3950X on an Asus B550 Prime Pro

LtMatt · 2 Jul 2020 at 09:33

Do you reckon this motherboard can run a 3950X with PBO enabled without throttling or reducing clocks speed/performance? I won't be running an all core overclock.

It will be mainly used for gaming with a bit of video editing. Generally it will never be under extended heavy 100% core load for more than 10-15 minutes at a time.

Wondering if i should spend a bit more money and get a better board (with a beefier vrm) given the CPU I'll be using, or whether i can get away with saving a nice lot of money on this board. Managed to snag one brand new for a great price.

pandem0nium · 2 Jul 2020 at 09:50

Hi Matt, I'd be interested in your results and what board you end up getting.

I've just bought a 3950X and will try it in my X370 Strix-F. I may have to get a new board if it's not up to the job.

LtMatt · 2 Jul 2020 at 09:52

pandem0nium said:
Hi Matt, I'd be interested in your results and what board you end up getting.

I've just bought a 3950X and will try it in my X370 Strix-F. I may have to get a new board if it's not up to the job.

Yep will let you know mate. Given the price i got this board at, i think i am gonna give it a try.

I have previously tried a 3950X on a Asus Crosshair VIII Wifi which is up there with the best, so i do have something to compare it with.

The difference at the moment is the Wifi cost almost 3 times as much.

LtMatt · 4 Jul 2020 at 17:29

pandem0nium said:
Hi Matt, I'd be interested in your results and what board you end up getting.

I've just bought a 3950X and will try it in my X370 Strix-F. I may have to get a new board if it's not up to the job.

So i decided to buy a better board, went with the Asus x570 Prime Pro and very happy i did. Seem to be getting better Cinebench R20 scores than i did with my Crosshair previously.

Got the Asus Prime B550 board sitting here un-opened. Might put it on the MM or send it back to the retailer for a refund.

pandem0nium · 4 Jul 2020 at 18:14

LtMatt said:
So i decided to buy a better board, went with the Asus x570 Prime Pro and very happy i did. Seem to be getting better Cinebench R20 scores than i did with my Crosshair previously.

Got the Asus Prime B550 board sitting here un-opened. Might put it on the MM or send it back to the retailer for a refund.

Ok, that's good stuff. Thanks for the update.

I've got mine installed now, and it's working pretty well. Just under 9000 on Cinebench R20. Ram at XMP 3200 CL14.
I'm surprised really, It's not running that much hotter than my 3800X. Using a Dark rock 4 cooler with the fans swapped out for 2 x Noctua NFA-12x25.

I'm gna have a play with PBO, then manual overclock then sort the ram out.

LtMatt · 4 Jul 2020 at 18:41

pandem0nium said:
Ok, that's good stuff. Thanks for the update.

I've got mine installed now, and it's working pretty well. Just under 9000 on Cinebench R20. Ram at XMP 3200 CL14.
I'm surprised really, It's not running that much hotter than my 3800X. Using a Dark rock 4 cooler with the fans swapped out for 2 x Noctua NFA-12x25.

I'm gna have a play with PBO, then manual overclock then sort the ram out.

Here's what I'm getting on R20.

3950X @ stock
3600Mhz CL16
9575 points MT and 533 points ST.

PBO is not enabled, but i did enable the performance enhancer option in the BIOS. that essentially puts the PPT, EDC and TDC values found in Ryzen Master Tool to their maximum supported motherboard values. Other than that, everything stock.

Will have a go at putting the FCLK up to 1900Mhz tomorrow, not sure if this 3950X will be stable at 1900Mhz, my last one wasn't.

StonedPriest · 5 Jul 2020 at 10:43

I had a look at a B550 board and the Crooshair VIII board for my 3950X build, I thought I could save some money but the Crosshair was just better in every way, built like a tank and for me reliability is key. B550 boards are built to a budget price and it shows. As we all know you get what you pay for!

LtMatt · 5 Jul 2020 at 18:01

StonedPriest said:
I had a look at a B550 board and the Crooshair VIII board for my 3950X build, I thought I could save some money but the Crosshair was just better in every way, built like a tank and for me reliability is key. B550 boards are built to a budget price and it shows. As we all know you get what you pay for!

I've used the Crosshair and now the Prime Pro x570 boards and there's really not much between them. The only thing the Prime is missing for the most part is a few BIOS options and Wifi. The Crosshair boards are nice and are build like tanks, but i am not convinced they are worth the extra outlay.

StonedPriest · 5 Jul 2020 at 20:21

LtMatt said:
I've used the Crosshair and now the Prime Pro x570 boards and there's really not much between them. The only thing the Prime is missing for the most part is a few BIOS options and Wifi. The Crosshair boards are nice and are build like tanks, but i am not convinced they are worth the extra outlay.

I rely on my PC for my business so the extra £100 is a no brainer for me, my old Hero boards have never let me down so hoping this tradition continues!

Joxeon · 6 Jul 2020 at 09:12

LtMatt said:
Do you reckon this motherboard can run a 3950X with PBO enabled without throttling or reducing clocks speed/performance? I won't be running an all core overclock.

It will be mainly used for gaming with a bit of video editing. Generally it will never be under extended heavy 100% core load for more than 10-15 minutes at a time.

Wondering if i should spend a bit more money and get a better board (with a beefier vrm) given the CPU I'll be using, or whether i can get away with saving a nice lot of money on this board. Managed to snag one brand new for a great price.

Even a cheap B450 tomahawk could run a 3950x with no issues so long as you can a half decent case with some airflow so I would imagen any of the B550s could do so without even breaking a sweat.

pandem0nium · 6 Jul 2020 at 15:29

LtMatt said:
Here's what I'm getting on R20.

3950X @ stock
3600Mhz CL16
9575 points MT and 533 points ST.

PBO is not enabled, but i did enable the performance enhancer option in the BIOS. that essentially puts the PPT, EDC and TDC values found in Ryzen Master Tool to their maximum supported motherboard values. Other than that, everything stock.

Will have a go at putting the FCLK up to 1900Mhz tomorrow, not sure if this 3950X will be stable at 1900Mhz, my last one wasn't.

Just trying out PBO now. I think it's really constrained by the power limits out of the box. With PBO enabled I'm getting a reported CPU power of ~155W(!) in Ryzen master. That's with an all core of about 4050 in an all-core AVX2 workload. Temps in the low 80s.

edit: 9301 all core cinebench. Still some room for improvement with the ram still at 3200 CL14.

pandem0nium · 6 Jul 2020 at 18:03

Up to 9394 now with 3733 CL16. Didn't boot at 1900 IF unfortunately.

Comparing the scores, it's probably fair to say there's some performance left on the table using this old board. Is it worth spending £200+ to replace it? not really yet. If I had gen 4 storage and GPU, then it'd be a good idea, but I'll hold off for now.

pandem0nium · 8 Jul 2020 at 10:39

Final update for anyone interested.

I've settled on an all-core overclock of 4.25 @ around 1.3 - 1.35V.
This results in a huge 10003 points in Cinebench multi and a much less impressive 496 in single.
I think I'm definitely limited by heat and power delivery, but this is working well enough for me and is stable.

I'll keep an eye out in the MM or wait till black friday for a better board, but I'm not in any rush.

LtMatt · 8 Jul 2020 at 19:56

pandem0nium said:
Final update for anyone interested.

I've settled on an all-core overclock of 4.25 @ around 1.3 - 1.35V.
This results in a huge 10003 points in Cinebench multi and a much less impressive 496 in single.
I think I'm definitely limited by heat and power delivery, but this is working well enough for me and is stable.

I'll keep an eye out in the MM or wait till black friday for a better board, but I'm not in any rush.

Decent, but if i was you i'd just let XFR do its thing and concentrate maxing out the CPU clocks while allowing the CPU to use the default boosting behaviour.

Do you want to buy my B550 board in the MM? If so i will not send it back to the retailer for a full refund.

pandem0nium · 9 Jul 2020 at 08:39

LtMatt said:
Decent, but if i was you i'd just let XFR do its thing and concentrate maxing out the CPU clocks while allowing the CPU to use the default boosting behaviour.

Do you want to buy my B550 board in the MM? If so i will not send it back to the retailer for a full refund.

Yeah, losing some single core perf isn't ideal but it makes sense for my usage. I use the pc for work, gaming, then all other times it's running XMRig mining some monero. All core manual runs cooler, uses less power, and a few hundred mhz faster for when it's on a lot of the time. That's VS Stock + PBO.

Cheers for asking Matt, but you may as well get all your money back if you can. I'd be after something a bit higher end when I upgrade.

LtMatt · 9 Jul 2020 at 08:43

pandem0nium said:
Yeah, losing some single core perf isn't ideal but it makes sense for my usage. I use the pc for work, gaming, then all other times it's running XMRig mining some monero. All core manual runs cooler, uses less power, and a few hundred mhz faster for when it's on a lot of the time. That's VS Stock + PBO.

Cheers for asking Matt, but you may as well get all your money back if you can. I'd be after something a bit higher end when I upgrade.

Furry muff mate i will get it sent back.