Help with MSI x370 SLI PLUS OC behavior with Ryzen 7 1700

[Arjov]

I'm reporting my OC experience because i'm trying to understand. Hope you can help me out

Very short story, easiest OC experience of my life:
change the multiplier in BIOS and you're ready to go.

Well, ready to go till 3.75GHz that's what makes me mad. The automatic settings are ok but the Vcore is not pushed beyond 1.2V, i can only fine tune with LLC modes 1-8 which gives a subtle offset of max 0.016 in mode1.
I leave AMD Quite'n'cool Active so i get full advantage of p-states in windows and that's the part i love the most.
Problem's that as soon as I set manual Vcore to 1.385 to achieve stable 4GHz (PRIME95 blend test words, not mine xD) I lose p-states functionality as I read it's supposed to be. Well, the multiplier will still change, accordingly to cpu load(thanks to cool'n'quiet), but the Vcore is locked at 1.385 +/- the 0.016 dynamic offset given by the LLC mode 1 I'm finding myself good with.

I'd love to keep p-states functionality ofc and I don't understand if I can do anything to let the automatic settings in the BIOS get beyond 1.2.
You will understand this is just an Overclocker question since i'm going for stable [email protected] out of the box for daily use.

*EDIT RAMS are running @3200 14-14-14 with automatic XMP profile

 

[trents]

My understanding is that once your overclock exceeds the turbo frequency you lose some P state functions. I think that is true of Ryzen and Intel both.

 

[Arjov]

nope, maybe I wasn't clear enough, my bad. I'll try to explain better.


when I overclock leaving all things in auto except from the frequency multiplier, p-states will work meaning that the multiplier AND the Vcore will change according to the CPU load. I can achieve 3.75x(that's MORE than the 3.7x turbo frequency) with this method. as soon as I try 3.8x Automatic Vcore is not enough anymore and I need to input it manually to stabilize the system.


So at this point, IF I input a manual Vcore to get higher frequencies (3.9 or 4 GHz was what I tried) something unusual happens. The multiplier scales well in windows, from 15.5x up to 39 but the Vcore is fixed at the value I manually inserted, 1.385 in my case.

So I was asking:
a)is there a way to get higher Vcore still using automatic mode so i can get full p-state functionality?
b)is there a way to get p-state funcionality setting a manual Vcore?

hope it will be clearer now^^

 

[Johan45]

You can try using this software http://www.mediafire.com/file/lynashsvd28nhhz/ASUS+ZenStates+0.2.2.zip It was written for ASUS board so not sure if it'll work on MSI but allows P-Stae modification in windows
IIRC Ryzen Master will do what you want as well just be warned it's hard to get it to let go when.If you don't want to use it any longer. Need the CMOS fully cleared

 

[Arjov]

know what? ryzen master doesn't start, it tells me i'm missing a driver but i tried everything, flushing windows too and nothing , it won't start. i'll try the asus softwar while reading your guide about the p-state modification. Thanks for the input !

 

[Johan45]

Make sure HPET is enabled . type CMD in search right click run as ADMIN then type bcdedit/set useplatformclock true

 

[Arjov]

it was the last AMD driver. I reverted back to the previous release and now it's working. meh...

I'll play with it a little bit.
soafter using it I need to jump reset the CMOS if anything goes wrong? is that enough or do I need to reflash the CMOS?

 

[Johan45]

Only if you want to stop using it. Uninstall it then clear CMOS if that doesn't do it reflash the BIOS. I and others had a hard time setting a Manual OC in BIOS after using RM and needed to clear CMOS or flash BIOS to get it to "let go"

Also unless they changed the software recently you have to activate the OC after a reboot it won't start automatically

 

[Arjov]

Nothing, same behavior with ryzen master. as long as i don't touch the Vcore value, i can rise the multiplier and p-states will work. It worked with 3.8GHz too until it crashed xD. BTW, as soon as I touch the Vcore the multiplier will still change in 15.5x-38x range but the v-core will stay stuck at the value i wrote down. seems like p-states are disabled but cool'n'quiet will still try to use them.

not that i'm not happy with 3.75GHz at stock voltage eh !


Maybe it's BIOS related, i'll try writing MSI tech support just in case

 

[Johan45]

I'm sure I had it working. Do you have Windows set to balanced or low power not the AMD power plan. You can edit that if you want but out of the box AMD power plan the CPU stays at full speed.

 

[Arjov]

Yup I already modified it since it had "minimum cpu speed" set at 90% by default. But as i said, it's not the cpu speed, it's the Vcore alone. when i mod the Vcore the cpu will go:

1.55GHz @ 1.35V
2GHz @1.35V
3GHz @1.35V

And so on
so temps are still ok at low cpu loads, but i'm worried i'm stressing the VRM this way


If I do leave everything Auto and only change the multiplier i get:

1.55GHz @0.522V
2GHz @1.something V
3.75GHz @1.216V

 

[Johan45]

It'll be fine just because the voltage is higher it's still not pulling the same current. It's the current that heats things up. The current draw is caused by load higher load higher current
It is a shame that AMD did the overclocking this way but it's not easy to get around it unless you have a board that offers a P-State OC in BIOS like the Crosshair VI. I had an SLI PLus and it didn't have that but might be available in a future BIOS release. Could you get the first bit of software to work. It lets you set the different P-State multi and voltage custom in Windows

 

[Arjov]

Oh nice, if it's not stressing the VRM I'll go for the easy way then. Thanks for your time mate, it was very kind of you.

 

[Johan45]

NP that's what we're here for