Ryzen Owners Zen Garden

[tabascosauz]

Interestingly, the Balanced plan by default keeps my CPU around 45 C at idle. Task Manager reads 4-4.2 GHz, and HWInfo64 reports power consumption being around 60 Watts. Only if I drag the Power Mode slider down to Best Energy Savings do the cores throttle down to 3 GHz when idle, and power consumption gets halved (30 W). Temperatures drop by a good 10 C too.

The Power Saver mode has the best idle results with 2.2 GHz in my testing, but it messes with boost behaviours under load. It would be nice to have a real balance between the two.

1. Temps are normal and have been since last July's launch of 3000. Owners need to stop thinking of CPUs as either being "idle" or "load". Usage is always a constant spectrum, and Ryzen behaviour reflects this. If you've walked away from your PC and it's truly idle, it'll be down in the 30s and low 40s.

2. If you see 60W at "idle" on SMU package power or Core+SoC Power, then you're really not idling, regardless of what plan you're on or if even if you have C-states disabled. Ryzen doesn't work that way. 50-60W and there's most likely an application in the background loading up one or two threads. Again, "idle" is rare in reality.

3. These "3GHz" and "2.2GHz" clocks mean nothing, because outside of a meaningful amount of load, the "Core Clock" reporting for Ryzen is bogus. "Effective Clock" in HWInfo, and Ryzen Master's reporting, gets you much closer to what's actually going on in the cores at idle.

4. If you're interested in more accurate clock reporting, the current version of HWInfo has a "Snapshot CPU Polling" option in its settings. Doesn't affect effective clock, but on Core Clock and Ratio it'll be closer to effective clock and not so much the "magic" rated boost numbers that AMD wants to show you.

 

[INSTG8R]

1. Temps are normal and have been since last July's launch of 3000. Owners need to stop thinking of CPUs as either being "idle" or "load". Usage is always a constant spectrum, and Ryzen behaviour reflects this. If you've walked away from your PC and it's truly idle, it'll be down in the 30s and low 40s.

2. If you see 60W at "idle" on SMU package power or Core+SoC Power, then you're really not idling, regardless of what plan you're on or if even if you have C-states disabled. Ryzen doesn't work that way. 50-60W and there's most likely an application in the background loading up one or two threads. Again, "idle" is rare in reality.

3. These "3GHz" and "2.2GHz" clocks mean nothing, because outside of a meaningful amount of load, the "Core Clock" reporting for Ryzen is bogus. "Effective Clock" in HWInfo, and Ryzen Master's reporting, gets you much closer to what's actually going on in the cores at idle.

4. If you're interested in more accurate clock reporting, the current version of HWInfo has a "Snapshot Reporting" option in its settings. Doesn't affect effective clock, but on Core Clock and Ratio it'll be closer to effective clock and not so much the "magic" rated boost numbers that AMD wants to show you.

While I don't really use Ryzen master(I use AIDA64) It most definitely paints a way more accurate picture of what the CPU is clocks are extremely low, cores sleeping that only it can accurately keep track of. I can only guess but with AIDA I can my voltage drop below 1.0V often enough to know that its pretty (idle) As I mentioned in an earlier post I have always used a High Performance profile and just set Minimum Processor State to 5% and the CPU has always dropped to idle clocks.

 

[biffzinker]

Should I revert back to stock for my 3800X? Feel like I’m missing out on the 4550/4600 MHz boost for lightly threaded workloads.

 

[AusWolf]

1. Temps are normal and have been since last July's launch of 3000. Owners need to stop thinking of CPUs as either being "idle" or "load". Usage is always a constant spectrum, and Ryzen behaviour reflects this. If you've walked away from your PC and it's truly idle, it'll be down in the 30s and low 40s.

2. If you see 60W at "idle" on SMU package power or Core+SoC Power, then you're really not idling, regardless of what plan you're on or if even if you have C-states disabled. Ryzen doesn't work that way. 50-60W and there's most likely an application in the background loading up one or two threads. Again, "idle" is rare in reality.

3. These "3GHz" and "2.2GHz" clocks mean nothing, because outside of a meaningful amount of load, the "Core Clock" reporting for Ryzen is bogus. "Effective Clock" in HWInfo, and Ryzen Master's reporting, gets you much closer to what's actually going on in the cores at idle.

4. If you're interested in more accurate clock reporting, the current version of HWInfo has a "Snapshot CPU Polling" option in its settings. Doesn't affect effective clock, but on Core Clock and Ratio it'll be closer to effective clock and not so much the "magic" rated boost numbers that AMD wants to show you.

That's a lot of useful info, thanks a lot. I've been wondering for a while how reporting software can display accurate clock speeds of CPUs that change C and P states several hundred times a second.

As for idle power consumption, I only see 60 Watts on Balanced and High Performance power plans. If I use Power Saver, or just simply Balanced with the Power Mode slider dragged all the way down to Best Energy Savings, it gets much closer to 30 W which I'm happy with.

Edit: These are package power values. CPU+SOC Power sits around 15-20 W.

Should I revert back to stock for my 3800X? Feel like I’m missing out on the 4550/4600 MHz boost for lightly threaded workloads.

As far as I'm concerned, overclocking is pretty much dead nowadays. If you overclock your CPU, you'll miss out on lightly threaded clock headroom. If you overclock your GPU, probably nothing will happen, as you're more limited by TDP limits and temperature-bound boost stages than the actual clock frequencies written into the BIOS of the card (of which every modern GPU boosts higher anyway).

 

[freeagent]

Should I revert back to stock for my 3800X? Feel like I’m missing out on the 4550/4600 MHz boost for lightly threaded workloads.

Running @ stock isn't terrible.. but it is boring! Feels like I'm using a dell

I even resorted to running my stix @ stock because the meager gain from 3200cl4 to 3800cl16 in bandwidth and latency is really not worth the time, tuning, or voltage bump. I'm going to try a Rocket Lake when the time is right.

 

[sam_86314]

Welp, it looks like my beloved Ryzen build, "Space Heater MKIII", has died after just under two years of service (which is absolutely pathetic since MKII is still going strong after four years of me using it and another five years before that).

I went to tweak my memory settings, and it stopped POSTing afterward. CMOS resets, different RAM, and reseating the CPU wouldn't fix it.

I refuse to believe that my CPU is dead, despite the fact that the EZ-Debug CPU light stays lit when I try to power it on. My system was working perfectly before this all happened. I think I'm gonna try replacing my motherboard.

The question is, which motherboard should I switch to? My X470 Gaming Pro has had a few problems before this, so I'll probably stay away from MSI boards.

MKII has an ASUS board, so I'm thinking I'll try them out. The two boards I'm currently looking at are the ASUS TUF X570-PLUS WiFi, and the ASUS ROG Strix B550-F. I can get these two boards for about the same price from my work, but the X570 board is available for pickup tomorrow, while I'd have to wait for the B550 board to ship.

I find the built-in WiFi on the X570 board appealing, but I know that ROG Strix line is supposedly higher tier than the TUF line.

Are there any major differences between these boards that make one much better than the other?

 

[dgianstefani]

Asus X570e/Dark Hero

 

[sam_86314]

Asus X570e/Dark Hero

Those are way out of my budget, unfortunately. If money wasn't an issue, I'd probably go for the Hero VIII.

Also looks like B550 doesn't support Zen+, so I guess the X570 board is the one I'll get.

 

[biffzinker]

Welp, it looks like my beloved Ryzen build, "Space Heater MKIII", has died after just under two years of service (which is absolutely pathetic since MKII is still going strong after four years of me using it and another five years before that).

I went to tweak my memory settings, and it stopped POSTing afterward. CMOS resets, different RAM, and reseating the CPU wouldn't fix it.

I refuse to believe that my CPU is dead, despite the fact that the EZ-Debug CPU light stays lit when I try to power it on. My system was working perfectly before this all happened. I think I'm gonna try replacing my motherboard.

I thought the same but the Ryzen 5 3600 gave up, and replacing it with a 3800X got the B450 Tomahawk POSTing again.

 

[AusWolf]

Those are way out of my budget, unfortunately. If money wasn't an issue, I'd probably go for the Hero VIII.

Also looks like B550 doesn't support Zen+, so I guess the X570 board is the one I'll get.

I used to own Strix boards, but now I have a TUF Gaming B550M-Plus WiFi. Apart from the design, I really can't tell the difference. It has all the features I need, it has a decent VRM with adequate cooling, support for an optional CPU fan / water pump header, plenty of USB 3.0 and 2.0, same good BIOS as any Strix board, etc. If the X570 you're looking at is just as good as mine, I highly recommend it.

As for MSI, I've been trying to assemble a small HTPC for about a month now. The A520M Pro I got for it was not posting, so I RMA'd it. The second one arrived yesterday, and that's not posting either. I'll never buy an MSI motherboard again, and I'll recommend everyone to stay away from them.

 

[Caring1]

Are there any major differences between these boards that make one much better than the other?

Rog has blingy lights and a higher price.

 

[INSTG8R]

I used to own Strix boards, but now I have a TUF Gaming B550M-Plus WiFi. Apart from the design, I really can't tell the difference. It has all the features I need, it has a decent VRM with adequate cooling, support for an optional CPU fan / water pump header, plenty of USB 3.0 and 2.0, same good BIOS as any Strix board, etc. If the X570 you're looking at is just as good as mine, I highly recommend it.

As for MSI, I've been trying to assemble a small HTPC for about a month now. The A520M Pro I got for it was not posting, so I RMA'd it. The second one arrived yesterday, and that's not posting either. I'll never buy an MSI motherboard again, and I'll recommend everyone to stay away from them.

I just abandoned ASUS when they turned TUF from one their most premium brands to a budget brand. While ASUS still mak some great boards they are all the premium brand ones. I decided to try Gigabyte which I probably haven’t used since the original P4. I really find the board quality and performance good I do really miss the ASUS BIOS...I am a little worried now with a 5600X arriving any day now was helping someone with my same board but Wifi and a 5800X that couldn‘t even keep stable completely stock. My 3700X has been rock solid in the board I’ve OC my 3600 to 3800 for a 1900 FClock which iI hope I can use with my 5600X. But trying to help this guy tonight bone stock on a few BIOS with just another crash;reboot has me a little less confident in this board....

 

[dgianstefani]

Gigabyte Zen 3 bios is shitty.

 

[AusWolf]

I just abandoned ASUS when they turned TUF from one their most premium brands to a budget brand. While ASUS still mak some great boards they are all the premium brand ones. I decided to try Gigabyte which I probably haven’t used since the original P4. I really find the board quality and performance good I do really miss the ASUS BIOS...I am a little worried now with a 5600X arriving any day now was helping someone with my same board but Wifi and a 5800X that couldn‘t even keep stable completely stock. My 3700X has been rock solid in the board I’ve OC my 3600 to 3800 for a 1900 FClock which iI hope I can use with my 5600X. But trying to help this guy tonight bone stock on a few BIOS with just another crash;reboot has me a little less confident in this board....

I never noticed TUF being a budget brand. Some graphics cards might be, but my B550M-Plus is definitely top notch.

 

[INSTG8R]

I never noticed TUF being a budget brand. Some graphics cards might be, but my B550M-Plus is definitely top notch.

Sadly theyve fallen quite hard since the days of the mighty Sabertooth, literally built like absolute tanks, highest grade components available 5 year warranties. They just don’t have same level of quality the name was built on.

 

[AusWolf]

Sadly theyve fallen quite hard since the days of the mighty Sabertooth, literally built like absolute tanks, highest grade components available 5 year warranties. They just don’t have same level of quality the name was built on.

I never owned the Sabertooth, but I really have nothing to say against my B550M-Plus.

 

[tabascosauz]

Sadly theyve fallen quite hard since the days of the mighty Sabertooth, literally built like absolute tanks, highest grade components available 5 year warranties. They just don’t have same level of quality the name was built on.

The TUF horror stories aren't exactly as relevant as they used to be. Yes, in the first few generations after TUF became TUF Gaming there were some real questionable products being put out there. After X570, TUF really stepped up and you can really only nitpick on the colour scheme of all things nowadays. Now the ATX TUFs are pretty damn similar to the Strix Fs (which are a pretty awful deal honestly), with 50A DrMOS, very generous heatsinks, 6-layer PCBs for the ATX boards, and all the other bells and whistles. Regardless of whether you're on B550, X570 or Z490.

I have the B550M Wifi and it's a great board, heads and shoulders above its B450 predecessor (though Asus did introduce a refreshed B450M TUF that is literally the same as the B550 minus PCIe 4.0).

And there's the BIOS which has always been excellent in recent years, something I can't say for my Gigabyte boards (whivh are also stout, just wished the BIOSes weren't so inconsistent).

I mean, the Sabertooth was a great board (esp. Mk.1). But if that's the kind of standard you still adhere to, there's disappointment everywhere. ASRock's OCF days are long gone. Gigabyte's SOC/OC Force days are past, though Master is a good board. Strix is and has always been a watered down ROG. On and on.

And let's be real about the "industrial" quality. You could make a point about Asus' claims about exhaustive torture testing, but once you start to look into component choice and PCB design the Sabertooths weren't exactly unicorn dust. If you are discerning about your purchases, you can still find manufacturers going on the extra mile in their component choices nowadays. Just don't expect a cheap price.

 

[INSTG8R]

I never owned the Sabertooth, but I really have nothing to say against my B550M-Plus.

I’m sure it’s a great board but the original TUF branding was all about near industrial levels of design and quality.

 

[AusWolf]

I’m sure it’s a great board but the original TUF branding was all about near industrial levels of design and quality.

Is this what you mean?

 

[INSTG8R]

And there's the BIOS which has always been excellent in recent years, something I can't say for my Gigabyte boards (whivh are also stout, just wished the BIOSes weren't so inconsistent).

Oh believe me I really do miss the BIOS most of all now living with Gigabytes...I feel like I’m in the Stone Age again...also seem to be the last one to push out a 1.1.9.0 BIOS but up to Q on 1.1.0.0. I really hope they get it out before my 5600X gets here because apparently it really needs it...

Is this what you mean?
View attachment 181857

Yeah still got mine in the box with my Z97 Sabertooth

 

[AusWolf]

Oh believe me I really do miss the BIOS most of all now living with Gigabytes...I feel like I’m in the Stone Age again...also seem to be the last one to push out a 1.1.9.0 BIOS but up to Q on 1.1.0.0. I really hope they get it out before my 5600X gets here because apparently it really needs it...


Yeah still got mine in the box with my Z97 Sabertooth

That's one negative side of the TUF B550M-Plus (Wifi): I'm still on 1.1.0.0 as well (though my 5950X seemingly doesn't mind).

 

[INSTG8R]

That's one negative side of the TUF B550M-Plus (Wifi): I'm still on 1.1.0.0 as well (though my 5950X seemingly doesn't mind).

unfortunately my experience with another user on the same board as mine was not great despite me never having a single issue with my 3700X. Everything I could think of made absolutely zero difference to stop his 5800X just constantly crashing.

 

[Durvelle27]

Can I join the cool peoples club

 

[Mussels]

Can I join the cool peoples club

systems specs appear legit, you are permitted entry

 

[Durvelle27]

systems specs appear legit, you are permitted entry

My system specs off

no CPU yet

I had the 5600X at launch but had to sell for emergency reasons

now I await getting another