The CPU That Broke the Camel's Back (3800x Horror Tale)
The CPU That Broke the Camel's Back (3800x Horror Tale)
I've had issues with my 3800x from the beginning. Nothing major, just mild instability issues: a random crash once a week, screen flickering, random slowness, and most infuriating of all, wildly fluctuating CPU temps I still, to the time of me writing this, have not gotten under control. This CPU has lasted through 3 different motherboards and CPU coolers, 4 different cases, and a GPU swap, and I absolutely hate it. Then ClockTuner for Ryzen released, and this program is the reason I'm finally biting the bullet and upgrading. To be fair, my 3800x performs, I assume, within spec. Default out of the box, it runs mostly fine. When I first built the PC I was using bottom of the barrel parts in a MicroATX system. I assumed the general, infrequent instability was just from the $100 AsRock Mobo. As I began to upgrade the system, however, and after each small iteration, it became clear who the culprit was. Again, in my current, far-more-advanced-than-the-first build, with an X570 Aorus Master, EK 360 AIO, and Corsair 850w Platinum yellow label, the only real issue I have at default settings is the CPU temp fluctuations. CPU temps float between 30c and 65c randomly at idle. On the silent fan profile, opening Chrome causes the fans to spin to 100%. This has been the case through 3 different motherboards, a top of the line air cooler, another liquid cooler, and finally this *literal* chart topping 360 AIO from EK Gaming. However, no amount of stress testing can get the CPU temps over 70c. 5 hours in Prime 95, it doesn't break a sweat. How does that make sense?! Then I heard about ClockTuner for Ryzen, and figured it could really help me. An auto undervolt to get my temps in check while possibly giving me a better Cinebench score? Hell yeah, sign me up. Well I wish I hadn't, cause I'm now the owner of, I think, the absolute WORST binned 3800x in existence. Ignorance is bliss. This program confirmed I have a "bronze" CPU, and you know the numbers it assigns to each CPU Core so you get an idea of their quality? My highest scoring core is lower than the lowest scoring core of the 2 CPU's in the 2 tutorial videos I watched to set the program up. Oh, and the program doesn't work for me. It causes my PC to crash every time. No matter what I do. I've changed all the settings I needed to in Bios, even some optional ones for extra stability. My 3800x was the sample used to determine the absolute baseline minimum for what constitutes a 3800x, and I'm convinced the wildly fluctuating temps are because my CPU struggles to turbo boost based on the default AMD specs. I don't blame AMD for this, and fully plan to upgrade to a 5000 series chip. I just really needed to vent, and perhaps even get confirming/competing opinions or experiences. EDIT: Also forgot to mention, it takes 1 minute for my PC to start on a gen 4 NVMe drive because the first time it gets to the POST screen, it restarts itself like there's some kind of bad bios setting, but NEVER fails to start successfully the second time. I've also adjusted every single bios setting to remedy this issue, but nothing works. Also Also, every 10th (ish, obviously the issue is completely random) startup it'll boot in to Windows, but nothing responds. No keyboard, mouse, USB won't respond. Have to do a hard reset.
It doesn't appear to adjust the voltage on my 3950X properly. The test claimed a 4050MHz frequency to reach 960mV, yet the SVI2 TFN sensor showed about 1.25V. I've used the newest Ryzen Master with no other programs running. It seems this version is still in beta, so some problems are normal. Regarding factory performance, I haven't noticed any big issues with the advertised 4.7GHz boost clock. My 3950X can handle it for up to two cores during single-thread tasks. Zen 2 has mostly worked well for me, except for the 560MHz boot issue, which is bothersome. My Infinity Fabric operates at 1900MHz without any noticeable problems, another positive point.
Your specs are solid. The 3700X and 3800X tend to perform quite similarly, especially with the 3800X offering a slight edge in performance.
I don't understand the meaning behind those words, but I'm sure it's not because I'm unintelligent.