Ryzen 5700x Bios settings for lower temps??

lettuce · 15 Feb 2026 at 09:58

Have just built my ITX small build for Bazitte SteamOS gaming machine, I have a Gigabyte A520i AC mobo and the only bios settings I have altered from stock are enabling the XMP profile for the memory and settings my fan curves.

As this is an itx build in a small case thermal and fan noise are always a concern so I would like to enable the stock max performance out of my 5700x whilst getting it to run as cool as possible so I'm not really interested in any overclocking just getting the full performance out of the CPU which I understand I'm probably not getting atm as a lot of bios settings will be left at 'Auto'!?.

What should I be setting the likes of....

PPT
TDC
EDC
Curve Optimiser
FMax

Should I also enable PBO, as this is purely for overclocking right and I want to keep the temps on the CPU as cool as possible. Also can undervolting the CPU all be controlled by Curve optimiser?

Is there any other bios settings I need to look at?

Thanks for any suggestions

tamzzy · 15 Feb 2026 at 10:18

A520 motherboards do not support curve optimiser. Even if they have changeable settings, these are not respected.

freddie64 · 15 Feb 2026 at 11:43

What about if you use "ECO Mode" to lower it to 45w TDP?

I have never done this, but others may be able to offer info if this works or not.

jigger · 15 Feb 2026 at 12:02

It’s slightly confusing what you are looking to achieve with this. Are looking for lower reported temps or heat output? Zen uses three metrics to provide performance, one of those is max temps. The others are clock speed and power (voltage mostly) use and reducing any one can start to limit the performance. Ie, if locked the maximum CPU temp at 60 that would reduce the available power to the CPU which would lower performance.

Zen is constantly adjusting its parameters to provide maximum performance and only real benefit to making adjustments is a small area where AMD seem to have baked in a small margin in the voltage range that can allow for higher sustained frequencies.

lettuce · 15 Feb 2026 at 12:43

jigger said:
It’s slightly confusing what you are looking to achieve with this. Are looking for lower reported temps or heat output? Zen uses three metrics to provide performance, one of those is max temps. The others are clock speed and power (voltage mostly) use and reducing any one can start to limit the performance. Ie, if locked the maximum CPU temp at 60 that would reduce the available power to the CPU which would lower performance.

Zen is constantly adjusting its parameters to provide maximum performance and only real benefit to making adjustments is a small area where AMD seem to have baked in a small margin in the voltage range that can allow for higher sustained frequencies.

Basically just manual setting the PPT, TDC EDC settings so they don't 'boost' above the stock valves for what AMD set for the 5700x, as atm these are set to 'auto' so may go above the factory stock valves and thus cause more heat in my small itx case. Just making the CPU more efficient, reduced CPU volts equals less heat right??

lettuce · 15 Feb 2026 at 12:44

tamzzy said:
A520 motherboards do not support curve optimiser. Even if they have changeable settings, these are not respected.

So these no way to lower CPU voltage with this mobo then to help reduce system heat in my small case?

lettuce · 15 Feb 2026 at 12:46

freddie64 said:
What about if you use "ECO Mode" to lower it to 45w TDP?

I have never done this, but others may be able to offer info if this works or not.

I'll check that video out. Heck I'd be happy just setting to the TDP to the stock 65w that the 5700x is capable off, as at the moment a lot of setting on the bios is set to auto so will image it's going above this TDP when needed

tamzzy · 15 Feb 2026 at 13:14

lettuce said:
So these no way to lower CPU voltage with this mobo then to help reduce system heat in my small case?

You can set it manually but not use curve optimiser

WARburton · 15 Feb 2026 at 14:58

If the system is just for gaming I used to run my 5700x in eco mode it literally made no difference in game performance just run cooler

lettuce · 15 Feb 2026 at 18:38

freddie64 said:
What about if you use "ECO Mode" to lower it to 45w TDP?

I have never done this, but others may be able to offer info if this works or not.

So I don't seem to have this 'Eco Mode' in my bios as per this video. If I go into the SMU Common options under Settings in the bios, the 'System Configuration AM4' option isn't there, I'm on the latest bios version for this board.

There is a 'cTDP control' in SMU Common options, but just gives a Auto or Manual option with manual giving you an option to add a number. Is this the same setting as System Configuration AM4??

freddie64 · 16 Feb 2026 at 07:44

lettuce said:
So I don't seem to have this 'Eco Mode' in my bios as per this video. If I go into the SMU Common options under Settings in the bios, the 'System Configuration AM4' option isn't there, I'm on the latest bios version for this board.

There is a 'cTDP control' in SMU Common options, but just gives a Auto or Manual option with manual giving you an option to add a number. Is this the same setting as System Configuration AM4??

The video is 2 years old so maybe they removed it in later bios versions, but i wouldn't have thought so.

lettuce · 16 Feb 2026 at 18:29

freddie64 said:
The video is 2 years old so maybe they removed it in later bios versions, but i wouldn't have thought so.

Yeah I have look through the the settings and can't find it, unless one of the other options I've enabled has hidden it for some reason.

lettuce · 16 Feb 2026 at 18:41

So basically I just want to set the bios up so there's no auto overclocking going on. I'm not used to AMD Bios as haven't touch AMD bios in years and the last CPU I overclocked/undervolted was a intel like 10 years ago so a lot of the settings are Alien to me.

Is it just a case of disabling Precision Boost Overdrive and Precision Boost Overdrive Scalar and then just look at lowering Vcore to a stable valve?. I noticed there's an option called, Core Performance Boost, is this just AMD built in Boost clock? (ie 5700x base clock 3.4ghz boost clock 4.6ghz) or is this a boost on top of that?

At the moment I have changed the following...

XMP Profile - Enabled
CPU Clock - 'Auto' to '100MHz'
CPU Vcore load line Calibration - 'Auto' to 'Normal'
Vcore SOC load line Calibration - 'Auto' to 'Normal'
CPU Vcore - 'Auto' to '0.960v'
Precision Boost Overdrive - 'Auto' to 'Disabled'
Precision Boost Overdrive Scalar - 'Auto' to 'Disabled'

Any other settings I should look at?

tamzzy · 16 Feb 2026 at 18:51

I wouldn't play around with vcore as you can get clock stretching.

What I would do:
Keep xmp enabled
Leave LLC at auto
Leave vcore at auto
PBO disabled
Don't have to play with the scalar is PBO is already disabled
Set cTDP to whatever max TDP your cooler will handle without making a racket

Ie, let the CPU do what it wants within the power budget. Make no mistake that this is not an undervolt though. This is power limiting your CPU.

If it all remains stable after the above, then consider running a negative voltage offset in the main voltage settings (-10mv is normally a good place to start) as you don't have curve optimiser on an a520 board.

Edit: I should mention I've never played with cTDP setting before on A520 boards, so I don't know whether A520 boards will respect this setting.

lettuce · 16 Feb 2026 at 19:42

tamzzy said:
Edit: I should mention I've never played with cTDP setting before on A520 boards, so I don't know whether A520 boards will respect this setting.

Thanks I'll give you're suggestions a go.

I think there might be a value in Bazitte's Performance Overlay that shows the TDP, so that may give me an indication if the setting has been enabled.

lettuce · 20 Feb 2026 at 20:12

tamzzy said:
I wouldn't play around with vcore as you can get clock stretching.

What I would do:
Keep xmp enabled
Leave LLC at auto
Leave vcore at auto
PBO disabled
Don't have to play with the scalar is PBO is already disabled
Set cTDP to whatever max TDP your cooler will handle without making a racket

Ie, let the CPU do what it wants within the power budget. Make no mistake that this is not an undervolt though. This is power limiting your CPU.

If it all remains stable after the above, then consider running a negative voltage offset in the main voltage settings (-10mv is normally a good place to start) as you don't have curve optimiser on an a520 board.

Edit: I should mention I've never played with cTDP setting before on A520 boards, so I don't know whether A520 boards will respect this setting.

Ok so I have done the above and even set a vcore offset of -0.1500v at the moment and the system seems stable....not sure what an 'average' minus offset for a 5700x is??.

One thing I have noticed is my CPU frequency is 3408.67MHz and BCLK is 100.25MHz I can't seem to find any options in the bios where I can set these to the correct value (3400MHz & 100MHz), any ideas?. Also do I want to be setting the CPU Clock Control from Auto to 100MHz, I did think this was related to the BCLK setting but putting CPU Clock Control to 100MHz didn't change the BCLK value

tamzzy · 20 Feb 2026 at 20:44

0.25mhz on the bclk is fine leave it alone
the 8.7mhz extra on the core clock is the multiplier on the bclk
it is rare to have an exact 100mhz bclk so enjoy the extra 8.7mhz boost and stop stressing

-150mv is fine just run a stress test and as long as the benches are comparable to the results on stock 5700x and the temps are fine....again...leave it alone

WARburton · 21 Feb 2026 at 08:45

tamzzy said:
0.25mhz on the bclk is fine leave it alone
the 8.7mhz extra on the core clock is the multiplier on the bclk
it is rare to have an exact 100mhz bclk so enjoy the extra 8.7mhz boost and stop stressing

-150mv is fine just run a stress test and as long as the benches are comparable to the results on stock 5700x and the temps are fine....again...leave it alone

This is the right answer.

You’re doing all this to reduce heat. What sort of temps was you getting before and after.
The 5700x is much easier to cool than say a 5800x. Tbf you could be stress over nothing.

lettuce · 21 Feb 2026 at 11:09

Well as it's a SFF steam machine like build using a Silverstone SUGO 16 case and in the TV entertainment centre heat and noise are an issue. The cooler I can get both the GPU and CPU running the better as they both have a knock on effect on each in regards to temps. So it wasn't really a case of them running unusually hot just I need to get them running as cool as they can be, to help with fan noise.

jigger · 21 Feb 2026 at 11:40

lettuce said:
Basically just manual setting the PPT, TDC EDC settings so they don't 'boost' above the stock valves for what AMD set for the 5700x, as atm these are set to 'auto' so may go above the factory stock valves and thus cause more heat in my small itx case. Just making the CPU more efficient, reduced CPU volts equals less heat right??

The trade off is dropping potential performance. Performance pretty much directly correlates with heat, but you have to keep in mind Zen is setup to leverage performance within the three parameters mentioned. Dropping voltage doesn’t always result in lower heat and keep in mind that Zen will boost its frequency as high as it can until it hits one of the parameter limits so in this case it’s going to depend which of those you’re system runs into first. You have to separate heat from reported temperature and really look at power use over time as the main measure of heat. Power = performance and heat but temperature is function of cooling and a CPU can run hotter and at a lower temperature with enough cooling.