Could the 3.3v Voltage dropping to 3.1v under heavy load cause instabilty?

LtMatt

LtMatt

LtMatt

Caporegime
Joined
12 Jul 2007
Posts
43,507
Location
United Kingdom
I have been experience some random system restarts recently, typically whilst playing games though it has sometimes happened after alt tabbing in out of games.

I initially thought it was the GPU, but the same behaviour is happening with a different model. I tested my system memory tuning to over 1000% on memtest and that appears rock solid stable.

I then downloaded Aida64 and ran the CPU, FPU, system memory and GPU stress tests at the same time and noticed by monitoring hardware monitor that the 3.3v rail on my PSU was dropping to 3.1v ish.

Do you think this could cause the random restarts? Admittedly the system would not be under such heavy load when gaming.

GLNeY0C.png


I am currently using a Thermaltake 1200W Gold PSU, however i have just ordered a 650W Seasonic Platinum PSU from Ocuk just in case, the 1200W was massive overkill for my system anyway.

Specs:
3900X cooled by 360 AIO (stock but using PBO)
Asus Crosshair VIII Hero Wifi
2x16GB 3800Mhz CL16
1x Radeon VII - also now tested with 1x RX 580 and soon to be replaced by a 5700 XT arriving tomorrow
Win 10 1909 - was fresh installed and updated a week ago so system is clean

This user had a similar issue which got me thinking perhaps its the PSU or the cable. https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/low-3-3v-rail-resolved.229795/
 
Last edited:
pretty sure saw the other day a new
Type of connector that was only 10 pin
So dropped some of the unnecessary rails
2 x 4 pin elsewhere on the motherboard deal with 3v and 5v as they are still needed for some stuff
 
3.3v rails have a role to play (a small one), from powering vrm's, chipset and attached storage devices, m.2 and sata, so if its a bit flaky, you may get freezes or crashes, or storage drives may disappear and reaper.

keep any eye on it, if the pc starts behaving abnormally, have a look for another unit just to be safe
 
Cheers guys.

Yeah i thought the values may be within tolerance, but still it seems borderline.

Will see how the new PSU goes when it arrives. Guess OcuK are very busy atm as it would normally have been dispatched today, hopefully it'll be here by Friday so i can try it out.
 
LtMatt said:
Cheers guys.

Yeah i thought the values may be within tolerance, but still it seems borderline.

Will see how the new PSU goes when it arrives. Guess OcuK are very busy atm as it would normally have been dispatched today, hopefully it'll be here by Friday so i can try it out.
Click to expand...

Those tolerance values don't seem to be an issue, even if it's slightly outside ATX spec, I doubt it would make much difference, but as mentioned above, software reporting is not always 100% accurate, especially with stuff like voltage. it could be just about in spec, or it could be just enough out of spec and you wouldn't really know.
Sometimes you have to read the number and balance that against what you can observe to make a conclusion unless you want to break out the multi meter and start testing stuff properly.

That said, I bought a new PSU from here on Thursday the 7th May, Friday being a bank holiday, so I wasn't really expecting it to turn up until Monday the 11th at the earliest, but it arrived on Saturday the 9th so kudos to OCUK and DPD for that.
Is your shop account linked to your forum account for free delivery?
 
Last edited:
mattyfez said:
Those tolerance values don't seem to be an issue, even if it's slightly outside ATX spec, I doubt it would make much difference, but as mentioned above, software reporting is not always 100% accurate, especially with stuff like voltage.

That said, I bought a new PSU from here on Thursday the 7th May, Friday being a bank holiday, so I wasn't really expecting it to turn up until Monday the 11th at the earliest, but it arrived on Saturday the 9th so kudos to OCUK and DPD for that.
Is your shop account linked to your forum account for free delivery?
Click to expand...
Yes it is so i did get free delivery. A two day delivery seems okay to me given the current circumstances.
 
Items have also been dpd delivered Saturday and Sunday
Whether that's ocuk trying to catch up
Or dpd trying to keep up I don't know
But my dpd guy is getting over 200 deliveries a day it's crazy
But if not by Friday it may come the weekend
 
Mcnumpty2323 said:
Items have also been dpd delivered Saturday and Sunday
Whether that's ocuk trying to catch up
Or dpd trying to keep up I don't know
But my dpd guy is getting over 200 deliveries a day it's crazy
But if not by Friday it may come the weekend
Click to expand...
That's good, hoping for Friday. :D
 
Dunno if it helps, but I have a 3600X with 3600mhz RAM on B450 tomahawk max. At auto/stock volts, I cannot run XMP, it refuses to POST, when my voltages are set too low (0.9v VDDP / VDDG), I get restarts/system hangs when closing games/programs. Might be worth looking into your SOC/VDDP/VDDG volts.

To run 3600mhz on my RAM stable I have to have the SOC volts set to 1.065v // VDDP set to 0.975v iirc and VDDG set to 1.0v and RAM volts set to 1.38v.

With you running 3800mhz, might be worth looking into voltages
 
VaderDSL said:
Dunno if it helps, but I have a 3600X with 3600mhz RAM on B450 tomahawk max. At auto/stock volts, I cannot run XMP, it refuses to POST, when my voltages are set too low (0.9v VDDP / VDDG), I get restarts/system hangs when closing games/programs. Might be worth looking into your SOC/VDDP/VDDG volts.

To run 3600mhz on my RAM stable I have to have the SOC volts set to 1.065v // VDDP set to 0.975v iirc and VDDG set to 1.0v and RAM volts set to 1.38v.

With you running 3800mhz, might be worth looking into voltages
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion.

Currently running 1.1v SOC and 1.050v VDDP/VDDG and DRAM is at 1.4v.

I think these are stable as i didn't have an issue a few months back, albeit with a 5700 XT, with the same settings. Nonetheless i will put everything back to stock if issues persist once i plug in the new PSU and a 5700 XT.
 
lord filbuster said:
ATX spec is +/- 5%, so 3.136 is just about in tolerance. I don't think anything particularly sensitive uses the 3.3v rail anymore, it's almost all from the 12v, which looks fine.
Click to expand...
If reading reported by software has drops that close to tolerance there could well be fast "transients" of voltage dropping even lower and outside tolerance.
 
LtMatt said:
I have been experience some random system restarts recently, typically whilst playing games though it has sometimes happened after alt tabbing in out of games.

I initially thought it was the GPU, but the same behaviour is happening with a different model. I tested my system memory tuning to over 1000% on memtest and that appears rock solid stable.

I then downloaded Aida64 and ran the CPU, FPU, system memory and GPU stress tests at the same time and noticed by monitoring hardware monitor that the 3.3v rail on my PSU was dropping to 3.1v ish.

Do you think this could cause the random restarts? Admittedly the system would not be under such heavy load when gaming.

GLNeY0C.png


I am currently using a Thermaltake 1200W Gold PSU, however i have just ordered a 650W Seasonic Platinum PSU from Ocuk just in case, the 1200W was massive overkill for my system anyway.

Specs:
3900X cooled by 360 AIO (stock but using PBO)
Asus Crosshair VIII Hero Wifi
2x16GB 3800Mhz CL16
1x Radeon VII - also now tested with 1x RX 580 and soon to be replaced by a 5700 XT arriving tomorrow
Win 10 1909 - was fresh installed and updated a week ago so system is clean

This user had a similar issue which got me thinking perhaps its the PSU or the cable. https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/low-3-3v-rail-resolved.229795/
Click to expand...

New PSU arrived, no issue since. I also swapped out my 3900X for a 3950X. No voltage dropping now since i stuck the Seasonic 650W Platinum in. :)

MQNO1WA.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom