Is around 1.39-1.4V acceptable when gaming.

[Kyozo]

System Configuration:

Operating System: Windows 10

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600(no overclock)

GPU: RTX 3070 GAMING OC

Motherboard: MSI B550 GAME-A-PRO

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB DDR4-3000

PSU: Corsair RM750 Gold

Monitor: HP X27qc, 27 Inch QHD Curved Monitor, with included DisplayPort cable

Problem Description:

I've had my PC for about a year now, when I first got my PC I used check all the stats relating to my hardware and in this case my CPU e.g. voltage, temps, clock speeds etc. At the same when gaming the it was around 1.35v in most games. Then after a month I basically just stopped checking, till now. I've noticed that when playing games(Squad, Holdfast, Ghost recon) my voltage is in the region of 1.38-1.4v. I'm not sure for the cause of this as its been a year since my last checking of stats and multiple changes to my system have been made since this like hardware upgrades e.g. new monitor, new CPU cooler and more. And obviously various software changes. I'm using the latest chipset drivers, my BIOS is not the latest update but is a recent update. My PBO in BIOS is set to Auto. I'm using Ryzen High performance power plan. My clock speed varies game to game sometimes its 3,800 other times its 4,100. My CPU temps are fine and again varies game to game most it hits is 60c averaging 55c. I look in task manager when playing games and its mostly just the game taking up the CPU usage, I use Ryzen master to check stats with default settings (no overclock). My idle voltage is fine usually 1.1 -1.2V.

If you need any more details from me, please ask,

Thank you.

[Origami Cactus]

On ryzen 3rd gen, absolutely fine.

The voltage scales with cores. When you play a really cpu intensive game, it scales down the voltage to 1.35V and boosts the frequency less, but when you play a game that uses 1-2 cores, the cpu has more freedom to boost the few cores way up [note that task manager doesn't show correct speeds when only 1-2 cores boost], I would guess that with pbo enabled, it actually boosts those cores to about 4.4Ghz,and with it, it gives 1.4V to only a few cores at a time, and switches between them. Nothing dangerous, doesn't do anything to the lifespan to the cpu, no worries.

If you want to see that in action, Ryzen master is a great tool to see how your ryzen cpu works. You can see which cores sleep, which are boosted etc.

 

Sidenote: The r5 5600 is only 199$ at the moment, and with your current graphics card you could see an fps improvement of 10-20%, maybe even more, because the 5th gen is way faster for gaming with the double L3 cache and higher IPC.

[Mark Kaine]

up to 1.5v is completely fine and within specifications. 

[Kyozo]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:14 AM, Origami Cactus said:

On ryzen 3rd gen, absolutely fine.

The voltage scales with cores. When you play a really cpu intensive game, it scales down the voltage to 1.35V and boosts the frequency less, but when you play a game that uses 1-2 cores, the cpu has more freedom to boost the few cores way up [note that task manager doesn't show correct speeds when only 1-2 cores boost], I would guess that with pbo enabled, it actually boosts those cores to about 4.4Ghz,and with it, it gives 1.4V to only a few cores at a time, and switches between them. Nothing dangerous, doesn't do anything to the lifespan to the cpu, no worries.

If you want to see that in action, Ryzen master is a great tool to see how your ryzen cpu works. You can see which cores sleep, which are boosted etc.

 

Sidenote: The r5 5600 is only 199$ at the moment, and with your current graphics card you could see an fps improvement of 10-20%, maybe even more, because the 5th gen is way faster for gaming with the double L3 cache and higher IPC.

@Origami Cactus I play at 1440p, there is barely a difference between the 3600 and 5600 at that resolution. I have PBO disabled, as it is set to Auto which means off I believe. If it was enabled it would be set to enabled. A bit confusing if you ask me. Thanks for the reply.