PC components: 7800x3d, 7900xtx, 32gb ram corsair vengeance 6000mhz cl30, Gigabyte b650 aorus elite ax rev 1.2.

I built my first pc couple of weeks ago and I limit vsoc to 1.2njust for precaution and saw many posts about the PBO and curve optimizer so I set it to -20.

I know CO allows my cpu to run beyond its limit for better performance, but what exactly does it do?

• Does it affect performance in gaming?

• Does it lower temps or increase them?

• Does it affect the cpu lifespan?

• Difference between negative and positive offsets

• And most importantly do I really need it?

Thanks a lot and sorry for asking too many questions!

Asking because it seems while browsing that most of them can't achieve anywhere near that and I want to make sure I'm not just hallucinating stability as it's my first Ryzen system ( last AMD system was an Athlon that served me well ).

Here's how it went. I first updated the bios to the latest version from MSI. Then installed Ryzen Master and Cinebench R23 as well as several other stress tests like Prime 95, AIDA, etc. I have the CL30 6000 ram on EXPO settings ( VDDIO lowered to 1.3 manually, EXPO had set it to 1.4 :/ ), also set memory context restore to enabled for the absurdly faster boot times.

Went in -5 steps on the curve optimizer, ran the included Ryzen Master "stress test" for stability, then ran a Cinebench with all apps I could stop stopped in windows for ideal replicability of results ( cinebench results can fluctuate quite a bit even doing this ), anti virus off and everything I could think of.

Noted the results and kept going on with more -5 steps. Turns out that -30 is where if I go any further, I start getting consistent performance degradation. -25 will get worse results, same for -28, -35 and -32.

After that I ran a suite of Prime 95, AIDA, IBT and as many other stability stress tests I could. Then ran a few games ( Helldivers 2, Rimworld, Baldur's Gate 3 and a few others ), browsed, used handbrake and encoded a few videos with AV1, H265 and H264. Watched a few videos on youtube and MPC-HC and finally let it sit idle overnight with only HWinfo64 pinging the processor every 5000 milliseconds for info.

It's only been 24 hours and not a single crash yet. crosses fingers

Is there anything else I should look out for as far as voltages, settings, stability testing goes?

Any particularly finicky apps/games that are more prone to detect instability?

All counsel and tips would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT:

Thanks for the all the feedback. I'll put it to good use! :)

Hi guys,

I bought a 7800x3d, and so far I really enjoy it. I'm trying to set PBO + curve optimizer and coming from a 5900x and reading a lot of guides, it looks like best cores should not be able to have lower negative offset than the other ones. But so far my settings are:

core 0 -30

core 1* -35

core 2 -30

core 3** -30

core 4 -30

core 5-30

core 6 -20

core 7 -30

According to Ryzen Master, my best core is core 1* and second best is core 3**.

I rigorously tested these settings with OCCT, prime95 overnight and corecycler, an I had no errors.

So my question is, is it normal that my best core can handle such a low negative offset, lower than the "regular" cores? Also, for core 6, I couldn't get lower than 20, as it gave me errors. That is weird because according to OCCT, it should be the worst core out of them.

Thank you for your answers!

Let me start by saying that trying to configure your 9800X3D using PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) and CO (Curve Optimizer) - even in conjunction with the CPU Boost Clock Override set to 200 MHz - will not even get you close to making the most out of it.

This guide is not strictly an overclocking guide, because I stay 100% within the spec for the TSMC N4P node (which AMD does not do at stock, never mind with PBO).

So what bloody use is this guide going to be to you, you might be thinking.

Whilst remaining 100% within spec, without delidding, without the use of liquid metal, without exotic cooling or even an expensive custom loop (I use a sub $100 360 rad cooler) nor having to resort to ECLK overclocking (which is about as useful as a chocolate frying pan) the following is my score after a 10-minute CineBench R23 run with my 9800X3D

I always run the benchmark first to see the result and then run the benchmark a second time for the stats. The following are the stats for a second 10-minute run immediately following the run above. The snapshot was taken towards the end of that run

To begin with, you should have the CPU running at defaults (or after a clear CMOS or new BIOS update) and the only thing I would load is the XMP/EXPO profile for your RAM.

After booting into Windows, you should download two things:

1. Ryzen Master (Ryzen Master) The version that I use is the one headed "For Ryzen 3000 Series to 8000 Series processors".

2. Benchmate (Benchmate) This is a utility which downloads and launches benchmarking tools.

For configuring and benchmarking the CPU I use CineBench R23, and for configuring and benchmarking my RAM I use PyPrime. Both of these can be launched from Benchmate.

Why use CineBench R23 and not CineBench 2024 you ask?

There are two reasons for my choice of CineBench R23:

1. I did the experiment of comparing CineBench R23 to CineBench 2024, where I kept my CPU at stock (or the configuration it was in after a clear CMOS) and the only thing I varied was the configuration of my RAM from running at JEDEC (or stock) to fully configured.

The result was that going from my RAM running at JEDEC to fully configured (all the while running my CPU at stock) the difference in CPU score increase was the following:

a) The CPU score increase with CineBench R23 was 0.27%.
b) The CPU score increase with CineBench 2024 was 7.7%

I don't know about you, but if I want to benchmark my CPU, I want something that reflects the actual performance gain that I get from configuring my CPU and not have that score reliant on how my RAM is configured.

To my mind, anyone in the tech media who uses CineBench 2024 to reflect CPU performance - especially when it comes to comparing two different CPUs (such as Intel and AMD) running two different RAM speeds - is a cretin (hello Hardware Unboxed).

2) All of you have heard that CineBench is not "Real World" (although strangely enough Blender, which does the exact same thing, is) and has no bearing on gaming performance.

This of course is rubbish, because there is one aspect of gaming that very much does put a CineBench like load onto the CPU, and this is during the compiling of shaders.

What I have found is that the load put on the CPU during shader compilation is higher than that put on by CineBench 2024, but lower than that put on by Cinebench R23.

Thus, if you have used CineBench 2024 to optimally configure your CPU then it is not just possible, but probable, that your game will crash while compiling shaders, whereas if you have used CineBench R23 to optimally configure your CPU then you should have no problems with shader compilation.

Here are the differences between CineBench R23 when going from the CPU at stock and the RAM at JEDEC to the CPU still at stock and the RAM configured.

1. CPU Stock and RAM at JEDEC:

a) CineBench R23:

b) CineBench 2024:

2) CPU Stock, RAM fully configured:

a) CineBench R23:

b) CineBench 2024:

After configuring my CPU, I then configure my RAM, and to this end I use the utility PyPrime.

PyPrime is single threaded and runs with a realtime priority. I use the category 32B, meaning PyPrime calculates the prime numbers between zero and 32 billion.

The result is displayed in seconds, and of course the lower the number of seconds it takes the better the RAM is configured.

The clockspeed of my CPU does have some influence on the result (so it is not purely a RAM benchmark per se); however, that being said, because I only run it after I have configured my CPU the results with regard to configuring my RAM remain consistent.

Here is the initial PyPrime result with my 9800X3D running at stock (5.234 GHz) and my RAM at JEDEC:

Now the result with my 9800X3D configured to 5.5 GHz and my RAM fully optimized:

To show how sensitive the PyPrime is to RAM configuration, look at the following four scenarios:

1. My RAM at 6000 MT/s, Gear1 (UCLK=MEMCLK), FCLK 2000 And my 9800X3D running at 5.5 GHz:

2) My RAM at 6200, Gear1 (UCLK=MEMCLK) and FCLK 2067; and my 9800X3D running at 5.5 GHz

3) My RAM still at 6200 MT/s, but this time it is running in Gear2 (UCLK=MEMCLK/2) with the FCLK still at 2067; and my 9800X3D running at 5.5 GHz. All other RAM timings are the same.

4) My RAM still at 6200 MT/s, running in Gear2 (UCLK=MEMCLK/2) with the FCLK still at 2067, only this time I loosened the CAS Latency (CL) from 30 to 40; and my 9800X3D running at 5.5 GHz:

Remember, lower numbers are better, and the more astute among you will have noticed that the best result of the four is worse than the 154.35 seconds I posted previously. This is because after running the RAM timings the way I had them for a few months, I decided to do another round of tightening my timings about a week ago after the latest BIOS update.

The most important components for getting the best performance out of your 9800X3D is the cooling and the best cooler available at the time of writing for Ryzen is the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro.

If you have a garbage-tier cooler, then you will get garbage-tier results.

This is how you go about configuring your Ryzen CPU.

Initially we will be using Ryzen Master, because this allows you to change the clockspeed and voltage of the CPU without having to reboot all the time.

This phase of the configuration process is called, "Chicken Clocking" and you will continue to increase the clockspeed of your CPU until it crashes, then back off a step and when it passes a 10 minute CineBench R23 run, then you can put the numbers into the BIOS.

I will explain how to do this later.

First you have to download and install Ryzen Master and then switch the view to "Advanced".

After this, you will have to change to one of the profiles (Game Mode is a special profile primarily for Threadripper and should not be used), In the example below I have used "Creator Mode" as shown by the red arrow.

Next click on "Manual" as indicated by the red arrow:

Next click on the "> CCD0" bar to expand it as shown by the red arrow:

Next click on the little red dot at the top right of the "Core Section" to turn it green as shown by the red arrow:

Next go to "Voltage Control" and change the "Peak Core(s) Voltage to 1.15 as shown by the red arrow. This will be our starting voltage.

Next, type 5000 into one of the boxes indicated by the red arrow and hit enter. Because we have changed the dot in the top right hand corner from red to green, changing one of the boxes will change all of them:

Next go down to "Memory Control" and click on "Excluded" to show the memory clock settings and make sure that those agree with the Memory Clock and Fabric Clock (FCLK) you have set in your BIOS.

Remember, DDR stands for "Double Data Rate" so the Memory Clock setting will be half of the MT/s of your RAM.

If you have DDR5 6000 RAM then your Memory Clock should show 3000, as shown my the red arrow

And

Next click on the "Apply" button at the bottom of the screen and your settings should be applied without needing a reboot.

If you are asked to reboot then something is wrong with the memory settings and make sure that what you have set in the BIOS matches what you see in Ryzen Master.

If it does ask for a reboot, then click on the "Save Profile" at the bottom of the screen and then click on the Home button at the top right of the Screen and see what your RAM is running at.

After successfully applying the profile click on "Home" to get you to the screen I showed at the beginning of this guide when I was running my 10 minute CineBench R23 benchmark.

After this it is pretty much plain sailing.

Launch Benchmate, and choose "CineBench R23" and launch that. Resize the CineBench window and make sure that you have Ryzen Master so that you can see the temps and then run the multicore test.

All you need to do after a successful single run of CineBench R23 is to increase the clockspeed by 25 and run it again until it crashes (so going from 5000 to 5025 etc). Don't forget to hit "Apply" every time you change the clockspeed.

When it does crash and your temps were still OK (never allow your CPU temp to go above 85 °C) then you can increase your "Peak Core(s) Voltage" to 1.175 and increase the clockspeed again.

The maximum voltage that is safe to apply to the 9800X3D is 1.2 Volts. This is not me saying it, but rather TSMC, the creators of the Node which the 9800X3D uses. So as long as your temps are OK, you can go up to 1.2 Volts in the "Peak Core(s) Voltage" and continue to increase the clockspeed until it crashes at that voltage.

Run your CPU at the maximum voltage and clockspeed it was stable at for a single CineBench R23 run and run it for 10 minutes (as shown in the first CineBench R23 result I showed at the top of the screen.

If it still ran without crashing then we can go to the next step of putting the values into the BIOS.

As a rule of thumb, if your system locks up or reboots, then you have pushed your CPU configuration too far. If you get a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) then you have pushed your RAM configuration too far.

Ryzen Master will not write any of the configuration info permanently to the BIOS.

Do not configure your RAM in Ryzen Master do that solely in the BIOS.

For entering your configuration in the BIOS look for:

"CPU Ratio Apply Mode" and change that from [All Core] to [Per CCX] or it might be [Per CCD].

A new box will open below that and you just type in the highest clockspeed you achieved with Ryzen Master in the format "50.00" or "50.25"

Next look for "CPU Core Volage" and change that to whatever voltage kept your CPU under 85 °C (so 1.15, 1.175, 1.2 or any voltage in between).

Press "Save and Exit".

You have now configured your 9800X3D in the BIOS.

My philosophy is that I benchmark to configure, I don't configure to benchmark. So if you are looking for an overclocking guide (and my guide will give you better results than most "Overclocking Guides") then please seek life elsewhere.

I don't think I have forgotten anything, but if I have I will ammend this guide accordingly.

If you have any problems with the guide, then you can feel free to contact me under the name "michaelnager" on Discord and I have the same avatar on Discord as I have here.

As an addendum my friend BossOverclock made a video with me about configuring the 9800X3D and things to do with that:

Max Out Your Ryzen 9800X3D – Expert CPU Optimization w/ Michael Nager

Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a good one.

I'll be brief: I want to undervolt my 7800x3d, but want a good place to start, or a guide of some kind. Any tips?

Thanks!

Last month, I upgraded my build with an ASRock B650E Steel Legend WIFI motherboard and an AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D CPU.

After years with an old i7-4790, the performance improvement has been amazing in most games. However, when I tried Marvel Rivals today, I experienced terrible FPS drops (30–60 FPS max). I assume this is partly due to my outdated GPU (GTX 970), but it got me digging into optimizing Ryzen CPUs, particularly the 3D V-Cache.

From what I found online, there are specific steps to set up Ryzen 3D V-Cache CPUs properly, which I had no knowledge about before. Here’s what I found:

1. Reinstall Windows – Is a full reinstall necessary, or can I keep my old files (games, documents, etc.)?

2. Enable Game Mode in Windows settings.

3. Enable Xbox Game Bar – Apparently, AMD uses this to recognize games for 3D V-Cache optimization? (Ehhh...)

4. Switch Power Mode to Balanced – Instead of “Best Performance” for better efficiency? (Feels counterintuitive)

5. Avoid Ryzen Master’s “Game Mode” – It disables the non-3D V-Cache CCD, reducing core availability until the next restart.

6. Set CPPC Dynamic Preferred Cores to “Driver” in BIOS settings.

Do these steps still apply today, or is the CPU ready to use out of the box without tweaking now? Honestly, these steps seem counterintuitive compared to Intel optimization guides I’ve followed in the past. Initially this sounded like a bad April Fools joke, especially turning Xbox Game Bar on and changing the Performance Mode to Balanced...

So my questions:

• Are these optimizations still necessary for the 9800X3D in 2024?

• Is there anything else I should do for max gaming performance without overclocking?

• Should I avoid enabling EXPO profiles or other auto-overclocking features? (I’ve steered clear of them so far due to warranty warnings and overheating issues)

Anything else I need to do? Advice would be greatly appreciated!