Is Digital Citizen trolling us with this overclocking guide...?

[DUAL33s]

So, I was browsing the interwebs a few days ago and came across this 'Digital Citizen' article which is supposed to be a "Ryzen 3700X Overclocking Guide". The article is laughable at best, and there isn't a SINGLE piece of valuable information in this so-called "guide". But that's not why I'm making this post. My main reason for making this post is due to Digial Citizen's supposed "best overclocking result" where they claim it took them "hours of testing and crashing" to finally get a stable overclock of 4.25ghz at 1.4v!!

Ummm.....WHAT??

It took you HOURS to set your chip to 4.25ghz @ 1.4v in the bios..?? Really..??? 4.25ghz @ 1.4v sounds more like a starting point that probably EVERY SINGLE 3700X IN EXISTENCE is able to hit.

Soooo... my conclusion is that either "Digital Citizen" is completely trolling us with this "overclocking guide"...or they are LITERALLY trying to overclock on a potato. lol

Errrr... well... the only other thing I can think of is that I ACTUALLY did get a 'Golden Chip' this time around and completely WON the Silicon Lottery. IDK...but either way, seeing this "guide" and the poor results that Digital Citizen achieved, it got me wondering how far other 3700X owners are able to push their chips. ATM I am able to get a fully stable (slightly hot) 4.3Ghz at MUCH LOWER voltage than Digital Citizen of 1.35v. Not only does my chip run perfectly at 4.3ghz/1.35v but I'm also able to set the load line calibration as low as 4 (but I typically find the best performace at LLC level 3). I suspect my chip could even do 4.35Ghz if I push a lil more voltage into it...but I'm happy with 4.3ghz for now.

Anyway...if you own a 3700X please post your overclocking results in the comment section. And also give me your opinion on my particular overclock of 4.3ghz/1.35v (LLC 3/4).

Thanks!

-DUAL33s

SYSTEM SPECS:

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X
MOBO: Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming (Bios 1404)
RAM: Trident X Neo 3600 (16-16-16-16-36)
GPU: PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT
STORAGE: (1) Samsung M.2 nVME 500mb (1) Western Digital WD Blue SSD 1tb
PSU: Corsair Cx650 (650w / 80+ Bronze)



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PS - Here are the CPU-Z readings for my 4.3ghz / 1.35v overclock...

 

[EarthDog]

Well, every chip is different you know. So it isn't just about setting it at a specific voltage + clock and it works or not. That said, it shouldn't take hours to figure it out, but who knows how they test... maybe this was their first try with the chip... etc.

I dont think they were trolling. It may not be the best guide, but I wouldnt blame their skills when an average overclocking CPU is the real problem.


The 3700x I have couldn't get past 4.25GHz at 1.32V on any board. It was limited by heat reaching 90c in AIDA64 (default settings) using a 3x120mm AIO.

 

[Evilsizer]

like ED said but also keep in mind that stability testing is a key factor in all this for stable overclocks. if your going for just max speed stable runs thats different, if this is going to be a 24/7 stable overclock that is different as well. when i was more into overclocking in the past, i would run 2 different tests first. prime95 set to small FFT's with it set to use the max L2 or L3 cache, this would just test the cpu making sure its fine. then using large in prime95 set to the max ram is in the system, this would take the longest to make sure the overclocked(if the ram is overclocked) ram is good. just to make sure i would do blend test, as this one throws in a mix of both cpu and ram that puts more a load on the IMC/memory controller. then there is still the chance while gaming something could crash, then it would need a bit of fine tuning, be it a touch more IMC voltage/cpu voltage/ram voltage/etc or troubleshooting parts.

 

[mackerel]

Just looked at my past attempt with my 3700X. Looks like I got 4.3 at just under 1.35v but stability took a dive after that clock, and my AIO at the time wasn't really keeping up either. Zen 2 is horrible for traditional fixed voltage/clock overclocking IMO. Ok to do it per-task when benching but for general use it is better to use power unlimiting.

 

[Woomack]

Typical Ryzen 3000 is overclocking worse on all cores than its maximum turbo/boost clock. So 4.4GHz CPUs like 3700X will make 4.2GHz on all cores at manual settings. Average 3900X will make 4.2GHz on all cores while its turbo/boost is 4.6GHz.
Looking at pre-tested CPUs in some stores, 4.3GHz is already above average for any Ryzen 3000 and it costs some more.

 

[chrisjames61]

Maybe the web site is the "Verge" of overclocking?