Improved settings on the 5900X outperform manual adjustments!
Improved settings on the 5900X outperform manual adjustments!
Your temperatures are quite high during that overclock, and you're not offsetting your voltage properly. It seems you're struggling to maintain a stable output above 20.5kV with PBO and the curve optimizer. Your best stable setting right now is: core voltage, offset, -0.125 volts PBO Advanced Scalar 10x 200MHz, auto curve optimization, all cores at -14.4GHz with a boost to around 5.15/5.05GHz on Cinebench when temps are near 75°C. You've tried other configurations—some gave higher per-core temps but with much higher heat (up to 90°C with Noctua Dh15). I think there might be something off in your approach or settings.
Hey there. I just tried the same settings MRdoubtful shared and it performed well with a Cinebench score around 22500 on the first attempt. Sometimes it reaches 22300, 223500, or even 22400. When running Cine for me, the maximum temperature stayed between 82-83°C. Correct me if I'm off, but I believe Ryzen will begin throttling if temperatures exceed 85°C, which could explain the difference. The curve only lets frequency rise when it’s safe, which is why I’m seeing this behavior. My setup uses an Arctic liquid freezer II 280mm AIO—one of the larger models you can get without going for the 360mm range. If it’s having trouble that much, it makes sense that NHD15 would struggle more since the cooler takes time to soak up heat around 3 minutes and Cine finishes faster, allowing the AIO to sustain higher clock speeds during short bursts like this. If I ran Cine continuously for 10-15 minutes, I might not reach as high a score.
Interesting... I own an ASUS X570-E gaming board, which limits me to around 30 on the curve optimizer. It looks like I achieved a stable overclock with -10 on the fastest cores and -20 on the others, yet Cinebench still shows similar performance but clocks are running faster. I’m curious if it’s related to my memory—having four 16GB GSKILL RAM sticks. I also had to adjust the voltage offset to -0.11875 to reach the temperatures I prefer. Probably my main concern is balancing memory and CPU voltage, since others seem to get good results by overclocking but I always need to tweak the voltage to keep temps manageable.
Not every motherboard is identical. The X570 MAG Tomahawk offers some of the most affordable X570 options, featuring VRMs comparable to those in 400-500dol boards. This could influence performance slightly, but it might also reflect a silicon lottery outcome that impacts chip compatibility. Additionally, ASUS X570 models are generally well-suited for overclocking.
I just observed the x570 Strix from Asus lacks the AGESA 1180 yet, haha. Perhaps I'll check again once the BIOS updates are complete... Thanks for the advice!
It's noted that the version isn't 1.1.8.0 yet; it's expected soon and I'm looking forward to it. It should improve Curve Optimizer performance and add NVIDIA Direct Memory support, similar to AMD SAM.
A 280mm AIO offers noticeable improvements over the Noctua Dh15, mainly in temperature stability and quiet operation. The newer Phanteks models also look appealing and provide a solid performance upgrade.
Uncertain about the Arctic Liquid freezer II 240,280,360 AIOs; they seem to be among the top AIO options despite being budget-friendly. I'm not sure how long they'll last. Gamers nexus praised them highly, calling them a solid product overall. They might outperform the NHD15 by just 2-4°C, especially for short tasks like CINEBENCH. Running it continuously for an hour could make your AIO overheat too.
I've never relied on a solid air cooler initially; I went straight for AIOs and custom setups when I began building about three years ago. Now I own a reasonably affordable $70 240 Cooler Master AIO (until I upgrade to the 68(9)00 XT model), and it barely reaches around 70°C during long gaming sessions, mainly in Warzone, MW, and Apex. I'm genuinely impressed how it protects my 5900X, though I believe I've got decent heat sinking. I'll monitor my temperatures while running r20/r23 and share the results. As someone else mentioned, AIOs take longer to stabilize, so gaming is the best method for checking temps—unless you're doing more demanding tasks like video editing or streaming. I didn't know what the other person had, but they seemed to be using the same cooler as me and reported being 10-15°C warmer in Warzone. To your earlier comment: I don’t undervolt, and I locked my frequency when I tried it before, so I haven’t revisited it since. I might try it again when the next BIOS update arrives for my board.
Forgive me if my interpretation is off, but the curve optimizer is running in negative values, which is basically undervolting in a more refined manner. This tool helps reduce voltage curves to achieve greater overclocking potential at the end while minimizing heat and power use early on. It's an intriguing technology, especially for Ryzen systems, and when it performs as expected, you'll notice lower voltages paired with higher boosts—definitely a win-win scenario.