Help with overclocking R5 3600 (non X)

[Cinco]

Hey. I've spent hours and hours on reading here and there about Zen2 overclocking and I'm still confused. At the moment my CPU is running at ALL Core overclock, sitting @4.2GHz and 1.2875Vcore, during cinebench benchmark it drops to 1.25V same with Prime95 Small FFTs - it's not crossing 80C (realistically, in games 65-67C is max what im seeing, rarely 70).

My questions are...
Is it safe for 24/7 usage?
If yes, should I try to push more, and if yes what's max Vcore I should go for?
I didn't touch soc voltage it's on stock, should I change it?
Are there any windows settings I should change, does it worth to use AMD Balanced Power Plan for gaming?
Are there any BIOS settings that I should change that interfere with manual OC?

I assume that all what I read about not going over 1.3V is for under stress so my 1.25V is safe, I'm deducting that because on stock settings it's been going over 1.4 in idle. Please correct me if im wrong

Another thing, how is that result looking like, any good or Im actually crippling performance by overclocking it that way? I've read that Zen2 shouldn't be overclocked at all since auto OC does its job just fine.


Thank You in advance!

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 3200MHz CL16 2x8GB
MOBO: MSI X470 Gaming Plus MAX
PSU: BitFenix Whisper M 650W

 

[bmwbaxter]

The voltage drop you are seeing is normal. It is called Vdropp, caused by load on the CPU. You can turn up your Load Line Calibration in your OC software/bios to eliminate it.

You wont be crippling performance by overclocking unless you push it too far and the over clock becomes unstable causing crashes/BSOD. Most newer CPU don't have much overclocking headroom anymore on air or water cooling since chip makers are binning things to the max and selling chips running their max clocks already. But it is a fun hobby to try getting the last 2-5% of performance from them.

 

[Cinco]

Thank you but it doesn't really answer my questions. What will I gain from playing with LLC and what consequences are behind it?
I just want to squeeze as much as I can from this processor for 24/7 use.

 

[bmwbaxter]

LLC will help prevent vdropps that causes instability under load. IF you aren't experiencing under load it doesn't have to be touched yet.

 

[trents]

Hey. I've spent hours and hours on reading here and there about Zen2 overclocking and I'm still confused. At the moment my CPU is running at ALL Core overclock, sitting @4.2GHz and 1.2875Vcore, during cinebench benchmark it drops to 1.25V same with Prime95 Small FFTs - it's not crossing 80C (realistically, in games 65-67C is max what im seeing, rarely 70).

My questions are...
Is it safe for 24/7 usage? Yes. Most are saying up to 1.35 is safe for 24/7 if CPU cooling and VRM temps permit.
If yes, should I try to push more, and if yes what's max Vcore I should go for? I think you will find that you are probably at the wall and more voltage won't get you more overclock. You might get one more tick of speed but you would have to add a big chunk of voltage to get there. Is it worth it? Most gen 3 Ryzens will clock up to slightly below their max turbo frequency and you are there now.
I didn't touch soc voltage it's on stock, should I change it? Only if you are trying to overclock the memory. Not worth it IMO. Little to no performance gain.
Are there any windows settings I should change, does it worth to use AMD Balanced Power Plan for gaming? Make sure you have your Windows Power Opition set to High Performance.
Are there any BIOS settings that I should change that interfere with manual OC? Not really.

I assume that all what I read about not going over 1.3V is for under stress so my 1.25V is safe, I'm deducting that because on stock settings it's been going over 1.4 in idle. Please correct me if im wrong

Another thing, how is that result looking like, any good or Im actually crippling performance by overclocking it that way? I've read that Zen2 shouldn't be overclocked at all since auto OC does its job just fine. For applications that efficiently use lots of cores and threads, you will experience a small performance improvement by overclocking all cores. Mostly, these are applications designed for rendering graphical images. When I overclock all my cores to 4.25 (Turbo max is 4.4 ghz) I get about a 6% improvement in Cinebench R20. But f or games, you actually may lose ground because games depend heavily on single core clock speed. Because overclocking performance yields are so low, I decided to go with stock on my 3700X. What do you use your computer for mostly? Games?


Thank You in advance!

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 3200MHz CL16 2x8GB
MOBO: MSI X470 Gaming Plus MAX
PSU: BitFenix Whisper M 650W

 

[Cinco]

Yes, it's like 99% games and 1% is rest. And my only game that I care for is actually World of Warcraft for which ryzen isn't the best, high clocked Intel is having better performance, so Im not sure, what should I do?

 

[trents]

Try it both ways and see which gives you the best and most consistent FPS.

Your Rx580 video card may prove to be the bottleneck anyway. To find out if the CPU or the GPU is the bottleneck, turn the resolution or the game detail way down. If FPS improves, the GPU is the bottleneck. If FPS does not improve, the CPU is the bottleneck.

 

[Zerileous]

I think the words came out backwards trents. If you decrease GPU work (resolution, AA, level of detail) and FPS goes up then you're limited by GPU performance.

For things that benefit from single core performance, stock is best, I agree with others who have stated that.

 

[trents]

You are correct, Z. Let me correct that. Thanks for catching that. I highlighted the changes.

 

[Cinco]

So I'll try on stock. Should I change vcore or not really?

 

[Zerileous]

For stock just leave it auto

 

[Cinco]

So, I see no difference, or it's not noticeable at all because I've locked 60fps, for testing purposes it goes from 45 all the way up to 200fps depending on location, but that's just World of Warcraft. My GPU is indeed bootleneck for this processor and I'm looking forward to replace it once prices chill a bit probably to 5700xt or something from next series.


What about settings on no OC, should I leave PBO on auto or select one of 4 modes? Are there any other options that I should change/leave on auto/disable?

Also, is that voltage safe? It's like that all the time while playing games

 

[trents]

Most people are saying PBO has little or no effect one way or the other. I would just leave it on Auto.

 

[Zerileous]

Here is an article explaining PBO: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3491-explaining-precision-boost-overdrive-benchmarks-auto-oc

Because it raises power limits, it only has the potential to be useful during an all core workload, not a single core workload like gaming. In single or few threaded workloads, power limits are never a factor.

With my CPU using PBO I found that it only increased temperatures 5-10c, but did not have a positive impact on cinebench R20 scores (actually they seemed to go down a bit, possibly a factor of increased temps, but it was probably within margin or error). This was of course on max settings, and I have thought to go back and try using PBO to emulate a higher TDP chip (using the 105W values from the article above), but I doubt it will do anything and haven't been curious enough to put the effort in yet.

 

[Cinco]

Thank you, I'll check it all. And apparently OCing or leaving it on Auto doesn't bring any improvement in games so Im pretty much limited by graphics card right now.