Ryzen 3000 voltage question

[Ad Hominem]

I know I'm late to the party here but I recently got a 3950x for myself and noticed voltage at desktop idle was 1.45 - 1.5 today. This led me down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what is normal and what is safe for this processor. This was with everything set to auto except XMP for my 3600 ram and PBO enabled and Ryzen Balanced power plan.

I read the reddit post from AMD_Robert about observer effect but these voltage readings are constant on all cores and report the same way in Ryzen Master, HWiNFO as well as CPU-Z. I have determined that my iCue software is causing this behavior of calling to the CPU constantly and causing it to see 'load' and boost up - because the voltages settle down when I close iCue.

Now getting rid of iCue would be troublesome because it controls the lighting on a lot of my peripherals. I updated my BIOS earlier this week and downloaded the latest chipset drivers from AMD today which haven't helped.

Would I be better off just setting a manual core ratio in BIOS? This seems to fix my voltage issue but seems to hurt my single core performance as the frequency stable for all cores is lower than what a single core could do. It seems like I can set it to 4.2 or 4.3 all core where voltage will bop around at 1.09v idle all cores and then jump down to 1.019 under all core load in Cinebench R20.

Is this all core 1.5v acceptable and within spec for daily use or do I need to be looking at other options? Has there been official word from AMD that I haven't been able to find? On one hand I want to just trust AMD because they would know what their chips can do more than me and they had to do a lot of innovating to get these badass CPUs, but on the other hand voltage that high is alarming to see when you're used to things being a certain way for so long. The reddit post mentioned how it was normal and acceptable for single cores to boost around 1.5 but that's not the behavior I'm seeing. Maybe there's a way to stop iCue from being so annoying to the CPU?

[r.linder]

With AGESA 1.0.0.4 B, you should be able to run a CCX overclock in BIOS, which is better than all-core.

CCX 1 could be something like 4.5 GHz, next one down to 4.4, then 4.3, and then 4.2.

As for voltage, you'd be right to want to control it, as constant 1.5v isn't safe.

[Ad Hominem]

If that's the case I guess I'll just throw on an all core 4.3GHz until I have time to really dig in to it. I wanted to start up the new RE3 tonight but I've been researching this issue like hell. It seems like there was a big flare up of posts about this 7-9 months ago and then it calmed down.

The other issue is that with those kinds of voltages my idle temps are high, like 50c idle then only hit 60c under load.

I'm actually not sure what an AGESA is or how to know which I have. Is it something separate from the BIOS and chipset drive?

[Spec_Ops_Ape]

If the motherboard allows it use a negative offset on vcore and you can lower it without affecting clocks. My R5 3600 did the same but I can use a negative offset of -0.25v which drops mine to 1.2v at idle and 1.156v full load with prime95.

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por Ad Hominem:

If that's the case I guess I'll just throw on an all core 4.3GHz until I have time to really dig in to it. I wanted to start up the new RE3 tonight but I've been researching this issue like hell. It seems like there was a big flare up of posts about this 7-9 months ago and then it calmed down.

The other issue is that with those kinds of voltages my idle temps are high, like 50c idle then only hit 60c under load.

I'm actually not sure what an AGESA is or how to know which I have. Is it something separate from the BIOS and chipset drive?

AGESA is included in the BIOS package. Most latest BIOS packages include either AGESA 1.0.0.3 ABBA, 1.0.0.4, or 1.0.0.4 B.

At least as far as Gigabyte BIOS is concerned, the last one added CCX OC to BIOS because the only other way to do it is use Worktool, which was risky because it interfered with CPU protections, so if voltages were improperly set or left on auto, it could potentially harm the chip life, but there is no such issue with CCX OC in BIOS as far as I know.

Though since 1.0.0.4 B I haven't seen any issues with my 3900X having high idle voltages, at least in my memory, and I have iCUE.

[Ad Hominem]

Oh I'm sorry I committed the cardinal sin of asking for tech support, no specs.

3950x
ROG Strix x570-e Gaming (BIOS version 1407)

I'm pretty sure my BIOS has an option for per CCX overclocking so that shouldn't be a problem. I was just poking around in BIOS and I didn't see any kind of AGESA version listed in the basic info.

Do you see cores go to sleep if you were to look at Ryzen Master in your current setup?

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por Ad Hominem:

Oh I'm sorry I committed the cardinal sin of asking for tech support, no specs.

3950x
ROG Strix x570-e Gaming (BIOS version 1407)

I'm pretty sure my BIOS has an option for per CCX overclocking so that shouldn't be a problem. I was just poking around in BIOS and I didn't see any kind of AGESA version listed in the basic info.

AGESA is mostly to address issues with CPU and/or RAM. Newer versions will have better memory support and sometimes better CPU performance. Complaints about idle voltages tapered down because AGESA mostly fixed it.

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por Ad Hominem:

Do you see cores go to sleep if you were to look at Ryzen Master in your current setup?

When idle, yeah, though I'm rarely idle. 3000 series is even more "lively" than previous generations. Clocks depend wholly on load and temperature. If there's no load, the CPU just puts cores to sleep to minimise power usage and heat.

Under load, my voltages rarely exceed 1.45, but they're usually sticking closer to 1.4. This is with AGESA 1.0.0.4. B.

[Ad Hominem]

For some reason I'm not seeing any cores go to sleep, even after I close iCue.

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por Ad Hominem:

For some reason I'm not seeing any cores go to sleep, even after I close iCue.

Your board has 1.0.0.4 B since BIOS 1404... so that's weird. What's the load line calibration settings at? I've noticed that higher voltages can be common even in an idle state when LLC is set above Normal.

[r.linder]

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/1usmus-custom-power-plan-for-ryzen-3000-download.html

[xSOSxHawkens]

I run 1.45 to 1.48 stock on a 3900x with an MSI MEG x570 Unify on all stock settings. Get reasonable boost speeds and temps using the stock Wraith cooler.

CPU Benches out in the top 6th percentile for 3900x results, again without any manual OC or any changes to auto stock settings.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/24392024

I tried watching a few tutorials and bringing the coltage down btu saw no noticable decrease in temps, and saw an overall lower boost average and lower scores across the board in benchmarks.

Dont see any noticable difference with PBO.

Can lock to 4.2Ghz all core and get a better multi-core bench, but I lose a bit in single core.

[Ad Hominem]

The heat isn't what bothers me since I'm running it under a big dual tower NH-D15. It's just that those voltages are in the 'degrade your CPU' territory for traditional CPUs. Now maybe Zen 2 is different and voltages up that high are perfectly within spec. Then the whole iCue constantly polling the CPU causing it to boost throws another wrench into the equation, because if it popped up to 1.49 for a bit then back down I would let it be, but all cores hang out at 1.45 - 1.5 constantly.

When I force an all core ratio of 42 (4.2 GHZ) for example, voltage at idle comes down to 1.10 even with iCue running.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Publicado originalmente por Ad Hominem:

The heat isn't what bothers me since I'm running it under a big dual tower NH-D15. It's just that those voltages are in the 'degrade your CPU' territory for traditional CPUs. Now maybe Zen 2 is different and voltages up that high are perfectly within spec. Then the whole iCue constantly polling the CPU causing it to boost throws another wrench into the equation, because if it popped up to 1.49 for a bit then back down I would let it be, but all cores hang out at 1.45 - 1.5 constantly.

When I force an all core ratio of 42 (4.2 GHZ) for example, voltage at idle comes down to 1.10 even with iCue running.

You will notice that if the heat goes up at all the voltage will lower.

EG.

Under all core sustained loading (read, 48hrs+ 4K transcoding x264 software in handbrake) my sits in the mid 80's on stock air with all core of 4.1 to 4.2 and an all core load voltage of ~1.2v

From what I have seen in the LTT vid on Ryzen 300 OC'ing most motherboard vendors seem to ship with a high base voltage which tends to help the single core boost a bit.

That is indeed what I have noticed. If I reduce the voltage to AMD stock (1.35) I dont get any better all core loading, I just get less boost to light threaded apps.

Your milage may varry. At least for me I stick to the stock settings in BIOS for best results, and they seem to very closely match what Ryzen Master seems to give in performance on creators mode.

But yes, 3000 Ryzen is far more power hungry voltage wise than what we are used to seeing in the past. Reminds me of the old days, having such high CPU voltage and actively cooled chipsets. Also reminds me of the old days in how fast and impressive the tech is scaling. Has been a boring bit since y2k and I am ready for the next tech arms race, and AMD seems to be bringing it hard lol.

[Zihanzs2511]

Publicado originalmente por Escorve:

With AGESA 1.0.0.4 B, you should be able to run a CCX overclock in BIOS, which is better than all-core.

CCX 1 could be something like 4.5 GHz, next one down to 4.4, then 4.3, and then 4.2.

As for voltage, you'd be right to want to control it, as constant 1.5v isn't safe.

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por M3RC7Y:

Publicado originalmente por Escorve:

With AGESA 1.0.0.4 B, you should be able to run a CCX overclock in BIOS, which is better than all-core.

CCX 1 could be something like 4.5 GHz, next one down to 4.4, then 4.3, and then 4.2.

As for voltage, you'd be right to want to control it, as constant 1.5v isn't safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5pHUHGZ7hU&