Check if your 8pin CPU power connector is limiting performance.
Check if your 8pin CPU power connector is limiting performance.
I just acquired a solid 5900x and a decent board (ASUS B550-F). I set up a powerful AIO system (Arctic Freezer push-pull with six fans as intake) because the room temperature is quite low where I live. Since I didn’t have a sleeved 4pin CPU cable, I only connected the 8pin for the CPU. When idle, the CPU clocks reach 4.55GHz. During gaming it stays at that speed, but when rendering all cores are active it drops to 4.3GHz. It runs quite cold during gaming and reaches 70°C under full load. I’m curious if upgrading to a 4pin cable that connects all 12 pins could help push performance even higher. Do you think the CPU is the main limitation, or is there another issue?
Launch Ryzen Master and keep an eye on the CPU's power draw while you run benchmarks or another activity. This is the simplest method to see if the processor is throttling due to insufficient energy. If it seems stuck at around 150 watts or higher, you’ll know it’s happening.
a regular gaming clock is likely to become less stable under heavy workloads. for instance, your older Ryzen 5 2600 runs smoothly at 4.2ghz in games, but if it can’t drop to 4.0ghz during an all-core test, your system will probably crash. this usually happens because the cooler can’t handle higher voltages. it seems your CPU is likely underclocking during intense tasks to avoid failure. you might notice a gradual change: browsing at one core uses around 4.8ghz, gaming lowers it to 4.5ghz, and benchmarking brings it down further to 4.3ghz if the issue isn’t power-related.