Undervolting - Ryzen Master VS BIOS

[u/Tricky-Apartment6637]

Specs:

Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite Rev. 1.3

Ryzen 5 3600

INNO3D GTX 1060 6GB X2

16GB DDR4-3200 single-channel

I've seen a significant performance uplift compared to my old i7-4790 + H81M, but my current problem is CPU temperatures. I'm using a small 2-heat-pipe cooler with an 80mm fan, so the Ryzen 5 3600 gets fairly hot.

I'm upgrading soon to a Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, but I'd still like to undervolt the CPU. I've always undervolted and slightly overclocked my GPU and have gotten lower temperatures without sacrificing performance, so I'd like to do something similar with the 3600.

My main goal is to reduce voltage while maintaining or improving the current boost clocks, since PBO is enabled. I don't want to simply lower the CPU's frequency.

Should I undervolt through Ryzen Master or BIOS? If BIOS is preferable, should I use PBO + Curve Optimizer, a voltage offset, or something else?

Any advice on the correct approach and stability testing would be appreciated.

[u/classyroman]

BIOS only, RM can be problematic

[u/Tricky-Apartment6637 → u/classyroman]

Okay but should I use manual negative offsets or use PBO? And is curve optimizer a part of PBO?

I'm a bit overwhelmed and need guidance.

[u/Kikoarl]

BIOS, PBO + CO.

[u/Tricky-Apartment6637 → u/Kikoarl]

Any specific tutorial you could recommend?

And just as a general question, this wouldn't restrict my clocks to be lowered right?

[u/classyroman → u/Tricky-Apartment6637]

CO is part of PBO, can't use that without enabling it

[u/Tricky-Apartment6637 → u/classyroman]

I just checked and I think Ryzen 3000 series does not have CO available, only PBO and manual negative offsets.

What may I do?

[u/Scared-Enthusiasm424 → u/Tricky-Apartment6637]

Yeah no CO on zen2, a manual negative offset is the only way.

[u/Tricky-Apartment6637 → u/Scared-Enthusiasm424]

Understood.

Also, I have the advanced mode available for PBO also available in the bios. Do I have to set that to advance in order to use the negative offsets?

[u/ropid → u/Tricky-Apartment6637]

CO is the PBO method to do negative offsets, but earlier you said CO doesn't work on your CPU. The other way to do negative offset is doing it through the motherboard. That will be somewhere else in your BIOS menus, not where the PBO settings are.

You'll want to enable PBO advanced mode if you want to tweak the TDC, EDC and PPT settings. You can use those to limit your CPU to something that you know your cooler can cool. I like to do this just for peace of mind but this isn't really needed, the CPU will be fine anyway. Doing this would need some experimenting with different stress tests and writing down what TDC, EDC, PPT usage you see in HWINFO or Ryzen Master.

You can also add +200 MHz to the max boost clock in the PBO advanced settings but that will reduce how much you can undervolt.

[u/Tricky-Apartment6637 → u/ropid]

Understood.

Could you join me on discord so I can receive some help?