Consider slowing down your Ryzen (R5 3600) for better performance and battery life.
Consider slowing down your Ryzen (R5 3600) for better performance and battery life.
So this is not a question, more of sharing my experience. I got a Ryzen 5 3600 with B450 Aorus Elite and a pair of 3600MHz CL17 ram sticks. I am runing air cooling - SilentiumPC Spartan 3 Pro. I am not sure if you have SPC overseas but it is a budget brand that makes pretty good stuff. First I got into OC and squeezed 4.175GHz at 1.36V and then THE idea came. I want a silent PC. I don't need 4.175 GHz for daily driving and if I do, I can now just swotch it in Ryzen Master. So in first step, I turned down my clocks manually to 3.9GHz and tried to go as low as possible with voltage. My CPU is stable at 1.16V. With proper fan curve, it can run on passive cooling 50% of the time and when fans spin, they are very silent. But why not push it further? So I went further down with voltage - as far as it gets and then clocked it as high as possible. I found out that in order to go bellow 0.95V, you would have to dramatically decrease clocks. So my last stable voltage is 0.95V. I managed to make it run at 3.5 GHz with such voltage. At this point, PC is passively cooled 80-90% of the time - with my cheap 20 eur air cooler! I have yet to do some extensive stability tests, but it went through a couple CB R20 runs, several minutes of Prime 95, couple hours of gaming and many hours of regular use. The best thing? Even with the heaviest underclock, it manages to get about 3000 points on Cinebench which as far as I know, is comparable to R5 2600x. Not bad, right? The only downside is that the computer sometimes crashes if I switch to underclock under load. I think the reason is that it immediately cuts the voltage while CPU is still clocked high...? It only crashes in this particular scenario. Did anyone else try this? What are your thoughts or advices to make it even better? EDIT: idk if this is relevant, but I currently run RAM at 3200MHz and CL16 with coupled infinity fabric at 1600MHz because the sticks I bought are faulty and cannot go to 3600 or even 3400MHz. If I run XMP, I get BSOD (that was before I did any OC/UC on CPU). I will get new ones and try to get them running at 3600 (ideally CL16 or less) and IF at 1800. I will see if my UC remains stable.
Running stock alone doesn't provide a stable reference; it needs an offset to correct voltage variations.
It seems you're looking for more performance optimization on your Ryzen. You want it to handle heavy tasks smoothly, especially with the new chipset supporting 2.2GHz and low idle power usage. You're concerned about fan speeds and whether the processor is meeting expectations at around 30-34°C. You also mention worries about RAM speeds and potential hardware issues.
I started testing the minimum voltage capability to understand how low it could operate. I’m considering checking for voltage offset in Ryzen Master, but I’m unsure if it will run consistently or match the fixed voltage and clock settings. I plan to compare the results.
Suggested approach using Bios settings. Ryzen supports very low voltage operation. At the specified clock speed you'll achieve comparable outcomes, though power consumption increases slightly while performance improves under full load.
Whatever I do in bios, cannot be operatively switched without restarting PC. If I decrease voltage by offset in bios, I cannot get 4.175 ghz without restart. My ryzen runs at 1.45V at idle. And with tweaks, it runs 0.95 max. Huge temperature difference and absolute silence. I can get my OC with one click and have the full power. Bios upgrade would lower my voltages but I am not upgrading my bios unless I find a really good reason. It would take away my PCIe gen 4 that I may want in the future. I will wait either until I desperately need it, or until they return with PCIe gen 4 support.
Considering whatever trends emerge ahead. Possibly quicker Gen 4 storage options or enhanced GPUs. What will it be? Why discard it? This isn<|pad|>, not for testing but for regular tasks. I seek smooth performance, energy efficiency, and a relaxed clock speed for everyday activities like browsing Facebook or drafting documents. The ultimate settings with maximum practical speed. All options are ready whenever needed. Adjusting voltage in BIOS lets me lower power or boost it, but not both at once. I need optimal efficiency and top performance. Switching between these settings in Ryzen Master is entirely acceptable.