3900xt Undervolting

[TinyTodger]

Hello Big Boys,

 

I am completely new to AMD and have only ever done very little intel overclocking /tinkering.

 

Before I start, I want to just call out that I only have a 3900xt because I was drunk and took a gamble on an ‘untested’ cpu for £125. It is overkill for me.

 

During gaming my CPU hits 70c sometimes, which I’m not that bothered about, but it felt high considering I have a full custom loop with 2x 360mm in an o11 air flow. After googling I read it’s normal, but after having a nosey at hwinfo the voltage was sometimes spiking to 1.4+ And the CPU settles in around 4.3ghz during gaming, the voltage spikes seem excessive and I wondered if it was just being a bit too aggressive, my bios settings are all ‘default’.

 

being an LTT fan boy I’ve seen the 1usmus video, so I downloaded that puppy and ran the diagnostics, good for me I have a golden sample and it basically said I could achieve 4.2ghz at much lower voltage 1.175 (I think).
 

so my questions:

 

1. is the aggressive voltage bad for my cpu? 
 

2. If undervolting allows me to have a much better multi core and only a marginal hit to gaming, what’s the downside? Is this bad for my system?

 

ideally I’d like to ensure as low as possible temps so my fans can be silent and make sure my cpu has a long a life as possible.

 

I know that’s a lot and I’m prepared to learn so any vids / blogs / docs / tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

peace.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Just turn on PBO2.0 and leave it at its thing. THat will sip power like a madman if you have a full custom loop with a dual 360, so it will still be warm, but it will be bassically as fast as it can go

[Moonzy]

25 minutes ago, TinyTodger said:

1. is the aggressive voltage bad for my cpu? 

according to AMD, no

according to chip degredation theories, the lower the voltage, the less likely things will go bad

 

26 minutes ago, TinyTodger said:

2. If undervolting allows me to have a much better multi core and only a marginal hit to gaming, what’s the downside? Is this bad for my system?

i own a 3900x and i undervolt mine to 1.1v currently, at 4.0ghz

i used to do 0.95v at 3.6ghz, the power consumption (and thus heat) dropped significantly, and i don't really feel much performance diff in games since games i play arent really limited by single thread and when they do, they're in the excess of 100fps, so i wouldnt call it significant difference even if i drop 20fps (depends on genre, but still)

 

the reason i dont do 0.95v and do 1.1v now is because, for some reason, bios can only go down to 1.1v for my setup, going lower requires manually applying the settings in ryzen master after booting into windows each time, which is a hassle imo

1.1v undervolt is good enough for me

 

29 minutes ago, TinyTodger said:

make sure my cpu has a long a life as possible.

although we don't have long term effects of running these chips at those voltage long term, AMD claims that it's fine

but for manufacturers, "fine" means it'll work during the warranty period, which, i think, is 3 years?