High voltage performance but slow clock speeds
High voltage performance but slow clock speeds
Hey, I have a question about my issue. I'm currently using a 3600XT and switched to the XT variant for my silicon processor. It was on sale, but after some experience with older processors, I noticed problems when I exceeded 4.5GHz (1.4V core, 1.2V voltage). Those times were really unstable. But at around 4.475GHz (1.325V core, 0.875V), everything worked fine. What could be causing this? My motherboard is an Asus B450M-A Pro, and I think I turned off all the protections. Is there a limit on clock speeds? I picked up English from Linus, so don’t worry about my grammar!
You need to acknowledge that with today's chip designs, both AMD and Intel are pushing much higher clock speeds than usual just to stay competitive. This results in heavily categorized chips, reduced yields, and only trying to extract more performance from each unit... I don’t believe this will improve with the new 5xxx AMD chips, even though they use a newer process node. It’s mainly because they still operate at very high frequencies. I often miss when overclocking was simple—like running 333 celerons at 500 MHz while the OS handled it smoothly.
You're approaching the limit, and I'm confident it won't hold up under heavy use. Likely the maximum clock speed will be around 4.4 to 4.45. CPU performance varies, and manufacturing inconsistencies make it hard to predict exactly. Just because one unit reaches 4.6 doesn't guarantee your unit will do the same—especially without stable voltage and cool temperatures. The 3600XT supports a base clock of 3.8 and a turbo clock of 4.5, so you're safe at 3.8, but only one core can reliably hit 4.5 for a short period.