Run Ryzen 3700X at 4.3GHz with 3600c15 RAM
Run Ryzen 3700X at 4.3GHz with 3600c15 RAM
I thought about placing some benches around the 3700X for anyone who might be interested. For fun, I managed to push my CPU to 4.3GHz at speeds of 1.32 to 1.34v. I haven’t experimented with lower voltages yet. It seems memory overclocking also boosts performance on certain tests. I’ve really liked this new processor since my Ryzen 2600. There are many fresh features and BIOS settings to discover for those who enjoy tweaking. I’m not sure if newer BIOS updates will aid optimization or let us go beyond 4.3GHz, but I haven’t been able to exceed it. I’ve used Ryzen Master, but it feels unfamiliar. I try adjusting different cores as I saw on Reddit, though it didn’t help much—some cores stayed at their set speed while others hovered around 3.6GHz. Eventually I gave up. Here’s the highest stable 4.3GHz overclock using a 3600 15-15-15-15-35 1T profile. I think this really improved my score. You can adjust it manually in Heros BIOS under Advanced > AMD Overclocking > DDR Overclocking. For context, these are average Geekbench scores for the 9900K model. One example shows 3200MHz with a 16-16-16-16-38 pattern. Check these links for more details:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13964545
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13964414
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13964575
It seems your device consistently operates at a higher setting than expected.
I leave it turned off but haven't checked this configuration in both directions to see if it helps. By default, your CPU should run at 4.3 across all cores? Sounds good. This is just for reference. What I notice is that few people seem to use it effectively. From what I've read, performance is better than average.
I question if a 3600 operates smoothly at 4.3 across all cores consistently. I’m very unsure it maintains that speed at 1.35 volts without an overclock. It could jump to 4.3 only when conditions are just right and PBO is activated. My unit will stay around 4.2 across all cores, but with the "game mode" or whatever the BIOS labels as active turned on. Essentially it’s built-in auto-overclocking in the BIOS. It runs steady at 4.2 constant, varying between 1.01 and 1.35 based on workload.
I thought it would work. It’s running a bit above 4.2. When I checked PBO, Asus’s performance enhancer, and some other methods, I still didn’t see those multi-core or single-core scores—even after boosting past 4.3.
Ya, I tried some pbo setting in my bios called enhanced mode or something. It gives four options and 3 seemed to work best. 4 gave me the results but ran really hot because it boosted the voltage to like 1.44 volts. 3 gave me the same results with lower temps. And even though it was boosting to like 4.325 the constant 4.2 overclcock beat it in most of my benchmarks, and it ran cooler because somehow it can do 4.2 at around 1.1 volts unless you hit it really hard with something. I wanted to straight up over clock it and see what it would do but it doesn't seem to be an option with my board and bios. I have the tomahawk b450 with the new 1.9 bios and for some reason there is a bunch of stuff you can't change in it. No matter what I try I can never enable changing the core clock. And I can't manually adjust anything with the PBO. The options are all there, it just won't let you adjust them, and some of them you can't get out of auto mode. If I really wanted to play around I guess I should have got the gigabite x570 I wanted for 200 bucks. But it went out of stock on newegg before I could buy it. And micro center had the b450 for like 65 bucks if got a cpu with it and they were in stock. I just had to drive an hour to get it. And my goal really wasn't to overclock this thing anyway. 140 dollars more for the ability to maybe overclock .1 ghz more really doesn't seem worthwhile lol. I might try it with software at some point if I get bored just to see what happens. I don't have high hopes though, I am betting I get maybe 4.25 without going to some crazy high voltage and temps on a 3600. I am shocked you got 4.3 at 1.35 volts from what I have been seeing on youtube. Considering I upgraded from a 1500x with no overclock running six cores at 4.2 is a huge improvement. I also went from a 1060 3 gig gpu to a 2070 FE and from 16 gigs of 3000 ram to 32 gigs of 3200 ram and I threw in a 240mm aio cooler for good measure. Seems like a lot for FSX, second life and youtube videos lmao.
I haven't spent time tweaking every setting, but in my setup, overclocking all cores doesn't seem worthwhile. My 3600 needs 1.42 v to hit a stable 4.3 ghz across the board. Temperatures are okay at 16°C ambient, around 66°C, but pushing to 4.4 ghz requires about 1.48 v. For gaming, I don't think the all-core boost adds much value, especially with the high voltage cost. The best setup I've managed is using the ASUS CCX OC—one unit at 4.4 ghz and another at 4.2 ghz—operating around 1.38-1.4 v when all cores are active.
I achieved stability on 4.3GHz at 1.35v, but pushing higher clock speeds regardless of voltage or temperature causes issues. It was unexpected how things turned out—appears 4.3 is the upper limit for my chip under these conditions. The Ryzen 3th seems to behave strangely when overclocking. Also, using PBO versus manual 4.3GHz with lower voltage improved Cinebench scores by about 200 points, raising it from 4880 to 5080.
During PBO or when you manually overclock, the TDP does increase for the third generation as well. I believe the TDP figures AMD provides are accurate when you don’t use PBO or any other overclocking methods. After reviewing benchmark data from manual overclocking versus PBO, most people see similar outcomes, but I notice a noticeable boost if I push the CPU to 4.3 and let it rely on PBO. Am I making a mistake? The temperatures stay below 76°C in both scenarios, which suggests PBO isn’t causing thermal throttling (maybe?).