So I tried 3.8Ghz with 1.35 volt. Everything seemed okay so I tried 3.9Ghz with 1.35 volt next. After 10min of prime95, everything looks fine, so I went ahead and tried 4.0GHz with 1.35 volt, I ran prime95 for 8min then it crashed. Then I realized I have no idea what I was doing so I went back to the bios returned everything back to normal, save and exit then computer stopped working, just blackscreen with mobo error code 62. I panicked, I turned it off for a min or two and then I turned it back on and worked just fine.
So I’m I doing this correctly? I think the reason why the PC crashed when I tried 4.0Ghz is that 1.35 volt isn’t enough. I’m fine with that, I don’t plan on going more than 1.35 volt anyway cuz from what I learned, 1.35 volt is the limit or ceiling for safe OCing.
I’ve added screenshots of my bios to make it easier for you guys to see If I’m doing anything wrong. Please keep I’m in mind that I have no idea what I’m doing in the bios cuz most of the guides that I saw is “Just follow whatever I’m doing and you’ll be fine” or “Do this because this is good and don’t do this because this is bad” Now that doesn’t really explain anything now does it?
Also, most of the guides or tutorials are outdated in terms of bios ver. So I have a setting called CPU Voltage(V) under the CPU Configuration and the guides don’t. I googled the difference between CPU Voltage(V) and Fixed Voltage(V) [under the CPU Vcore Voltage]. But that didn’t really answer my question.
I’m really sorry for the long post. I just need a someone to point me in a right direction. So I could understand this whole overclocking thing.
Overclocking Ryzen is a dance that requires a lot of special moves to perfect.
No really. No one chip is like the other, some take more effort to perform a routine than others but generally they can all dance to the tune of 3.8Ghz from the start.
Start at 1.35V VCore at 3.8Ghz.
On ASRock boards set LLC to Level 5 (auto). And keep the SoC stock as you start. This is where it get’s interesting now.
Boot to windows and Run HWInfo. Now overload the hell out of your CPU. Prime95, Cinebench the whole 9 yards.
Have HWInfo record the sensors to a CSV file. You want to keep an eye on the lowest the voltage drops to.
You should expect to see about between 1.18 <-> 1.232V Vcore depending on the Chip binning if your baseline voltage is good.
Good chips get lower voltages.
Now start dialing down the voltage in the BIOS until your full load voltage drop gets into this ballpark and your system remains stable.
Just use these settings here:
They are all you will ever need. And Ryzen CPU’s will still idle back to low clock speeds under low load anyway. (You can’t tell them not to)
Once you have reached a good load voltage( 1.2 -1.232V probably) you have essentially calibrated your individual CPU to it’s maximum thermal & power efficiency point at 3.8Ghz. You can then start your subsequent Overclocks with this as a baseline reference.
I generally recommend 3.8Ghz as a good long term overclock for any Ryzen chip. 4Ghz sure is nice but the gains are minimal and the voltage and thermal cost high compared to faster RAM.
PS: 1.42V ish is around a safe voltage limit.
How My 1700X does:
3800Mhz
1.2500V in the BIOS.
Load Line calibration 5
Drops to 1.231V under heavy load.
Note: I believe I got some kind of golden nugget of silicon as it even appears to remainsstable if I tweak the voltage to allow a voltage drop to 1.19V, but I don’t trust it
How My other older 1700X does:
3800MHz
1.31V in the BIOS.
Load Line Calibration 5
Drops to 1.232V under heavy load.
Wow is what I literally said to myself when I saw your reply. Your points and suggestions are easy to understand and you’re actually explaining why I gotta do the steps that you’ve said. I’ll now go back to OCing with these tips in my mind.
After you get to a satisfactory 3.8GHz baseline and want to go further you can start to tweak LLC to Level 4 or 3 as needed and up the voltages.
Do note however that Higher Load Line calibrations (Lower values) result in the voltage remaining higher under load and higher at idle thus dramatically increasing temperatures.
After 3.8Ghz some chips may also require you to increase the SoC voltage to around 1V to 1.02V this has a large effect on the CPU’s data fabric and RAM stability and is required to get higher CPU and RAM clocks.
The trick here is always to keep voltages as low as reasonably possible.
Which means a lot of rebooting. Generally avoid the Ryzen Master tool as something about it allows one to get working clocks and Voltages while in Windows but then using those same voltages set in the BIOS often doesn’t allow the system to POST correctly.
I wrote 1.02
Increasing the SoC voltage to above 1.1V already has terrible effects on the data fabric long term. Also a noticeable increase in heat and power draw. Only on The APU’s is 1.2V useful where the SoC includes the GPU.
And even with the maddest RAM tweaks you can get away with 1.04V SoC if you adjust VDDP/MemVTT a bit instead.
So I managed to get to 3.800MHz with
1.218V in the Bios
Load Line Calibration 5 (Auto)
Drops to 1.176V under heavy load.
I tried going with 1.2V but it didn’t even last an hour under prime95, only lasted around 45min. So I bumped it a bit more to 1.218V and ran prime95 for 3 hours and everything looked stable.
I’m pretty happy with where I’m at atm. I tried 3.9GHz for some time but It wasn’t as easy to reach as 3.8GHz. So I’m taking a break and start using this comp haha.
