Question 5950x owners - some questions

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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So I finally got a 5950x from Microcenter today, along with an Asus Dark Hero motherboard. I’ve searched and done some research but wanted current opinion on a few things. A couple of questions for the 5950 crowd:

1. I have a dual-fan Noctua NH-D15S on my current rig which I was considering reusing. My research indicates it should work fine, but I wonder if I should get a 360 mm AIO. What are current opinions on cooling for the CPU? I’ve traditionally been an overclocker but I‘m thinking I may just let the auto-overclocking features of the board overclock it rather than doing extensive tuning and testing.

2. I’ve got 32 GB of DDR4-3200 b-die RAM that I plan to reuse. Is there any real reason for me to consider replacement RAM? I might put another 32 GB in but unless there is a compelling reason, I’m thinking I can save. Obey and use my existing RAM.

3. Current rig has a 960 Evo M.2 for the OS but it has been in use for 3+ years. I was thinking about cloning it to a new 980 Pro and see if I can just use my existing OS load with all my apps. Any thoughts here? I may decide to go ahead and do a fresh install; what are opinions on the 980 Pro?

Thanks everyone!
 

Justinus

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2005
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980 Pro is not a first choice IMO, the WD SN850 is. And the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus if you need an even stronger write capability.

The 980 Pro has strange performance issues and several people have had issues with the SLC cache never clearing resulting in the drive eventually filling it completely and getting stuck at direct-to-TLC write speeds.

Better to avoid it as samsung has not updated the firmware or even acknowledged the issue yet.

3600 memory speed with 1800FCLK seems like the "gimme" speed for the zen 2/3 I/O die. Your 3200 B-die may clock to 3600 with no issue, but you should memtest to be certain. I discovered my CPU will do 1900 FCLK and none of my 3200CL14 B-die kits would work at 3800 memory speed - I ended up buying a new, higher rated b die kit.

The cooler will work well, but with the Dark Hero if you are interested in using Dynamic OC Switcher, it's pretty easy to do an all core overclock on a 5950x that will absolutely overwhelm it at safe voltages. You'll just have to test and dial it in, if you choose to use the feature.

I can run my 5950x on a dynamic OC Switcher overclock that will overwhelm my custom loop but still uses safe voltages. All 16 cores running full tilt is no joke.
 
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IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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980 Pro is not a first choice IMO, the WD SN850 is. And the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus if you need an even stronger write capability.

The 980 Pro has strange performance issues and several people have had issues with the SLC cache never clearing resulting in the drive eventually filling it completely and getting stuck at direct-to-TLC write speeds.

Better to avoid it as samsung has not updated the firmware or even acknowledged the issue yet.

3600 memory speed with 1800FCLK seems like the "gimme" speed for the zen 2/3 I/O die. Your 3200 B-die may clock to 3600 with no issue, but you should memtest to be certain. I discovered my CPU will do 1900 FCLK and none of my 3200CL14 B-die kits would work at 3800 memory speed - I ended up buying a new, higher rated b die kit.

The cooler will work well, but with the Dark Hero if you are interested in using Dynamic OC Switcher, it's pretty easy to do an all core overclock on a 5950x that will absolutely overwhelm it at safe voltages. You'll just have to test and dial it in, if you choose to use the feature.

I can run my 5950x on a dynamic OC Switcher overclock that will overwhelm my custom loop but still uses safe voltages. All 16 cores running full tilt is no joke.

So what is considered a safe voltage on the 5950 in your opinion?

One thing I did neglect to mention - ambient temp in my office is a little warm and is regularly in the mid to upper 70 F range.
 

Justinus

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2005
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What's their history? How did they just end up in storage like that?
So what is considered a safe voltage on the 5950 in your opinion?

One thing I did neglect to mention - ambient temp in my office is a little warm and is regularly in the mid to upper 70 F range.

1.3-1.35V. Core temps get pretty toasty even on my waterblock at 4.6 GHz/1.28v so I don't really go any further. Depending on your chip you'll probably end up somewhere around 4.4-4.5 at 1.2-1.25v at reasonable temps on the air cooler.

Running at fully stock the air cooler is far beyond sufficient, and won't hamper the excellent singlethread or lightly-threaded boost the 5950x has. With PBO disabled at default settings it runs extremely cool around 3.7-4.1 ghz depending on the load.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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687
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1.3-1.35V. Core temps get pretty toasty even on my waterblock at 4.6 GHz/1.28v so I don't really go any further. Depending on your chip you'll probably end up somewhere around 4.4-4.5 at 1.2-1.25v at reasonable temps on the air cooler.

Running at fully stock the air cooler is far beyond sufficient, and won't hamper the excellent singlethread or lightly-threaded boost the 5950x has. With PBO disabled at default settings it runs extremely cool around 3.7-4.1 ghz depending on the load.

Thanks!
I just ordered the SN850, so I should be good to build soon.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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687
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So I built the system yesterday and have some concerns with temps. I have PBO enabled and no other tweaks aside from setting it to use the XMP memory settings.

IDLE: Generally 38-42 - no concerns here.
LOAD: Cinebench R20 hit 88!! Prime95 Blend kept locking the system.
GAMING: I did a quick run in PUBG and was in the low to mid 70s.
FREQUENCIES: Cores were hitting 4-4.6 Ghz
VOLTAGE: Unfortunately I didn’t get that, but as I mentioned, I didn’t manually configure any voltages.

Board is an Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero and I’m using a Noctua NH-D15S heat sink with 2 fans. I applied NT-H1 paste using the spread method and the heat sink is tightened down all the way.

Any ideas, or am I overreacting and should just keep using it and monitor the situation? I did order some new NT-H2 paste and a Noctua fan (believe it was the NF-F12 fan) to replace the Artic Cooling fan on the HSF. I could order a 140 mm fan instead but it might be a tight fit.
 

thigobr

Senior member
Sep 4, 2016
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With PBO enabled the limits are lifted and the CPU will boost until it hits the more restrictive limit: usually cooling and temperature! The only way to tame that is to limit PPT/EDC/TDC. You will find those values when setting PBO to advanced/manual.
 

bigboxes

Lifer
Apr 6, 2002
38,485
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1. You don't need a AIO cooler. Your NH-D15 is more than adequate for this CPU. Ask me how I know. I'm a week ahead of you on the build. This case is so quiet. Love it.

2. I've got the magical ram myself. DDR4 3200 CL14 outperforms DDR4 3600 CL16. No need to get new ram. Be proud of what you got.

3. Yes on the fresh install.

Temps
CPU-Z stress test: 65-66C
Cinebench Release 20: 67C on full load
Prime95 Blend: Ran as hot as 81C

I used Artic MX-4. Did not use the spread method. Small line bead in middle. Four dots surrounding the middle.
 
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IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,656
687
126
With PBO enabled the limits are lifted and the CPU will boost until it hits the more restrictive limit: usually cooling and temperature! The only way to tame that is to limit PPT/EDC/TDC. You will find those values when setting PBO to advanced/manual.

Yeah, I am going to tweak those settings a little more. I'm going to reapply thermal paste too next weekend.

I can't get Ryzen Master to run without crashing either, but I did enable virtualization and that seems to cause issues with it.
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
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The Crashing of Ryzen master and Prime 95 is abit of a concern does this happen when the system is at default settings?

Also the memory you are reusing is that on the QVL for this motherboard?
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,656
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The Crashing of Ryzen master and Prime 95 is abit of a concern does this happen when the system is at default settings?

Also the memory you are reusing is that on the QVL for this motherboard?

Yes, the memory is on the QVL. Ryzen Master has known issues if you enable virtualization, so I’m not terribly worried about that.

I could disable PBO and set RAM back to the default 2133 speed and see if it makes a difference.

EDIT: DIsabled virtualization, PBO, and set RAM back to defaults. The latest Ryzen Master is running without issue. I bet once I re-enable SVM, it will stop.
 
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IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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687
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Yes, the memory is on the QVL. Ryzen Master has known issues if you enable virtualization, so I’m not terribly worried about that.

I could disable PBO and set RAM back to the default 2133 speed and see if it makes a difference.

EDIT: DIsabled virtualization, PBO, and set RAM back to defaults. The latest Ryzen Master ran without issue but is crashing after reboot. Going to run memtest.

While memtest runs, I think I may have found the issue with Ryzen Master. It has a known issue where if it launches on a secondary monitor, it will crash. When I disabled SVM and ran it the first time, it seems to stay on one monitor. The second time, it tried opening on another monitor and crashed. What an odd issue and one that seems to have been around for quite some time.
 
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IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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So I did a little research and it appears the "PBO Fmax Enhancer" setting is causing issues for people using the Dark Hero board. I disabled that and ran Prime95 blended and it ran fine and temps hit about 62 degrees at roughly 4.5 Ghz all core. Prior to disabling Fmax Enhancer, all cores were hitting the 4.7-4.9 range and temps were going up as the system locked. I also ran the Small FFT and the CPU dropped clockspeeds to around 2.8 Ghz and had no issues running it, with a temp of around 59 degrees. I hadn't tried the Small FFT when I had the Fmax Enhancer enabled, so I'm not sure what the frequency and temps would've been. Cinebench R20 had the CPU temp spiking to 88 before, where it is now in the mid 60s though the clockspeed is only 3.8 Ghz now as opposed to being much higher before.

I'm fine with those temps and will monitor system stability over the next week or so. I'll keep an eye out for BIOS updates which may fix this issue in the future - I'm on the latest standard BIOS release but there is a beta available, so I'm assuming that it will be available soon.
 
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Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
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I have PBO Fmax enchancer turned off because its reduces performance on Zen 3. When I was on a 3800X it improved performance.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,656
687
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I have PBO Fmax enchancer turned off because its reduces performance on Zen 3. When I was on a 3800X it improved performance.

The PBO Fmax Enhancer was definitely improving my 5950x performance, at least in Cinebench R20 scores. The clock speed is much lower when running it now and I see a pretty good drop in performance. I'll monitor the system for stability for a week or so and then I may start delving into manually overclocking to get a little more perfornance.