Clock speed on Ryzen 5950x appears elevated.
Clock speed on Ryzen 5950x appears elevated.
Hey everyone! Welcome back! I’m just getting back into PCs after a long time. My last machine was from 2004, and I didn’t really need a desktop for years. Now I have some work to do, so here’s what I’ve got: Ryzen 5950X, Corsair Ballistix 3600 (2x16GB), MSI GamingX Trio 3080, 1TB WD Black SN850, PSU RMA 850X Gold, Corsair H100i cooler, NXT 511 compact case. I know it’s not the best for cooling, but I liked the case.
I’m running into some heat issues – in idle it’s around 47-52°C, Prime95 hits 72°C, and playing Cyberpunk pushes it up to 84°C! (I thought Prime95 should make it hotter than Cyberpunk, but then I changed coolers because the first one failed.)
When idle, the clock stays near 4.4 GHz. My power plan is set to balanced, which drops it to about 1.7 GHz and cuts temperatures down to around 34°C. But in benchmark tests, scores drop a lot, so I’m not sure if that’s ideal.
My question: shouldn’t the CPU stay at 3.4 GHz in idle? Not 4.4? Is there a way to fix this? I’ve checked Ryzen Master but don’t know where to start. I don’t want to overclock, just want good performance and lower temps. Any advice would be great! Thanks!
Stock Ryzen performance feels odd sometimes, with random spikes. You can track it using Ryzen Master instead of Task Manager. Regarding why Prime95 stays cooler than Cyberpunk, it likely uses all cores evenly, spreading heat out. Games usually run fewer threads, so the CPU pushes more power into those cores to achieve higher boosts, concentrating heat in one spot and raising the temperature reading that shows the peak value.
It's typical for Ryzen to run with many cores packed into a compact space. The 240mm radiator provides decent cooling but feels comparable to a high-end air cooler. If you look at Ryzen Master, you'll notice most cores are idle. A good approach is to follow the tips in this video—it can help reduce temperatures and boost performance. Ryzen 5000 Undervolting with PBO2 – Definitely Worth Trying - YouTube
Hey team, great insights overall. Yep, Ryzen Master is displaying different behavior than Task Manager, so I’ll proceed with the undervolting now—based on what I watched too. Thanks! Updated: completed undervolting following the video; thermal performance looks improved. Got around the same score on Geekbench, maybe a bit better single. Awesome!