Definitive guide to configuring the Ryzen 3900X/3950X and all other 3000 Series CPUs

[Michael Nager]

In the months that have passed since I started experimenting with the Ryzen 5 3600X on my X470 motherboard (GigaByte X470 AURUS Gaming 7 WiFi Rev. 1.1 and then helping my friend configure his Ryzen 3900X on his motherboard (ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi).

I bought the X570 motherboard I wanted (at a price I was willing to pay) the GigaByte X570 AURUS XTREME and experimented with my 3600X in that until I managed to get the CPU I wanted, the Ryzen 9 3950X which I now have.

A YouTube Techie who I respect from a channel called "Actually Hardcore Overclocking" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrwObTfqv8u1KO7Fgk-FXHQ called "Buildzoid" who recently made three videos on the topic of configuring PBO on a the same GigaByte board I have, an ASUS board and then general thoughts on PBO:

1) The easy way to get a bit more performance out of Ryzen 3000 CPUs on Gigabyte X570 motherboards

2) The easy way to get a bit more performance out of Ryzen 3000 CPUs on Gigabyte X570 motherboards

3) The easy way to get a bit more performance out of Ryzen 3000 CPUs on Gigabyte X570 motherboards

In the course of his experimentation he has managed to degrade his Ryzen 7 3700X and I fear that with the way he is configuring his Ryzen 9 3950X he will be doing the same thing there as well.

In the video he has put up some benchmarks where, by configuring PBO in the BIOS he managed to get the results up by some amount, the problem is though, that he is doing so at higher voltages than I consider to be prudent and also at higher temps than I experience with my 3950X.

His maximum CineBench R20 result after configuring his 3950X was at 9,554.

The way I configure my Ryzen 9 3950X I get a CineBench R20 score of 10,170 and still remain within the specification as laid down by TSMC for their 7nm Node. This specifies a far lower voltage than AMD considers safe and personally I am going to go with the recommendations of the creator of the 7nm Node and constrain the voltage of my Ryzen 3000 CPUs to 1.3 Volts MAXIMUM

Because of my back problems (I have had two spine operations and have spinal arthritis) I have to keep the room temperature pretty warm.

The ambient temperature in my room is 28 - 29 °C and you should keep that in mind when I show you the following benchmark results of my system:

My R9 3950X with SMT On:

1) CineBench R20 all-core score of 10,170 and a single core score of 500

2) FireStrike EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 28,213, a Physics Score of 33,848 and a Combined Score of 15,488
3) FireStrike Extreme EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 14,130, a Physics Score of 33,821 and a Combined Score of 7,057
4) FireStrike Ultra EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 7,180, a Physics Score of 34,089 and a Combined Score of 3,902

5) TimeSpy EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 10,292 and a CPU Score of 15,390
6) TimeSpy Extreme EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 4,791 and a CPU Score of 9,421

7) Ghost Recon Wildlands benchmark 1080p everything at max FPS 86.33, CPU 14.7% (Min. 9.8% Max. 23.2%) and GPU 96.7%

8) 7zip Compression Average 124.906 MB/s, Decompression 199.303 MB/s

My R9 3950X with SMT Off:

1) CineBench R20 all-core score of 7,817 and a single core score of 513

2) FireStrike EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 28,295, a Physics Score of 30,052 and a Combined Score of 15,833
3) FireStrike Extreme EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 14,170, a Physics Score of 30,168 and a Combined Score of 7,076
4) FireStrike Ultra EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 7,186, a Physics Score of 30,164 and a Combined Score of 3,906

5) TimeSpy EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 10,271 and a CPU Score of 15,340
6) TimeSpy Extreme EVGA 1080 Ti SC2 I have a Graphics Score of 4,788 and a CPU Score of 7,564

7) Ghost Recon Wildlands benchmark 1080p everything at max FPS 86.51, CPU 23.4% (Min. 17.2% Max. 48.6%) and GPU 97%

8) 7zip Compression Average 103.106 MB/s Decompression 129.844 MB/s

The cooler I am using is the AlphaCool EisBaer 360 LT which as the name suggests has a 360 rad and I am running it with three Noctua NF-A12x25 fans.

In the following I will be giving you a step-by-step guide to configuring your Ryzen 3000 series CPU.

This is based on the BIOS in my GigaByte X570 AURUS XTREME board, but the few values that you need to change can be found in the other BIOS's from ASRock, ASUS or MSI.

The following is the step-by-step guide to configuring the system whereby you will be able to maximise the performance without running the risk of frying your CPU and you don't have to live in a ice-locker to get a result:

I have to preface this with some info that is woefully lacking in the videos or articles you may see or read.

The thing is that as opposed to Intel CPUs that you have been used to (and that I was used to) the BIOS is supplied to the motherboard manufacturers as a binary and is called AGESA.

So what you see displayed as "The BIOS" is in effect just a configuration menu for the AGESA. The problem about editing the AGESA portion found under "Settings" under the headings "AMD CBS" and "AMD Overclocking" directly is that with some of the options, if you enter a wrong value, then your system will not boot. What is worse however is that some of the settings cannot be removed with a "Clear CMOS" and your mobo is effectively bricked.

So now to configuring your BIOS:

1) Go into Easy Mode (F2) and click on "Load Optimized Defaults (F7)

a) Switch to Advanced Mode (F2)

2) Under the heading "Tweaker" do the following:

a) Go down to the bottom of the page and open "CPU/VRM Settings"

i) Set "CPU Vcore Loadline Calibration to "Turbo" (third highest value)
ii) Set "SOC Loadline Calibration" to "High" (third highest value)
iii) Set "PWM Phase Control" to "eXm Perf" (eXtreme Performance)

3) Under the heading "Setting"

a) Go to "AMD CBS"

i) Go to "XFR Enhancement"
ii) Set the FCLK Freqency to the desired value (in the case of 3600 RAM that would be 1800 MHz)
iii) Set the "UCLK DIV1 MODE" to "UCLK ==MEMCLK"

b) Go to "AMD Overclocking" under "Settings"

i) Click on "Accept"
ii) Go to "DDR and Infinity Fabric Frequency/Timings"
iii) Go to "Infinity Fabric Frequency and Dividers"
iv) Set "Infinity Fabric Frequency and Dividers" to the desired value (in the case of 3600 RAM that would be 1800 MHz).

4) Under the heading "Boot" do the following

a) Set "Full Screen LOGO Show" to "Disabled"

Of course setting the boot drive etc. should be obvious and I don't think I need to explain that.

Do NOT set anything else, like "Extreme Memory Profie(X.M.P)" for instance.

There that's you done with the BIOS part of the configuration

Boot into Windows and install "Ryzen Master".

When Ryzen Master has loaded, click on "Creator Mode" on the left hand side.

1) Make sure "Control Mode" is expanded and under that heading click on "Manual"

2) Make sure that the section "Cores Section" is expanded

a) Expand "CCD0" and "CCD1"

b) Click on the red circle on the right hand side so that it changes to what looks like a Green "X"

i) Click in the first field beside "C 01" and change the clockspeed. You should have absolutely no problems setting it to "4250". When you have done the rest of the configuration then test it and increase it (in my case it is set to 4300 and I have no problems). When you set one field, because the Green X is activated, all the other values will change to what you set.

3) Make sure "Voltage Control" is expanded

a) Set "Peak Core(s) Voltage to 1.3 Volts

4) Make sure Memory Control is expanded and that it is "Included"

a) "Coupled Mode" should be "On"

b) Set your memory clock speed (in the case of 3600 RAM it would be 1800) remember this is the data rate. Infinty Fabric runs at the data rate and RAM runs at double data rate.

5) Make sure "Voltage Contols" is expanded

Unless otherwise stated, leave the values on "Auto"

a) MEM VDDIO should be set to 1.35

b) MEM VTT should be set to 0.675

c) VDDCR SOC should be set to 1.05

6) Make sure "DRAM Timing Configuration" is expanded

Now I have found that unless these values are set then every time you change something (like the voltage or the clockspeed) the system will want to reboot. If these are set then the values are just changed and you can continue

a) Change "CAS Latency" from "Auto" and you should see the correct value for your RAM

b) Change "Row Precharge Delay" from "Auto" and you should see the correct value for your RAM

c) Change "Read Row-Column Delay" from "Auto" and you should see the correct value for your RAM

d) Change "Write Row-Column Delay" from "Auto" and you should see the correct value for your RAM

e) Change "Row Cycle Time" from "Auto" and you should see the correct value for your RAM

Leave everything else on "Auto" and you can configure those sub-timings at your leisure.

7) Make sure that "DRAM Controller Configuration" is expanded

a) Change "Cmd2T" from "2T" to "1T". If you have good quality RAM then it should run at 1T. If not then change this back to 2T.

Now at the bottom click on "Save Profile" and then click on "Apply & Test" and the system will reboot.

As you will see, the CPU is limited to a maximum of 1.3 Volts and essentially you are just seeing how much clockspeed you can squeeze out of those 1.3 Volts. When the system is not under load then of course the operational voltage will decrease.

Now comes the best part about the 3950X.

If you are mainly gaming, then click on a different profile "Profile 1" for instance and do exactly the same as above EXCEPT:

1) Under the heading "Additional Control" turn "Simultaneous Multithreading" to "OFF". This will run your CPU as a straight 16 Core/16 Thread CPU.

2) Under "Cores Section" make sure the red circle is a green "X" and add 100 MHz to whatever was stable running 16 Cores /32 Threads with SMT ("Simultaneous Multithreading") ON

The one problem with the GigaByte BIOS is that this is not changed and you have to go into the BIOS and

1) In the Advanced Mode go to "Tweaker"

a) Under "Advanced CPU Settings"

i) Go down to "SMT Mode"
ii) Change from "Auto" to "Disabled"

Save and exit.

If you want to go back to using 16 Cores/32 Threads just choose the "Creator Profile" and then change this value back to "Auto" again.

That's it.

I know it looks like a lot, but it really isn't.

IMPORTANT!!

Every time you reboot the system you have to load Ryzen Master and apply the profile you want. Unfortunately there is no way as yet to automatically load a default profile, but I hope that option will be forthcoming in the future.

If you are applying the same Profile you had before you shut down then the system will not need a reboot.

After you have applied the profile you can close Ryzen Master.

Have fun.

 

[ne6togadno]

use @ infront of buildzoid

 

[Zach_01]

In the course of his experimentation he has managed to degrade his Ryzen 7 3700X and I fear that with the way he is configuring his Ryzen 9 3950X he will be doing the same thing there as well.

In the video he has put up some benchmarks where, by configuring PBO in the BIOS he managed to get the results up by some amount, the problem is though, that he is doing so at higher voltages than I consider to be prudent and also at higher temps than I experience with my 3950X.

In the course of experimentation @buildzoid followed a static OC/voltage for the R7 3700X and that is what allegedly degraded the chip. That is totally different from PBO settings he tested and suggested on his videos. If you did read his own commends on the degrade discussion you would know that. And also he mention a few things in some of his videos.
Please be carefull when anyone is talking for another's course of actions. Do not make assumptions and/or making commends when missing information.

Actually Hardcore Overclocking

www.youtube.com

 

[Michael Nager]

In the course of experimentation @buildzoid followed a static OC/voltage for the R7 3700X and that is what allegedly degraded the chip. That is totally different from PBO settings he tested and suggested on his videos. If you did read his own commends on the degrade discussion you would know that. And also he mention a few things in some of his videos.
Please be carefull when anyone is talking for another's course of actions. Do not make assumptions and/or making commends when missing information.

View attachment 147920

Actually Hardcore Overclocking

www.youtube.com

If you listen to his various video narrations, he has said that he has degraded his 3700X in his diverse tests with the CPU and not just with static voltage - I am not just talking about the three videos I referenced, but other videos he has made on the topic of Ryzen 3000 and his tests with the chip.

He also discussed the stupid amount of voltage that is punted into the CPU when single core loads are run which can go anywhere up to the region of 1.5 Volts.

I am going by what he has said in his various videos, NOT by what he might have replied to random comments.

If you look closely at my guide then you will notice that I am NOT working with a static voltage, I am merely limiting the maximum voltage which can be applied.

 

[mtcn77]

Does it clock up to 4.25GHz with such a set 1.3V threshold?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

If you listen to his various video narrations, he has said that he has degraded his 3700X in his diverse tests with the CPU and not just with static voltage - I am not just talking about the three videos I referenced, but other videos he has made on the topic of Ryzen 3000 and his tests with the chip.

He also discussed the stupid amount of voltage that is punted into the CPU when single core loads are run which can go anywhere up to the region of 1.5 Volts.

I am going by what he has said in his various videos, NOT by what he might have replied to random comments.

If you look closely at my guide then you will notice that I am NOT working with a static voltage, I am merely limiting the maximum voltage which can be applied.

At no point have you in any of your arguments acknowledged that by overclocking via software you add instability.

That instability could cause random crashes.

Those random crashes destroy OS over time.

Been there.

Done that.

Software clocking is a play tool imho nothing more.

 

[thesmokingman]

IMPORTANT!!

Every time you reboot the system you have to load Ryzen Master and apply the profile you want. Unfortunately there is no way as yet to automatically load a default profile, but I hope that option will be forthcoming in the future.

Yea, no thanks. Ryzen setup doesn't take a massive wall of text and manually loading RM every time!

He also discussed the stupid amount of voltage that is punted into the CPU when single core loads are run which can go anywhere up to the region of 1.5 Volts.

I am going by what he has said in his various videos, NOT by what he might have replied to random comments.

If you look closely at my guide then you will notice that I am NOT working with a static voltage, I am merely limiting the maximum voltage which can be applied.

He has no clue what's going on. This has been explained by Hallock, crap I dunno how many times now and ppl still cannot get it thru their heads. The high voltage at idle isn't real once you understand the two voltage loads! High voltage with little to low loads are harmless, and that's how its freaking designed.

 

[mtcn77]

The high voltage at idle isn't real once you understand the two voltage loads! High voltage with little to low loads are harmless, and that's how its freaking designed.

That is how buildzoid acted recklessly, without further ado.

 

[TheLostSwede]

He has no clue what's going on. This has been explained by Hallock, crap I dunno how many times now and ppl still cannot get it thru their heads. The high voltage at idle isn't real once you understand the two voltage loads! High voltage with little to low loads are harmless, and that's how its freaking designed.

The high Voltage is real, but there's no current, so it doesn't do any damage. It's high current that fries things in general, unless we're talking static electricity of an insane magnitude of higher Voltage compared to this.

 

[thesmokingman]

The cpu itself you just slap it in and let it do its thing. Imo, the BIGGEST or only crucial aspect to setting up a Ryzen cpu is configuring the monitoring correctly.

 

[Michael Nager]

Does it clock up to 4.25GHz with such a set 1.3V threshold?

My 3600X had a definite limit of 4.25 GHz running 6 Cores/12 Threads at 1.3 Volts (well actually 1.29375 Volts) as a maximum.

If I wanted put just 25 MHz more on per core I had to go up to 1.35 Volts.

My 3950X has a definite limit of 4.3 GHz at 1.3 Volts and the 3900X my friend from the US sent me as a loan had a limit of 4.325 GHz at 1.3 Volts.

When I turn SMT Off and run the 3950X as a straight 16 Core/16 Thread CPU I can clock it to 4.4 GHz at 1.3 Volts but funnily enough the 3900X would not clock over 4.375 GHz with SMT Off running as a 12 Core/12 Thread CPU.

When I ran the 3950X with just one CCD, that is as a virtual 3800X, running it at 8 Cores/16 Threads it ran CineBench on a 20,000 second loop at 4.425 GHz as you can see from the attached picture.

This was on the second 20,000 second run (which lasts 5.55 hours) because of a discussion I was having with someone with regard to running for a longer period under load.

I had forgotten however to take a screenshot, so I kicked it of again and left it running for over three hours just to make sure that the system had reached homeostasis again - so in total the test had been running for almost nine hours by the time I took the screenshot.

 

[phanbuey]

i overclocked my 3600 so that it would boost at 4.2 with 1.29 v instead of the 1.41 and thermal throttle 4.15 - the clocks and voltages still bump down to idle, but I definitely used the static overclock option.

Im not sure how that 4.2 @ 1.29 which is much cooler is more stressful on the cpu than it slamming cores with 1.41v every time there is load.

 

[Michael Nager]

The high Voltage is real, but there's no current, so it doesn't do any damage. It's high current that fries things in general, unless we're talking static electricity of an insane magnitude of higher Voltage compared to this.

To my mind, the stupidly high voltage punted into the Ryzen 3000 series comes from the demands of moronic Marketdroids at AMD for a "Competitive Clockspeed" that they could bung on their advertising garbage.

This myth of "high voltage but low current cannot hurt the CPU" is bogus, because too high a voltage causes Oxide Breakdown in the CPU and too high a current causes Electromigration in the CPU.

AMD doesn't give two shits whether or not the CPU outlasts the warranty by even a day, as long as it is no longer covered by the warranty when it croaks then they are happy.

I want my CPU to have performance but also to last at least five years.

 

[thesmokingman]

To my mind, the stupidly high voltage punted into the Ryzen 3000 series comes from the demands of moronic Marketdroids at AMD for a "Competitive Clockspeed" that they could bung on their advertising garbage.

This myth of "high voltage but low current cannot hurt the CPU" is bogus, because too high a voltage causes Oxide Breakdown in the CPU and too high a current causes Electromigration in the CPU.

AMD doesn't give two shits whether or not the CPU outlasts the warranty by even a day, as long as it is no longer covered by the warranty when it croaks then they are happy.

I want my CPU to have performance but also to last at least five years.

Seriously? You're going to take this tact??

 

[Michael Nager]

i overclocked my 3600 so that it would boost at 4.2 with 1.29 v instead of the 1.41 and thermal throttle 4.15 - the clocks and voltages still bump down to idle, but I definitely used the static overclock option.

Im not sure how that 4.2 @ 1.29 which is much cooler is more stressful on the cpu than it slamming cores with 1.41v every time there is load.

The Silicon Lottery is a thing.

Have you tried increasing the LoadLine Calibration on your motherboard?

It might be that the reason why it isn't clocking that little bit higher is because of the voltage droop under load.

I have set the LLC for my motherboard at the third highest setting for both the Vcore LLC and SOC LLC.

Seriously? You're going to take this tact??

Yes, because whenever I have seen anyone from AMD asked about this they have been very vague in the details.

But I suppose that static electricity which has a high voltage but no current couldn't possibly hurt a CPU.

Is that your contention?

 

[eidairaman1]

Ask board makers

 

[thesmokingman]

Yes, because whenever I have seen anyone from AMD asked about this they have been very vague in the details.

But I suppose that static electricity which has a high voltage but no current couldn't possibly hurt a CPU.

Is that your contention?

Contention huh? You're doing shit wrong and getting bad advice and then you have the audacity to blame AMD. And ignore what they've (Hallock in this instance) has explained multiple times... I'm going to let you keep digging your own hole.

 

[Michael Nager]

Contention huh? You're doing shit wrong and getting bad advice and then you have the audacity to blame AMD. And ignore what they've (Hallock in this instance) has explained multiple times... I'm going to let you keep digging your own hole.

Remember this little nugget from the AMD Marketdroid Robert Hallock?:

It was pure unmitigated bullshit.

AMD has sidelined this guy recently because from the garbage that was coming out of his mouth AMD realised that he was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

But at the end of the day, you do what you want.

I am only showing you, and others, how to maximise the performance of a Ryzen 3000 series CPU within safe limits.

It's up to you if you want to blindly believe the Marketdroids at AMD and find yourself SOL when the performance of your CPU has gone into the toilet and the warranty has run out.

 

[mtcn77]

It's up to you if you want to blindly believe the Marketdroids at AMD

He is not even a marketer in a sense. They told of an announcement for a community specialist and he got picked from Red Plus candidates. That is how he holds his position in company presentation.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Remember this little nugget from the AMD Marketdroid Robert Hallock?:

It was pure unmitigated bullshit.

AMD has sidelined this guy recently because from the garbage that was coming out of his mouth AMD realised that he was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

But at the end of the day, you do what you want.

I am only showing you, and others, how to maximise the performance of a Ryzen 3000 series CPU within safe limits.

It's up to you if you want to blindly believe the Marketdroids at AMD and find yourself SOL when the performance of your CPU has gone into the toilet and the warranty has run out.

So we should blindly follow you, over the hundreds of engineers and scientists, interesting.

What are you offering besides one perspective as proof you know better, not much as far as I can see.

Certainly not more than the qualified people who designed and built it IMHO.

You dodge valid questions, then bemoan AMD for being vague, hypocrisy.

And 5.5hrs of cinebench doesn't guarantee 24/7 stability and certainly is not equal in stability terms to the many months of continued perfect stability I can show from using buildzoid method to run a crunching load all of every day while also using the pc for weva at the same time.

No crashes here, if there was a software crash it wouldn't matter, no software is running the clocks on my pc.

If software is controlling clocks and a non connected piece of software crashes The system what happens to the control of your hardware.
that's not a question, I already know.

 

[mtcn77]

Certainly not more than the qualified people who designed and built it IMHO.

He didn't build it. He got polled according to a public reddit display.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

He didn't build it. He got polled according to a public reddit display.

Am I talking about him( whoever him is to you) or as you quoted "who designed and built it".

In that case I was on about AMD.

 

[mtcn77]

Am I talking about him( whoever him is to you) or as you quoted "who designed and built it".

In that case I was on about AMD.

Who is conflating the two of them, then? That is putting words in someone's mouth - that is what you are doing - and to me? No, no. I'll pass...

 

[thesmokingman]

He didn't build it. He got polled according to a public reddit display.

Yer talking about how Hallock was picked for the rep position and he's talking about the engineers who designed the cpu to behave the way it behaves.

 

[mtcn77]

I have no disclaimers to spare AMD, but still fellow members put up a challenge when I have to quote him. That is a problem. No one believes it when it is in his written statement that precision boost overdrive is for threadripper, alone.

Yer talking about how Hallock was picked for the rep position and he's talking about the engineers who designed the cpu to behave the way it behaves.

Yes, but when all is said and done, his reputation doesn't have a following.