CPU Degradation?
CPU Degradation?
Hello, I own a Ryzen 7 3700X that I purchased six years ago. I noticed a decline in its performance over time. When the system was first installed, it ran at up to 4.4 GHz, which met my needs. The builder suggested I be satisfied with that speed. I only changed one setting—enabled XMP—but didn’t know why he did. About six months ago, I observed a drop in performance again, and now under heavy load (C24), it reaches 4 GHz. I updated the BIOS and switched to Windows 11, but the issue persisted. I checked temperatures; they remain around 76°C, though I replaced my paste last week to PTM7950, which brought them down to about 84°C. Without stress, spikes up to 4.3 GHz appear in HWiNFO, but only occasionally and not across all cores for a short time. I reinstalled Dragon Center and AMD Ryzen Master, turned PBO on, and updated chipset drivers, yet the problem continues. Searching online didn’t yield a clear solution. Personally, I prefer leaving voltage tweaks to others since automatic settings worked fine. I’m not ready for an upgrade just yet—perhaps around Christmas—and if at all, I’d consider upgrading CPU, GPU, and RAM (PSU too). I suspect the issue might be related to aging components. PC Parts: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING OC, MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI, Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 (2x8GB), SilentiumPC Supremo FM2 Gold 750W, Corsair Hydro Series H100i PRO CW-9060033-WW, Samsung 990 PRO 1TB (boot drive), Samsung 980 1TB (game drive).
Without special overclocking or extreme cooling, the R7 3700X won’t reach 4.4GHz across all cores. If you can get a chip to run at that speed on every core, it’s a strong processor. Many modern Zen 2 CPUs fall short of this benchmark. It seems you might be confusing it with older games or lower-core workloads where achieving 4.4GHz was feasible.
I used a 3600XT and it performed well at 4500MHz at 1.325 and 4600MHz at 1.3375v. That indicates solid silicon. PBO seems problematic for anything under Zen 3, I think. It’s mostly about keeping static clocks stable if you manage the heat.