AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT review - Overclocking and tweaking

Name: AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT review
Brand: AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 07/07/2020 03:00 PM [

] 63 comment(s)

Overclocking and tweaking by BIOS

When you plan to overclock the processor, always invest in good hardware. And that includes a proper motherboard, power supply, memory and of course, cooling. Cheaper motherboards are often not well tuned or designed in terms of power delivery for enthusiast overclocking. That can translate into a lesser power delivery (phases) design quickly warming up the related components, causing instability. Also, never underestimate the benefits of a quality power supply. Most Silver rated ones we can recommend.

When you tweak a processor, depending on what you are trying to achieve, you often need to add voltage to the processor, that in turn creates more heat. Ergo, proper processor cooling is mandatory. Overclocking with a many-core processor (doesn't matter if that is Intel or AMD) is often more difficult to accomplish. If you overclock by BIOS (which 99% of us do), really it all comes down to the quality of the BIOS (mobo brand), and merely a few registers you need to fiddle with.

Remember that we're going for an all-core overclock and that means a lower clock frequency than the highest Turbo bin offers. What you need to do:

Enable and start at 4100 MHz (41 Multiplier)
Apply ~1.40 to the CPU (or simply leave it at auto)
Work your way upwards from there until the system becomes unstable and then back down at least 100 MHz.

The new XT processors have been pushed to the max. Tweaking them while applying more voltage will increase heat levels rapidly. With LCS (280mm) we rapidly passed 85 Degrees C closing in at 90 Degrees C. We reached an all-core 4400 MHz and some might be able to hit 4500 MHz, however, the results are barely better. Leave the processor at defaults we'd say as AMD already did the maximum refining and tweaking for you.

29 pages « < 26 27 28 29

AMD Ryzen 9 7900 processor review
AMD also released a Ryzen 9 7900, this 65W non-X model offers absolutely beautiful performance and temperatures. Next to the 7700, this actually might become a best seller in the current Ryzen 7000 pr...

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 processor review
We check out AMD's new non-X Ryzen 7 7700 series 8-core processor, and it impressed me far more than the original X model. The newer version's performance is superior, and its thermal design power ...

AMD Ryzen 5 7600 processor review
AMD has released the non-X version of their Ryzen 7000 series processor. The new update isn't intended for extreme performance but is tagged with a far friendlier 65W TDP. And that means better heat ...

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X processor review
For our 4th and last Ryzen 7000 review, we look at the 12-core part, and meet the Ryzen 9 7900X. A processor that is going to be less popular due to that somewhat odd core configuration, make no mista...