PBO limits helped my manual OC be more stable. Every chip OC's different. I was able to get a 4.2GHz OC which is max boost clock @ around 1.416v - 1.41v for my chip, give or take, at 1.225v. I think as soon as you start OCing you initially agree to lowering the lifespan of your chip, however you may not, it's subjective, kind of a schrodinger's cat scenario. It's more of a "What if I did, or didn't OC" 

 

Here are the testing numbers for my chip. 

[P] = Passed Test

[F] = Failed Test 

[X] = Failed Test, Further Testing to see if it was a false error

[?] = Not sure if Failed or Past, needs further testing to verify testing.

[T] = Currently testing 

 

4.0GHz @ 1.125v [P]
4.1GHz @ 1.150v [F]
4.1GHz @ 1.175v [P]
4.2GHz @ 1.175v [F]
4.2GHz @ 1.200v [F]
4.2GHz @ 1.225v [P]
4.3GHz @ 1.225v [F]
4.3GHz @ 1.250v [F]
4.3GHz @ 1.275v [F]
4.4GHz @ 1.275v [X]
4.3GHz @ 1.300v [?]
4.4GHz @ 1.300v [F] (Linpack Crash Error 5:15)
4.4GHz @ 1.325v [F] (Linpack Crash Error 1:24:17)
4.4GHz @ 1.350v [P] (Linpack Stable 2:20:37) (Cinebench Multi Passes = 5 , 1 Single Core Pass)

4.45GHz @ 1.400v [P] (Linpack stable 1:15:28)

4.5GHz @ 1.400v [F] (Linpack Crash)
4.5GHz @ 1.425v [F] (Linpack Crash 6-7mins)
4.5GHz @ 1.450v [T]

[Guest]

What are the temps at 4.4ghz 1.30v Crash at 5:15?

[OGKRG]

3 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

What are the temps at 4.4ghz 1.30c Crash at 5:15?

Crap, I would have to go back to that OC and run a test to check. My temps currently right now @ 4.5GHz with 1.450v is this.

[OGKRG]

Also check this out, some of my cores are not running max clock speed, are they throttling? 

[OGKRG]

When I run Large Data Sets my cores don't throttle in speed. Only during Linpack tests.

[OGKRG]

Some of the main topic points of this thread though is:

Best settings to run for manual OC stability

Best settings to run for PBO

 

[Guest]

The instant clocks and the effective clocks are measured differently. 

 

You can view the instant (also described as discrete) clocks which will be accurate no matter what software you run. 

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, OGKRG said:

Crap, I would have to go back to that OC and run a test to check. My temps currently right now @ 4.5GHz with 1.450v is this.

This one stands out, and thanks for posting it here.

 

See the v-core? It has a pretty big swing. That's part or mostly your stability issue.

[OGKRG]

7 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

This one stands out, and thanks for posting it here.

 

See the v-core? It has a pretty big swing. That's part or mostly you stability issue.

 

So from what I have found through experimenting with the BIOS settings is this:

 

Vcore is directly affected only by AMD OC MENU & AORUS M Dyanmic Vcore adjustments

 

CPU Core VID (Effective) which is the same as Voltage Control in Ryzen Master is only affected by changing Vcore in AMD OC Menu, and won't change if you set your Vcore in AORUS M Dynamic Voltage. If you only change Vcore with AORUS M Menu, CPU Core VID and Ryzen Master Voltage stays @ 1.1v, which I have no idea if this affects stability.

 

Changing Vcore in AMD OC Menu changes both Vcore and CPU VID numbers in both Ryzen Master and HWINFO to relatively the same values, but Vcore has a drop on voltage compared to VID by at least 0.010v-0.40v give or take.

\

 

As  you can see from the screenshots VID stays the same Vcore has a drop. Idk if changing AORUS M with AMD OC Menu voltage also enabled with static Vcore of 1.450v will offset this drop or not. I currently have AMD OC Voltage @ 1.450v and Dynamic Vcore set to AUTO in AORUS M Menu.

 

Other AORUS M Vcore options are:

 

Settings it to Normal

Leaving it on Auto

Leaving it as +0.000v but changing voltage in AMD OC

Adding voltage on top of AMD OC for example:

 

AMD OC Voltage 1.450v

AORUS M Voltage +0.056v

 

Would this offset and increase Vcore?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, OGKRG said:

 

So from what I have found through experimenting with the BIOS settings is this:

 

Vcore is directly affected only by AMD OC MENU & AORUS M Dyanmic Vcore adjustments

 

CPU Core VID (Effective) which is the same as Voltage Control in Ryzen Master is only affected by changing Vcore in AMD OC Menu, and won't change if you set your Vcore in AORUS M Dynamic Voltage. If you only change Vcore with AORUS M Menu, CPU Core VID and Ryzen Master Voltage stays @ 1.1v, which I have no idea if this affects stability.

 

Changing Vcore in AMD OC Menu changes both Vcore and CPU VID numbers in both Ryzen Master and HWINFO to relatively the same values, but Vcore has a drop on voltage compared to VID by at least 0.010v-0.40v give or take.

 

The v-droop so far below the VID tells us the board can't really handle over 1.410v effectively.

 

Do you have LLC option in bios? I did not see one depicted in your screen shots.

[OGKRG]

Just now, ShrimpBrime said:

 

The v-droop so far below the VID tells us the board can't really handle over 1.410v effectively.

 

Do you have LLC option in bios? I did not see one depicted in your screen shots.

I edited my reply sorry, and I don't think there is any LLC settings. Only options I see are something called L1 and L2 which I don't think are LLC options. But maybe adding +0.056v from Dynamic voltage on top of AMD OC Voltage will increase overall voltage in Vcore.

[Guest]

Just now, OGKRG said:

I edited my reply sorry, and I don't think there is any LLC settings. Only options I see are something called L1 and L2 which I don't think are LLC options. But maybe adding +0.056v from Dynamic voltage on top of AMD OC Voltage will increase overall voltage in Vcore.

Depends on if you loose stability from higher temps or not.

[OGKRG]

1 minute ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Depends on if you loose stability from higher temps or not.

I'ma test this theory and see if AMD OC overrides Vcore completely, or if I can offset Vcore and add to it with AMD OC Voltage also enabled to a static voltage. 

 

Currently 15mins stable @ 4.5GHz fingers crossed.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, OGKRG said:

I'ma test this theory and see if AMD OC overrides Vcore completely, or if I can offset Vcore and add to it with AMD OC Voltage also enabled to a static voltage. 

 

Currently 15mins stable @ 4.5GHz fingers crossed.

 

Just for awareness, the stress testing with High current loads is what degrades a cpu. Probably be wise to keep that in mind, you don't have to stability test too often once you've found your OC.

[OGKRG]

4 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Just for awareness, the stress testing with High current loads is what degrades a cpu. Probably be wise to keep that in mind, you don't have to stability test too often once you've found your OC.

So something like OCCT Linpack that fluctuates my cpu loads is equal to something like Real Bench that sets usage @ 100%?

 

I was also getting some GPU memory errors so I put my GPU memory at stock for now. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, OGKRG said:

So something like OCCT Linpack that fluctuates my cpu loads is equal to something like Real Bench that sets usage @ 100%?

 

I was also getting some GPU memory errors so I put my GPU memory at stock for now. 

 

The load will be dependent on the instruction sets you run. AVX and AVX2 would be the heavier loads.

[OGKRG]

2 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

 

The load will be dependent on the instruction sets you run. AVX and AVX2 would be the heavier loads.

Real Bench AVX instructions is def less demanding than Small FFT's in OCCT or Prime with AVX and AVX 2

[Guest]

Just now, OGKRG said:

Real Bench AVX instructions is def less demanding than Small FFT's in OCCT or Prime with AVX and AVX 2

Then it's a good reason to not rely obviously on a single test. 

 

I like to do quickies with IBT from time to time. 

[OGKRG]

DING DING DING we have a winner.

 

check this out.

 

I set AMD OC Voltage to 1.400 which sets my Core VID to 1.400

I set AORUS M Voltage to +0.036 which offset my Vcore higher than my VID, so no VDroop

 

This will be trial and error for sure. 

 

 

[OGKRG]

Just now, ShrimpBrime said:

Then it's a good reason to not rely obviously on a single test. 

 

I like to do quickies with IBT from time to time. 

1450MHz on my RX 570 was stable in Furmark for hours, but crashed 5mins in Valorant. lol 

[Guest]

Just now, OGKRG said:

1450MHz on my RX 570 was stable in Furmark for hours, but crashed 5mins in Valorant. lol 

Yeah, that can happen. That's what I mean about stability is in the eye of the beholder. 

[OGKRG]

1 minute ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Yeah, that can happen. That's what I mean about stability is in the eye of the beholder. 

I'm starting to realize this now 

[OGKRG]

Since AORUS M has no LLC feature, setting AORUS M dynamic Vcore to match AMD OC Voltage offsets the VDroop. This is ground breaking news  gotta up it a little cause it's still a little under 1.400v just crashed too.