Conclusion

That AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 3000 is "hard to overclock" is a myth purported by people who don't understand overclocking beyond multipliers, voltages, and basic memory timings. Even without any overclocking, the third-generation Ryzen Threadripper line represents the very best in client-segment computing power. At $1,400, the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X is the fastest piece of silicon I've ever used; it never runs out of steam no matter what I throw at it, and I'm sure it will be a potent tool in the hands of creators for whom time is money.

AMD has a very different silicon philosophy to Intel in that it is now completely invested in multi-chip modules, even down to the mainstream client segment. Multiple 8-core "Zen 2" chiplets combine with a centralized IO die to make up the Threadripper 3000-series, and to run all these pieces of silicon in harmony takes dozens upon dozens of clock domains and timings. This article has been an exercise in revealing many of these highly relevant settings for the PC enthusiasts and serious overclockers. It provides guidance on what kind of settings to use. AMD's CBS (common BIOS settings) for "Castle Peak" runs into over 50 individual settings, and ASUS is kind enough to present these settings as AMD intended; in addition to distributing them across the various pages of its UEFI setup program of the ROG Zenith II Extreme. The ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme is an extremely forgiving motherboard for serious overclocking. It has a ton of VRM muscle and BIOS settings to let you play with that capability. Creators will never run out of connectivity options on this thing.

Before you even consider running Threadripper 3000 above stock settings, you must ensure proper cooling for the chip. The 3960X and 3970X come with four CCDs located closest to the IO die on the "Castle Peak" MCM, and so a cooler or water block purpose built for TR4 or sTRX4 is highly recommended. I also urge you not to use a generic round Asetek AIO that might fit the retention module included with the processor because it barely covers anything beyond the IO die. The EK-Velocity sTRX4 provides near-perfect coverage for the four CCDs on the 3960X and 3970X, besides the centrally located IO die. If you build a loop around one of these blocks, I highly recommend at least a 360 mm radiator to cope with the 280 W TDP of the 3960X, while providing some headroom to play with the OC settings detailed in this article. I also saw excellent results when overclocking my GeForce RTX 2080 STRIX from ASUS—the EK waterblock on it made a difference as it ensured low temperatures at all times.



The maximum safe Vcore voltage for Threadripper 3000 chips isn't as mysterious as it's made out to be. 1.33 V is plenty of voltage to get this chip out of its comfort zone with an all-core load, as is 1.42 V for single-core loads. These are actual voltages after the VRM compensates for LLC and other voltage regulation gizmos. Just look for the "CPU SVI2 TFN" sensor on HWInfo for an accurate software-side read on the Vcore. I did some intensive clock-speed/voltage testing to highlight the significantly increased energy efficiency with "Zen 2" vs. the "Zen+" based Threadripper 2990WX, and confirmed more than a doubling in GFLOP/s per watt in LinX.

As mentioned before, don't use archaic Intel methods of overclocking, such as globally applied multipliers, to overclock Threadrippers. Instead, understand the nature of each individual core of your Threadripper, the CCD and CCX to which it belongs, and implement what I call Intelligent Overclocking (iOC) by tweaking each CCX individually. That's the key to successfully overclocking Threadripper. On page 3, I talked about how I manually graded each core on the chip, determined minimum voltage to sustain 4.40 GHz under an AVX workload, and determined maximum clock speed at 1.35 V. I also highlighted the point of diminishing returns beyond which throwing more voltage to support higher clocks only results in increased heat and power draw.

I've also tried to elaborate the relevant settings in "Castle Peak" AMD CBS. While easily accessible with my ROG Zenith II Extreme, you should find these on any decent sTRX4 motherboard. I appreciate the granularity in Vcore settings ASUS offers, but wish I had something half as good for VDIMM. Also highlighted were the right LLC (load line calibration) settings so your motherboard doesn't stifle your overclock in pursuit of stability. It's sad to see that PBO has practically been abandoned by AMD. It would be nice if AMD gave creators the freedom to play with some side-wheels, even if it meant only 30 seconds shaved off their render times.

I cannot stress the importance of memory overclocking enough with all Ryzen chips. These are very good CPUs that are hungry for memory bandwidth, and always reward good memory settings with performance. I've tried to elaborate on a number of primary memory settings (clock-speeds, timings, ratios with related clock-domains, such as Infinity Fabric),and described several secondary memory settings related to the interoperability of the various chips on the "Castle Peak" MCM. With these, I was able to get my memory to run at DDR4-3733 quad-channel, with reasonably tight timings that include CL16. A memory speed of 3733 MHz is the golden number for "Zen 2" because it's the maximum possible clock speed while maintaining a 1:1 ratio between memory and Infinity Fabric. I've provided performance numbers that show significant gains in performance just from memory tuning.

My memory and CCX-specific iOC recommendations culminate into an overclocked Threadripper 3960X that's a whopping 41 percent faster in 3DMark TimeSpy CPU tests than a stock (out of the box) chip using ASUS's failsafe settings. I see similar 48 percent performance gains in 7-zip (pack) and 56 percent gains in memory write performance. There are similar single to double-digit percentage gains to be had in rendering and simulation tests between stock and tuned. Gaming performance gains, while small, are still noticeable, with a 10–30 FPS difference in some tests.

In conclusion, don't let anyone tell you that Threadripper 3000 doesn't like to overclock. It does, you just need to figure out how to make it play. These are big and hot chips, and when you're spending north of $1,400 on these, it's expected you pair them with decent cooling and a good motherboard. Luckily, I had both.

While working on this article I took several photos, which you may use for your wallpapers, download them here (38 MB).