Download the 1usmus Custom Power Plan

TechPowerUp is hosting the 1usmus Custom Power Plan. Find it in the download link below.

DOWNLOAD: 1usmus Custom Power Plan for Ryzen 3000 Zen 2 Processors

Installation Instructions

For this updated power plan to work properly, certain settings have to be configured in the BIOS. While most vendors use the correct defaults, I'll still list all the options here for completeness, and for you to verify in case other defaults are used.

You have to set the following in your BIOS, under "CPU Features" or "AMD_CBS":

• Global C-state Control = Enabled
• Power Supply Idle Control = Low Current Idle
• CPPC = Enabled
• CPPC Preferred Cores = Enabled
• AMD Cool'n'Quiet = Enabled
• PPC Adjustment = PState 0

If you can't find certain settings, such as "AMD Cool'n'Quiet" or "PPC Adjustment", do not worry, they are of secondary importance. Some motherboard manufacturers just hide them.


The Custom Power Plan ships in a ZIP archive, which you can download by following the link above. Extract the contents of this archive.


Now run the "install.bat" batch file.


Once installation completes, you should see a new power plan in the settings called "1usmus Ryzen Power Plan." Look for it under "additional power plans" if you don't see it right away. Activate it, reboot your system, and you're good to go. You might have to click the "Show additional power plans" separator to open the list of additional power plans on the system.

Performance Results

A quick Cinebench R15 run shows a small increase in multi-threaded performance.


The chart above shows which cores are active during our Cinebench single-threaded test run, and for how long they are active. Do note that with the AMD power plan the cores that get loaded are pretty much the worst cores. Also, the load bounces between three cores, whereas only two cores, and "good" ones, are used with the new power plan.

Update November 27th: Testing on BIOS v170 + KB4512941 showed that the problems with the Ryzen Balanced power profile have been fixed. I hope that other users who are experiencing problems will receive similar BIOS updates in the coming weeks.


Looking at the clock frequency during this test run, we can see that the CPU runs much higher clocks—on average by 200 MHz higher.

Other results:

• PPT : 33% -> 24%
• TDC : 20% -> 10%
• EDC : 27% -> 7%

Test System Specifications:

• Ryzen 9 3900X
• EKWB watercooling
• MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE (BIOS 7C34v160, AGESA 1.0.0.4В)
• G.Skill Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600 C16 dual-channel
• Windows 10 64-bit 1903
• AMD Chipset Driver 1.9.27.1033

Conclusion

It is amazing how such a simple software-side mod can have such a noticeable impact on the processor, and we're not even overclocking it. The customized power plan is able to leverage "favored cores" even before Microsoft implements it with the yet-to-be-released Windows 10 19H2 update. Spread of lightly threaded workloads is now allocated to fewer cores, which are known to be better at a physical level, and which boost to higher clocks, yielding improved power management, responsiveness, and performance.

Whilst AMD tried to address deficiencies in Precision Boost behavior by dialing up maximum boost frequencies by roughly 50-100 MHz with AGESA 1.0.0.3 ABBA, this modification has managed to increase maximum observed core frequencies by 200 MHz on average, which should result in higher performance across the board, especially for less-parallelized workloads.

I'd to encourage all users to share their experience using this Power Plan in the comments for this article. Please also do let us know if you encounter any issues.