Zenith II Extreme the new BIOS 0902 higher power consumption than 0802

[chemcup]

I flashed the new BIOS version 0902 and with this BIOS and the same setting as with version 0807 PBO enable the CPU 3990x with the new BIOS will boost to a lower frequency (3.5GHz) than the 0807 (3.9GHz) and consumes higher power.
Is ASUS continuing to sabotage this motherboard BIOS to force more customers to buy the Alpha.
Anyone with the Alpha can test whether the new BIOS behaves the same.

Also the 3990x memory problem is not fixed.

[Arne Saknussemm]

Working well here with 3960X...will try 3970X

[betaman10]

PBO seems to be working the same for me on the Alpha boosting to 3.65-3.7 under full load just like it was on 0807. I am actually surprised you are able to get PBO working on the non alpha I was never able to get it stable when I turned it on. It would boot into Windows just fine, but any load would cause the machine to reboot.

[chemcup]

What about the power consumption, do you see a difference?

[betaman10]

nope power consumption is the same 500-520w for the cpu.

[IxelIxel]

I'm still on 0702. I've been keeping an eye on the BIOS updates and feedback and it makes me think I'm better off staying with 0702 even though it's an older version. I also have a 3990X and wasn't amused when I found out that I purchased what now appears to be an obsolete motherboard when ASUS announced the alpha variant weeks after I had purchased and installed the Zenith II Extreme in advance of the CPU's release. I was one of the lucky few to get my hands on the 3990X over a week early however, so not all bad I guess . I did ask ASUS on their Twitter about this problem and they never replied, which I guess goes to show how poor their customer service is. Usually good quality products but if you need support then you're likely to be out of luck.

[macmus]

looks like temps on 902 and Alpha are quite higher with same bios settings.. could be power consumption.. Voltage has increased ?

[betaman10]

idk maybe a degree or 2 difference between the 2 bioses I wouldn't say quite higher for me at least. The one thing I am constantly amazed by is how much cooler the 3990x is over my 3970x. Same cooler and I noticed this with the 3990x on the base non alpha and thought oh its because the memory controller isn't working, but now with the memory set to the same 3600mhz as the 3970x. Doing the same Aida64 FPU stress I would constantly bump up against the 95C limit on the 3970x sure it was at 3.9ghz, but on the 3990x at 3.6ghz same test same everything else I stabilize at 80C. So not sure how double the cores and only a 300mhz loss in perf can result in a 15C temp difference. The only thing I can think is AMD is putting golden CCXs on the 3990x because they are charging so much. No clue, but its amazing and for that reason alone I think is worth the extra 2k AMD wants for the chip.

[IxelIxel]

idk maybe a degree or 2 difference between the 2 bioses I wouldn't say quite higher for me at least. The one thing I am constantly amazed by is how much cooler the 3990x is over my 3970x. Same cooler and I noticed this with the 3990x on the base non alpha and thought oh its because the memory controller isn't working, but now with the memory set to the same 3600mhz as the 3970x. Doing the same Aida64 FPU stress I would constantly bump up against the 95C limit on the 3970x sure it was at 3.9ghz, but on the 3990x at 3.6ghz same test same everything else I stabilize at 80C. So not sure how double the cores and only a 300mhz loss in perf can result in a 15C temp difference. The only thing I can think is AMD is putting golden CCXs on the 3990x because they are charging so much. No clue, but its amazing and for that reason alone I think is worth the extra 2k AMD wants for the chip.

At a guess, it could be that the 3990X has the best binned cores compared to the other threadripper processors in the same generation. It's extremely power efficient under full load, each core only consumes a few watts each which for the performance of the 3990X in my view is simply amazing power efficiency. You may even potentially be able to squeeze more power effiency out of the CPU, if it's like the 3970X for example. For the 3970X they (computerbase article?) were able to reduce the PPT by around 30% I believe, with only around a 10% performance drop on that CPU.