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3700x constant boosting and high voltages

Associate
Joined
22 May 2011
Posts
288
Location
Smoggyville
Hi guys

Pc has not had any love for a very long time, and I'm really behind the curve on how Ryzen auto clocks so I have a question...

The good news is, i dropped the 3700x into my current x370 mobo (asrock taichi) and after a bios update it seems to be stable - and i guess i should be thankful for this painless update since I'm sure there was plenty of scope for this to FUBAR

Now what I've noticed that half my cores are boosting all the time (they're taking shifts), even when I'm essentially idle, with all the cores managing to get up to at least 4.35 and mostly 4.4 - which sounds kinda sweet, EXCEPT that means it's auto voltage is between 1.45 to 1.49!! Wouldn't care if this was during a gaming hour but this is all the time and I didn't know if that was acceptable and whether i should be concerned, or is there anything i can do to limit the voltage? Temps are being reported in the mid 60s max and so under control (HWINFO64), idle can be a bit high compared to my old 1700 but its hard to judge when there are always cores boosting.
 
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OP
Joined
22 May 2011
Posts
288
Location
Smoggyville
Doesn't sound abnormal too me. This is how Ryzen behaves.

You do have the latest AMD chipset drivers installed and are using one of the Ryzen power plans I hope?

Great, I just wanted to be certain, was not completely confident with dropping into the x370 so it's in my head that there may be issues when it fact everything has been smooth.

Yeah, I remembered reading about the power plans issues last year so made sure my chipset was up to date and using one of the ryzen power plans.
Cheers opethdisciple :)
 
Associate
Joined
1 Apr 2019
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1,524
Are you looking at "instant" clock or effective clock value?

PTWSEEA.png

Ryzen uses high voltage at very light loads to increase responsiveness. While the cores might be sitting at 1.4V, they may be doing almost nothing. That is reflected in Effective clock and temps. Temps under 40C at the time of this screenshot.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jan 2009
Posts
2,682
Location
Derby
Just got a 3700x myself and I was concerned too about high core speed but having watched what my RyZen does when idle on desktop I found that even though mine boosts to 4.2 or 4.3ghz idle my voltage only jumps from 1.0 to 1.1. I was worried it used 1.4v all the time but it doesn’t.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2003
Posts
10,032
Location
Newcastle, UK
Yep and if concerned you can always just manually lock it all in. I've done that with mine as it meant I could drop the voltage to help with heat and fan speed when not gaming. I think it cost me ~200Mhz on boost clock speed. So now it doesn't go to 4.2 on my 2600X I just sit all the time at 4GHz. Idles around 37ºC. CPU fan at about 650rpm.
 
Associate
Joined
13 Sep 2010
Posts
1,990
Also running a 3700x on x370 Taichi, ordered on launch day and installed the following weekend. No issues and behaving as you have described (and 'idle' are still mid 40's with a 240 + 280 radiator for just the CPU :D )

edit: (and yes it concerned me for a few days at first, until AMD came out and explained the reasons!)
 
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