3990x tuning advice

robinlawrie · 16 Feb 2020 at 18:57

ok so i have my machine set up. it runs fiiine.

3990x
asrock creator trx40
128gb tridentz 3200cl15

however im just starting with tuning it up and i have a few observations:

first, at default, my tridentz ram with xmp profile loaded runs at the correct 3200 clock.. however the infinity fabric defaults to 1500mhz.

i changed just that in bios to 1600 to be 1:1

my vray and cinebench scores went down a bit?

i tried bumping ram up to 3600 and 1800 fabric, and loosened timings a bit, but it failed to boot and i had to reset bios. when it comes to ram i have no idea what im doing, and the dram calculator doesnt appear to support 128gb kits.

for now ive left it at xmp/1:1

now onto ryzen master.

if i turn on PBO and auto OC, my all-core clocks jump a fair bit, also power consumption. however i get random downclocking and my scores in vray are sometimes similar or worse to stock as the clocks flap around so much.

i know the vrm isnt the best on this motherboard, but its still good for almost 700 amps and 1000w.

its wierd, because my cpu temps never get above 60 odd degrees (i have a massive cooler) vrm is below 50 degrees, and there is current/wattage left on the table.

what is ryzen master throttling for? obviously something ive not considered.

note that if i limit the cpu ppt to say, 550watts, i get a solid 3.8-3.9 ghz all core and good 85,355 vray /29182 cinebench.

so limiting the cpu gets me better scores.

gotta find out whats causing the throttling.

also wierd: single core with auto OC isnt really any better? im asking plus 200 mhz, but i still get 4.32 ghz when running cinebench single core test.

obviously ive not got any power/temp limits affecting that , so why doesnt it boost higher?

i also note that cinebench isnt using one of the gold star cores in ryzen master? shouldnt it always choose the best core for stuff like this?

ryzen oc is a mystery to me!

so i need to get help tuning my ram, i was assuming 3600 and good timings would be ok with 3200 cl15 b-die.. i chose it specifically over a much cheaper 3600 corsair 128gb kit, because timings were much tighter.

any explanations or advice most appreciated.

robinlawrie · 16 Feb 2020 at 19:42

another test. i bumped dram voltage to 1.375 and increased clock to 3400 1:1, leaving timings at cl15

my scores went down even more than when i enabled 1:1 on 3200..

wut?

robinlawrie · 16 Feb 2020 at 23:40

so, revisiting the PBO stuff.. i settled on a 550w limit since (it seemed) it gave me a solid 3.9ghz all core, with 400w going through cpu. a nice compromise between clocks and insane power consumption.

however now ive tested it with a longer render, i can see that also with this setting, after a while, i get blocks of cores downclocking for a second or two randomly.

vrm temps are 55 degrees, cpu temps are around 56 degrees.. absolute peak recorded in hwmonitor was 67 for cpu, but ive not seen it get close to that while ive been watching.

studying hwmonitor, i notice that i get momentary "thermal throttle: HTC" and "thermal throttle: prochot EXT" warnings during rendering.. only a few, and not every time it downclocks.

what do these mean? my cpu is nice and cool.. my vrm reports good temps..

note also that in HWmonitor, a third thermal throttle (prochot CPU) never triggers.

all very confusing.

Joxeon · 17 Feb 2020 at 15:15

robinlawrie said:
i also note that cinebench isnt using one of the gold star cores in ryzen master? shouldnt it always choose the best core for stuff like this?

so i need to get help tuning my ram, i was assuming 3600 and good timings would be ok with 3200 cl15 b-die.. i chose it specifically over a much cheaper 3600 corsair 128gb kit, because timings were much tighter

Check the bios for an option called CPPC and make sure it's enabled as this should prioritise your best cores.

With regards to ram, what voltages are you trying? The ram might need 1.45 to be stable. What's the SOC set to and also the VDDG and VDDP?

Jumper118 · 17 Feb 2020 at 21:03

you can go upto 1.45v on the ram and also you might need to raise the soc voltage, it could also be the case the cpu struggles to run 128gb at high speed.

Joxeon · 18 Feb 2020 at 01:45

robinlawrie said:
so, revisiting the PBO stuff.. i settled on a 550w limit since (it seemed) it gave me a solid 3.9ghz all core, with 400w going through cpu. a nice compromise between clocks and insane power consumption.

however now ive tested it with a longer render, i can see that also with this setting, after a while, i get blocks of cores downclocking for a second or two randomly.

vrm temps are 55 degrees, cpu temps are around 56 degrees.. absolute peak recorded in hwmonitor was 67 for cpu, but ive not seen it get close to that while ive been watching.

studying hwmonitor, i notice that i get momentary "thermal throttle: HTC" and "thermal throttle: prochot EXT" warnings during rendering.. only a few, and not every time it downclocks.

what do these mean? my cpu is nice and cool.. my vrm reports good temps..

note also that in HWmonitor, a third thermal throttle (prochot CPU) never triggers..

Try running hwinfo, I find that to be more accurate than hwmonitor.

ZXSpectrum · 18 Feb 2020 at 11:35

I have had some issues with this motherboard and certain memory configurations especially 128Gb (8x16Gb) 3000Mhz+ but after a decent amount of testing and altering settings along with help from Asrock Support I have found that setting the SOC voltage to Static 1.150v and the ProcODT to 48Ohms (in the memory latency settings down near the bottom) it has a significant impact on stability. 1.150 on the SOC is for 3970X+3000Mhz CL15 memory so you may need to bump it up a little for 3200Mhz but its safe up to 1.20v.

Hope that helps.

orbitalwalsh · 19 Feb 2020 at 09:24

should be able to hit 3600hz easily =/

robinlawrie · 25 Feb 2020 at 17:43

thanks for all the replies.. especially suggested voltages and whatnot. my main aim is stability and definitely not risking the lifespan of the chip. second comes getting the most i can out of the setup. it was a crazy decision buying it, and it has to last a damn long time to justify the cost (although my rendering is daaaamn fast!)

ive been neck deep in work so not had a chance to play more.. this weekend i hope to have another fiddle

p.s. note, every time ive said "hwmonitor" i meant "hwinfo"

robinlawrie · 25 Feb 2020 at 18:17

ZXSpectrum said:
I have had some issues with this motherboard and certain memory configurations especially 128Gb (8x16Gb) 3000Mhz+ but after a decent amount of testing and altering settings along with help from Asrock Support I have found that setting the SOC voltage to Static 1.150v and the ProcODT to 48Ohms (in the memory latency settings down near the bottom) it has a significant impact on stability. 1.150 on the SOC is for 3970X+3000Mhz CL15 memory so you may need to bump it up a little for 3200Mhz but its safe up to 1.20v.

Hope that helps.

you managed to get support from asrock? i mailed them 11 days ago and theyve not replied yet.

note, that im perfectly stable at default settings xmp 3200 cl15 (or 16, i believe gear-down rounds it up)

i even appear stable at the same timings, but 3400 and 1.375v, although ive not benched it beyond rendering. 3600 just locks up before reaching bios. .. ill have a play

ZXSpectrum · 25 Feb 2020 at 19:41

I work as a workstation system integrator and we have direct line to with Asrock Support.

Cant see any 128Gb kits of GSkill memory on their QVL so you might be struggling. Especially at 3600Mhz with those timings. I am still waiting for some kits of memory to turn up for some testing but wont be anywhere near that specification as I have to dev for production quantities with stability and reliability over extreme performance.

robinlawrie · 27 Feb 2020 at 11:00

ahh you are lucky, it seems common users dont get much love from asrock. - ive got some wierd PBO issues that i would LOVE to ask them about, but if they dont reply to tech support messages on their dedicated "tech support" messaging system, or to posts on their forum, theres not a lot i can do.

regarding the QVL.. the ram is there, but not the 128gb kit.. iirc there are only a couple of 128gb kits on that list and they are clocked at 2666 mhz or something silly like that. this chipset can definitely do better than those speeds.

out of interest, from your experience (i assume youve done a few 128gb setups) does aida64 mem test lock up the machine? ive tried even at xmp settings, and despite machine seeming totally stable when working, running the mem stress test makes machine totally unresponsive... it doesnt crash as such, moving the mouse causes the cursor to move a little bit every 15 or so seconds, but you cant actually do anything. i stepped down from my 3400mhz ram testing due to this, but it also does it at the standard xmp settings.

robinlawrie · 1 Mar 2020 at 17:29

one other question.. if you have used this motherboard.. how do you find the single core performance? running single core tests (cinebench single core for example) it literally NEVER uses the starred "best" cores in ryzen master.