System performance decreases while playing games.
System performance decreases while playing games.
Your Ryzen 9 5900X seems to run smoothly under load with stable temperatures, but during games it drops significantly in clock speed and voltage appears inconsistent. This could be due to driver issues, power delivery problems, or thermal throttling under certain conditions. Checking BIOS settings, ensuring proper cooling, and verifying power supply stability might help resolve the issue.
We track clock speed closely. Most chips have a few cores ramping up to around 5GHz, while others stay slower to manage heat. PBO seems unusual.
I rely on a hardware monitor, GPU-Z, and AMD Ryzen Master for clock measurements. While gaming, I use the overlay from AMD Adrenaline Software. It's possible you're correct; I'll conduct additional benchmarks and verify my core frequencies during gameplay.
I confirmed your observation, Ronothan. Your three or four cores consistently run around 4.9ghz during games, with the others adjusting based on demand.
Determine the method to lower the voltage. 1.5 volts exceeds the safe range for 4.9ghz.
Use the curve optimizer in the BIOS, adjust the negative offset. 1.5V works well for that chip, temperatures should be acceptable. It falls near the upper safe range but remains secure.
I'm using a 420mm AIO and my temperatures shouldn't increase much. I believe I can achieve even higher temps near 1.3v. I plan to adjust clocks, voltage, and the curve optimizer manually. I haven't made any changes yet because I just purchased a new CPU recently.
You won't achieve a single core up to 4.9GHz using just 1.3V; these processors require much higher voltages to reach stable speeds above 4.5-4.6GHz, and even then the voltage drops significantly under light loads. Reducing the voltage only cuts performance by a few hundred MHz at best. Keeping the clocks in auto mode with PBO can further hurt speed because Ryzen tends to overclock aggressively, leading to noticeable drops—around 10% or more. For multi-threaded tasks, you’ll lose roughly 400MHz and expect about a 10% decrease in gaming performance. CPUs from 3000 onwards are usually best left at stock settings for regular use; overclocking them can quickly degrade stability. Curve Optimizer and PBO limits might help slightly, but they’re not reliable for long-term stability. The Curve Optimizer mainly shifts the V/F curve without much real impact on single-thread speeds, while PBO sweet spots depend heavily on workload. Your 5900X is likely running at a high setting (300 PPT, 188 TDC, 195 EDC) based on your testing, so actual numbers may vary.
Choose the appropriate motherboard and ensure you have the most recent chipset drivers for AMD, along with the latest BIOS updates.