How to get 3700X CPU to operate within advertised clock speeds?

[Nicholas Steel]

In Task Manager the CPU is reported as operating above 4GHz when running various intense programs, but in AMD Ryzen Master most (if not all) CPU Cores are reported as operating well below the base clock speed of 3.6GHz.

How do I configure my ASUS Crosshair Hero VIII WiFi motherboard so that CPU Cores will remain within the advertised clock speeds, while striving for peak performance when demanded instead of aggressively conserving power?

There's no Cool 'n' Quiet nor C1E & EIST (which is Intel, I know) style option in the BIOS. Even manually specifying a CPU Core clockspeed multiplier doesn't stop it happening.

Also why the incongruency between Task Manager and AMD Ryzen Master when it comes to reporting clockspeed? Task manager reports 4GHz while Ryzen Master will report most CPU Cores are under 800MHz and 2 of them are around 1,400MHz when running Bizhawk for example, with Ryzen Master reporting the 2 busy CPU Cores dropping to 825MHz when the program is minimized which results in performance issues for the minimized program. Another example would be DOSBox, my Ryzen 3700X is emulating DOS games with notably worse performance than a 3.6GHz overclocked Intel i7 920 CPU, a 12 year old CPU. Right now with only Firefox open all CPU Cores are operating at 325MHz with various cores jumping up to 800-1,200MHz when I move the mouse courser.

I have a Noctua NH D14 heatsink.

[RedSector73]

Put it back to Auto and Enjoy.

Enable PBO if you have decent AIO on it.
Testing with a suitable workload. Use CINEBENCH R20

Personally I'd uninstall Ryzen Master as well.

[Silent Scone@ROG]

As above, as each individual CPU is different. You will likely find that obtainable clocks increase marginally with an AIO or custom cooling as air cooling doesn't offer enough thermal headroom on Zen.

[Nicholas Steel]

The search continues, I'm still looking for a way to keep the CPU Cores from dropping well below the advertised base clock speed regardless of work load. ie: a setting that's equivalent to turning off Cool 'n' Quiet or C1E & EIST. I'm not looking for an option to overclock.

I know how to disable the Idle State within the Windows Power Plan using a 3rd party program, but that causes the CPU to always run at boosted clock speeds for as long as heat and power permit... which is not what I want (makes the room super toasty and wastes a lot of power, all cores run at 4.2GHz and very slowly decay over time regardless of work load according to Ryzen Master).

I've updated the original post to make the situation clearer.

Put it back to Auto and Enjoy.

Enable PBO if you have decent AIO on it.
Testing with a suitable workload. Use CINEBENCH R20

Personally I'd uninstall Ryzen Master as well.

Considering Ryzen Master is the only program telling me the truth about how my CPU is operating... I'm going to keep it installed. Every other program reports the CPU as operating like you'd expect but don't offer per-core Clock Speed read outs. Ryzen Master shows the actual operating speed of each individual CPU Core and doesn't lie about the clock speeds in my experience. Only downside is the polling rate is abysmal.

Edit: Disabling PBO seems to result in Ryzen Master reporting higher clock speeds for various tested work loads, but it still aggressively underclocks when idle and still operates below base clock speed for a lot of programs.

[Silent Scone@ROG]

Hello,

This has already been answered for you. PBO will operate within voltage, temperature, and current limits. Therefore upgrading your cooling capacity will aid in maintaining a higher peak boost. However, as already mentioned each individual CPU is different.

Enabling AutoOC + 200MHz will allow the CPU to boost beyond the conventional PBO method assuming the conditions above are met, and there is headroom.

Within regards to the point of "regardless of workload", it sounds like you're not accepting of how the boost algorithm works, which isn't something within ones control.

Hope this helps.

[Nicholas Steel]

Hello,

This has already been answered for you. PBO will operate within voltage, temperature, and current limits. Therefore upgrading your cooling capacity will aid in maintaining a higher peak boost. However, as already mentioned each individual CPU is different.

Enabling AutoOC + 200MHz will allow the CPU to boost beyond the conventional PBO method assuming the conditions above are met, and there is headroom.

Within regards to the point of "regardless of workload", it sounds like you're not accepting of how the boost algorithm works, which isn't something within ones control.

Hope this helps.

When I buy a CPU advertised as having a base clock speed of 3.6GHz, I expect it to operate at at minimum, 3.6GHz. My CPU does not do that, most tasks I do result in the CPU operating below 3.6GHz. I want the CPU and all cores, to operate at a minimum of 3.6GHz while still boosting to 4.3GHz as the need arises. The Noctua NH D14 should be more than sufficient for this task.

I trust Ryzen Master and its reporting of clock speeds over other programs.