I feel like my build isn't performing at an optimal level - Advice appreciated!

[EliteACEz]

Looks like temps are great. It's really not a worry about which is the limiting factor as long as you are getting acceptable performance. If you actually wanted to get more out of the GPU, you could enable super sampling instead, although I'm not sure how much of an effect it will have.

Do you know what changed other than resetting the memory?

I'm fairly happy with the performance I'm getting now. I did run a few benchmarks in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint with some of the more CPU heavy graphical settings dialed down a bit like "Cloth Simulation". That combined with a framerate cap set for that game at 80 FPS, the benchmark maintained 80 throughout the entire benchmark. So I'm sure I could raise the cap higher but even at 80 FPS the game is smooth enough for me. I'll give super sampling a go on some of the titles just for curiosity's sake.

After I reset to optimised default settings in the BIOS, from what I followed here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/cnoxgy

The only setting that I know for sure that was different to what I had before is "Global C-States" was set to 'Auto' which apparently means it's really disabled, so that's enabled now.

I've also made the CPU fan curve more aggressive just in case, same with the GPU in MSI Afterburner. The extra noise doesn't bother me.

 

[Zerileous]

Pretty sure those are going to be on by default. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[trents]

I mispoke in post #13. I'm getting over 5000 on CB R20 when running overclocked at 4.25 on all cores. But at stock, I'm still getting about 200 points higher than you are on a $100 B450 mint ITX board.

Do you have PBO enbalbed in bios?

Also, can you post a pic of CPU-z tabs "Memory" and "SPD" please? I'm a little confused as to what frequency and timings you settled on for your RAM. CPU-z is very concise.

 

[EliteACEz]

Do you have PBO enbalbed in bios?

Yes, double checked this.

Also, can you post a pic of CPU-z tabs "Memory" and "SPD" please? I'm a little confused as to what frequency and timings you settled on for your RAM. CPU-z is very concise.

 

[EarthDog]

The memory you have has 2 xmp profiles. The first, 2000 mhz 19-21-21-xx. The second 3600 mhz 17-19-xx. Your memory is currently running at 3600 using the slower timings from 4000. That may help a bit...

 

[EliteACEz]

The memory you have has 2 xmp profiles. The first, 2000 mhz 19-21-21-xx. The second 3600 mhz 17-19-xx. Your memory is currently running at 3600 using the slower timings from 4000. That may help a bit...

I had some strange things happen after I updated the BIOS (MSI B450 Tomahawk Max) from v3.50 to v3.60. Both of the XMP profiles in the BIOS show as the 4000mhz profile.

They should be as follows, and were listed as such in the BIOS prior to the update (https://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/HX440C19PB3AK2_16.pdf):
XMP TIMING PARAMETERS
•JEDEC: DDR4-2400 CL17-17-17 @1.2V
•XMP Profile #1: DDR4-4000 CL19-21-21 @1.35V
•XMP Profile #2: DDR4-3600 CL17-18-18 @1.35V

I have my memory set to 3600 currently because unless I'm misunderstanding, 3600 is the sweet spot for Ryzen 3000 series and you lose the 1:1 ratio to the infinity fabric beyond 3600. Also, I get game crashes with Battlefield V and Need For Speed Heat which apparently don't like high RAM.

What I'm really not sure of is when people say "tightening the timings", what does that mean and how does one go about doing that? currently I'm happy with the PC's performance after the series of tests and changes I've done over the course of this forum thread. But perhaps tightening timings could further increase performance? and if so, how do I do that?

 

[bmwbaxter]

Tightening means to make the numbers lower. You should be able to set it under the memory tab in your bios.

currently you have 19-21--21-42-83-1t

You could try 18-18-18-35-85-1t since it is the XMP setting for it at 3600mhz so it should be able to do it. So you can keep your memory speed at 3600mhz but adjust the timings to potentially increase performance.

 

[trents]

Smaller timing numbers decreases latency. Shorter wait times.

 

[EliteACEz]

Tightening means to make the numbers lower. You should be able to set it under the memory tab in your bios.

currently you have 19-21--21-42-83-1t

You could try 18-18-18-35-85-1t since it is the XMP setting for it at 3600mhz so it should be able to do it. So you can keep your memory speed at 3600mhz but adjust the timings to potentially increase performance.

Smaller timing numbers decreases latency. Shorter wait times.

Thanks guys, I've updated my RAM timings to 18-18-18-35-85-1T. Will see how it goes.

 

[trents]

People whose opinions I respect on this forum have repeatedly stated that Ryzen doesn't like odd number CL timings so I would expect that CL 18 would be more stable than 17 or 19.

 

[EliteACEz]

People whose opinions I respect on this forum have repeatedly stated that Ryzen doesn't like odd number CL timings so I would expect that CL 18 would be more stable than 17 or 19.

Interesting, good to know.

Haven't had any issues this evening with the new timings, and noticed a slight improvement in performance in GTA V.