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Ryzen 3600 Voltage

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I installed my Ryzen 3600 earlier and I've noticed the stock voltages appear a tad too high... Or is it just me? I've had a little look around the Web and as usual there's some conflicting information.

Basically, my cores can reach up to 1.46v when boosting to 4.2GHz. My chip has no issues reaching its advertised speeds (a problem some people seem to be having). My 3600 appears to run at 3.9GHz when all cores are being used (at 1.375v).

Do these voltages seem normal? I read a comment somewhere on here saying the ryzen 3000 series has a voltage range up to 1.5v and it's nothing to worry about?

My motherboard is the Asrock X470 Taichi with the latest BIOS (L3.43). I'm also using an Alpenfohn Matterhorn cooler. The chip seems to sit between 66-70C when gaming which is a bit higher than my I7 6850k with the same cooler, case and airflow setup (it usually maxed out at around 60C when gaming).

All the BIOS options are left at stock settings. The RAM is running in XMP mode, but sadly it's only DDR4 2666 stuff from my X99 build which I'll be changing soon to something faster.
 
Soldato
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The voltage should not be lowered; watch the clip please:


That video just shows different p/c states, which only work if you target the lower power profiles.

The OPs voltages don't need to be that high and a blanket statement by the youtuber that you should not undervolt is wrong.

Next he'll be saying you shouldn't, underclock, overclock or change voltages at all. Leave everything as is. Even at stock, a negative voltage offset can get Precision Boost to get to higher clocks.

Also just to be clear, you are not 'roasting' your CPU if the OP leaves it as is. That's just a ridiculous word to use. Power consumption is a function of voltage and current, and with no load at idle the current is very low and power consumption is very low.

All these things to improve idle power consumption will only improve things very marginally. People have been disabling c states when overclocking for years and it does't 'roast' the CPU nor meaningfully increase idle power consumption.
 
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Soldato
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That video just shows different p/c states, which only work if you target the lower power profiles.

The OPs voltages don't need to be that high and a blanket statement by the youtuber that you should not undervolt is wrong.

Next he'll be saying you shouldn't, underclock, overclock or change voltages at all. Leave everything as is. Even at stock, a negative voltage offset can get Precision Boost to get to higher clocks.

Also just to be clear, you are not 'roasting' your CPU if the OP leaves it as is. That's just a ridiculous word to use. Power consumption is a function of voltage and current, and with no load at idle the current is very low and power consumption is very low.

All these things to improve idle power consumption will only improve things very marginally. People have been disabling c states when overclocking for years and it does't 'roast' the CPU nor meaningfully increase idle power consumption.

No, but simply put - lowering the voltage isn't the way to go on the new Ryzens.
 
Soldato
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No, but simply put - lowering the voltage isn't the way to go on the new Ryzens.

Undervolting is now bad?

What's your logic with that?

Have you undervolted a Ryzen 3xxx chip and seen the impact? Because I have. Load temperatures drop and it boosts higher.

The boost behaviour on CPUs is now like GPUs. It seems the knowledge on voltages and boosting behaviour in the CPU section is far behind the GPU forum.

Manufacturers spec things for the worst case silicon and so are most of the time pumping too much voltage. This has been true since forever. I don't understand where with this release some people have randomly started disputing this.

This is also true when using MCE in Intel chips.
 
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Soldato
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That's just saying the stock setup is okay and not to worry.

Do you actually understand that post?

It is perfectly okay if your CPU is periodically using 1.4-1.5V to achieve boost frequencies

You are on a forum where people optimise away from the stock setup. I do not accept that 1.4V+ is required to run a 3600 at full tilt. That is wrong. I've explained previously why AMD have set it up that way.

The OPs chip is only boosting to 3.9ghz because it is using a massive 1.375v at that speed and coming up against PPT limits.
 
Soldato
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That's just saying the stock setup is okay,

Do you actually understand that post?



You are on a forum where people optimise away from the stock setup.

Do YOU understand what topic this is? The guy is wondering about exactly that, not how to get the most out of the CPU.
 
Soldato
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Do YOU understand what topic this is? The guy is wondering about exactly that, not how to get the most out of the CPU.

Playing around with power plans doesn't get the most out of the CPU.

Apart from some windows scheduling behaviour, it is purely cosmetic.

If you want better boosting behaviour and lower load voltages then it isn't playing around with power plans. It should boost higher than 3.9ghz with a decent air cooler.

My very first post will improve things for the OP far more than anything anyone here has posted. I own a 3600 for the record.
 
Soldato
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rather than going round the world with it im sure he just wants to know is it safe / okay .

Of course it is okay but is higher than what it needs (assuming it is stable with a -50mV offset) to be and the OP is losing performance (150mhz) as a consequence.
 
Soldato
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Really? That goes against what AMD are saying, you lower voltage, you get 'higher boosts' but the overall performance drops.

Higher boost but performance drops?

Where have you seen this? I don't see this in my testing. It scales exactly as it should according to clockspeed.

My testing is based on CPU-Z benchmark and Linpack (part of IBT).
 
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I've cleaned up and updated Windows along with installing all the latest drivers and Windows is also now using the Ryzen balanced power plan instead of it's own.

My idle voltage is 0.919V across all cores (at 2.2GHz) which is perfectly fine. My load voltage now reaches up to 1.475V when boosting to 4.2GHz.... This is with everything at stock/auto settings in the BIOS. Temperatures now reach around 78C after gaming for a while, which is quite a bit more than my previous i7 6850k with the same cooler, case and fan setup. My 6850K used to reach around 60C when gaming and the CPU fan used to sit at around 1000rpm... That's a 140W 14nm chip. My Ryzen 5 3600 is a 65W 7nm chip and it reaches 78C with the cooler fan now reaching 1500rpm! I'm glad I didn't use AMD's stock cooler.

My idle temps are now between 40-50C... A bit more than the 30C idle temps for my i7 6850k.

I'm getting the impression that this is just how the new Ryzen chips are and it's not much to worry about? Maybe things will be refined a bit more with more BIOS updates... It's just a shame Asrock can be a bit slow with BIOS updates.
 
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Ok I'm starting to think there's something wrong with my Ryzen 5 3600. I've re-seated the cooler as the temps weren't that great and I've just finished playing a match of Apex Legends... My CPU was running at 81C!! The side panel on my PC case near my leg was red hot too (motherboard side)! The voltages also reached 1.488v at 4.2GHz. How can I be getting those sort of temps when I'm using a cooler that is better than stock? Surely I would have fried my chip if I used the included stock cooler? I expected better than this to be honest. I like the performance, but I'm disappointed with everything else. The voltages, the heat, the constant boosting when I'm not even doing anything.... Literally the slightest little thing I do and the processor goes boost, voltage and heat crazy!

I could browse the web and have gaming clients and other apps open in the background with my i7 6850k and it would remain in a low power state, run cool cool and with low voltage until something worth boosting for loads up. All I have to do is blink with this AMD chip and it's all go!! I literally have to exit everything running in the background for it to reach idle clocks and voltages. It's annoying!

Surely this isn't right for a 65w chip?
 
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