# [help] How to lower voltage on Ryzen + MSI motherboard?



## Midiamp (Apr 4, 2019)

I'm very new to AMD overclock, well actually my last overclock was Celeron 366... So I'm really in the dark with Ryzen overclock.

I wanted to peg the processor at 4.1GHz all cores, however I have a peeve about power usage. I use power saving mode daily, with about 60 watt of power on browsing and office work. Blindly overclocking to 4.1GHz with just changing multiplier and setting CPUv to 1.35v my PC now uses about 70 watt of power doing the same thing.

I noticed the system doesn't lower its voltage on power saving mode and checking on MSI board forum it's a quirk of the BIOS that the CPUv is fixed like that, so I cancel my overclocking effort. However a couple months back MSI updated the BIOS with something called offset which I assume allows for lowering voltage when not needed. I tried overclocking again and tinker with the offset options to no avail.

Anyone knows how to overclock Ryzen on MSI motherboards and have it lower its CPUv on idle/low power usage?


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## Batou1986 (Apr 4, 2019)

Reset the bios settings to default
Change your memory to its XMP profile
Change windows power plan to balanced 
You now have auto overclocking power saving rig


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## Midiamp (Apr 4, 2019)

Batou1986 said:


> Reset the bios settings to default
> Change your memory to its XMP profile
> Change windows power plan to balanced
> You now have auto overclocking power saving rig


Thanks, I did that, but my processor isn't idling properly. On stock setting, power saving mode gives me stable 2.2GHz at 0.8v (monitoring through CPUID HWmonitor). On balanced or AMD Ryzen Balanced powerplan, the processor speed is jumping up and down with CPUv up to 1.425v which stabilizes once I start game or any heavy load apps.

Balanced power plan idle:




 

Power saver plan idle:





Since I linked my intake and exhaust to CPU temp, it ramps up and down incessantly


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## biffzinker (Apr 4, 2019)

Midiamp said:


> I noticed the system doesn't lower its voltage on power saving mode


It happens when you choose to do a manual overclock. It's not the MSI motherboard but the AMD Ryzen, if you choose to do manual overclocking it disables Cool n Quiet.


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## notb (Apr 4, 2019)

Just don't OC?
You've pushed the clocks and now you're trying to lower idle power consumption, because your biggest concern is power draw. That's a very bizzare thing to do.

If you really need to OC (for whatever reason) why not switch the mode when it makes a difference? I assume you're using the PC for many things and just some of them benefit from higher clocks.


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## NdMk2o1o (Apr 4, 2019)

The only way to keep cool n quiet with a manual overclock is to use ryzen master, with a manual overclock the vid should lower when there's low load on the cpu (confirm using cpuz) though the cpu clock will stay at its maximum. Using xfr and pbo your chip should auto clock up to around 4.1-4.2ghz and then lower the clocks at idle, though as you've noticed the vcore spikes higher than if you set a manual overclock, this could be small ms increases that won't affect your overall temps or power usage though you should note the vcore in cpuz when utilising all cores to see what your vcore is under load using xfr and pbo for max clocks then choose to keep it that way or revert back to your manual overclock.


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## Midiamp (Apr 6, 2019)

biffzinker said:


> It happens when you choose to do a manual overclock. It's not the MSI motherboard but the AMD Ryzen, if you choose to do manual overclocking it disables Cool n Quiet.


I re-enable Cool n Quiet on BIOS side. Speed drops on idle, but voltages stays the same. I'd rest my case and not overclock if this is just the way it is.



notb said:


> Just don't OC?
> You've pushed the clocks and now you're trying to lower idle power consumption, because your biggest concern is power draw. That's a very bizzare thing to do.
> 
> If you really need to OC (for whatever reason) why not switch the mode when it makes a difference? I assume you're using the PC for many things and just some of them benefit from higher clocks.


I did. I use power saving mode on doing productivity stuff and switch to Ryzen balanced when playing games. My assumption is that the overclock works on one power mode and the other drops the power usage.



NdMk2o1o said:


> The only way to keep cool n quiet with a manual overclock is to use ryzen master, with a manual overclock the vid should lower when there's low load on the cpu (confirm using cpuz) though the cpu clock will stay at its maximum. Using xfr and pbo your chip should auto clock up to around 4.1-4.2ghz and then lower the clocks at idle, though as you've noticed the vcore spikes higher than if you set a manual overclock, this could be small ms increases that won't affect your overall temps or power usage though you should note the vcore in cpuz when utilising all cores to see what your vcore is under load using xfr and pbo for max clocks then choose to keep it that way or revert back to your manual overclock.


I use a watt meter to measure power usage from the wall, on average there's an increase of 10% power usage when overclocking all cores to 4.1 GHz. Switching to power saver mode drops and caps processor speed at 2.2 GHz, but v core stays at 1.35V.

I just watched Der8auer video about Ryzen overclocking though... And he didn't recommend it. Well, I guess with my current usage scenario his video rings true. A marginal improvement, with higher power consumption. Back to stock we go.


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