[Rakanoth]

I have been experimenting which voltage settings and which BIOS settings can be used/combined to produce a stable and less-heat-producing system.

I was going to post this under specific motherboard thread but I thought everyone should see this as some people might have not had time to try out all the settings.

My system components are in my signature. I was stable at 3.9GHz with 1.425v. I was keeping LLC at 3 to really make sure the CPU is stable at this clockspeed. I never thought of not sticking with default LLC settings as it always meant stability in my previous builds and previous overclocking tries. I just reverted it back to LLC5 to see if it is going to affect stability but it did not negatively impacted the stability of my system and the temps went from 75°-80°C interval down to 60°C-65°C after 2 hours of Prime95.

 

[miklkit]

LLC is all about countering vdroop. All systems have vdroop and LLC adds voltage when under load to counter the vdroop. Without LLC a system will use more voltage in a light load than it will in a heavy load when the voltage droops. LLC adds voltage then to hold the voltage up. Too much LLC will cause the voltage to go up under a heavy load thus overvolting the system and causing excessive heat as well as possibly damaging components.

The objective is to find that sweet spot where the voltage in the bios and LLC balance out to deliver just enough voltage for stability. It sounds like your first setup had too much LLC and was overvolting your system.

 

[st0neh]

Different motherboard manufacturers also handle LLC differently, you could be pumping far too much voltage through that CPU unless you're actually monitoring voltages under load.

 

[nvidiaftw12]

It's been a while since I overclocked my system, but I went with an offset voltage and the strongest LLC. That way, at full clocks but light usage, I have a low voltage (like 1.1) and under heavy usage it goes up to 1.3. In other words, I have positive vdroop. It's worked great for me for the past 6 years, YMotherboardMV.

 

[Brightmist]

1.425V might just be too much for 3.9 and might be causing instability.
Try readjusting it, upping it from 1.35, LLC3.

 

[miklkit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nvidiaftw12

It's been a while since I overclocked my system, but I went with an offset voltage and the strongest LLC. That way, at full clocks but light usage, I have a low voltage (like 1.1) and under heavy usage it goes up to 1.3. In other words, I have positive vdroop. It's worked great for me for the past 6 years, YMotherboardMV.

I'm just the opposite. LLC causes voltage spikes and more LLC causes bigger voltage spikes. When one is pushing the limits those spikes can and do kill the cpu. Been there, done that.

So I live with some vdroop in order to keep those spikes as small as possible. This means that voltage under light loads is higher than it is under full loads but it is ok as long as one does not go over the recommended voltage limits, plus temperatures are a lot lower then.

For instance I'm running the LLC on "auto" which results in a vdroop from 1.375v to 1.356v at 3.9ghz. I'm fine with that and it idles down to 1.063v as well. I ran my 5 ghz FX like that for over 2 years and expect this Ryzen to last at least that long.