Question Ryzen 3000-series rigs, have "high" idle power usage?

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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80W idle power at the wall, CPU load 4% of a 3600, have RX 5700 GPU (display), GTX 1660 ti 'Gaming X' (secondary), dual NVMe SSD, one SATA SSD, Antec Gold PSU

Why is my idle so high? Maybe I need to check my power plan, should have done that before posting this thread, I guess.

Edit: Oh, I was on Ryzen (tm) High-Performance Power Plan. Let's see what Ryzen (tm) Balanced Power Plan shows on the K-A-W.

Oh, now it's showing 93-96W on the K-A-W. Just great. :(

Edit: WattMan reports peak power usage of 30W for the GPU (haven't mined or used Skype with it since powering up).

Seems like Idle wattage is no better than my ancient Core2-era PCs? Really?
 
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PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
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I think you posted in my Ryzen idle power whining thread, so you're probably aware Ryzen idle power isn't super great.

That said, I'd guess those video cards are eating up close to 20watts. Techpowerup has them consuming 7watt idle and that is DC measurement so at the wall is going to be higher. Still seems high even with that in consideration to me though.
 

CHADBOGA

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2009
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80W idle power at the wall, CPU load 4% of a 3600, have RX 5700 GPU (display), GTX 1660 ti 'Gaming X' (secondary), dual NVMe SSD, one SATA SSD, Antec Gold PSU

Why is my idle so high? Maybe I need to check my power plan, should have done that before posting this thread, I guess.

Edit: Oh, I was on Ryzen (tm) High-Performance Power Plan. Let's see what Ryzen (tm) Balanced Power Plan shows on the K-A-W.

Oh, now it's showing 93-96W on the K-A-W. Just great. :(

Edit: WattMan reports peak power usage of 30W for the GPU (haven't mined or used Skype with it since powering up).

Seems like Idle wattage is no better than my ancient Core2-era PCs? Really?
Do you have an x570 motherboard?

How much more power do they consume than a B450 or X470 motherboard?
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Yeah, I'm on an Asus B450-F ROG STRIX Gaming ATX board. So not a power-sucking X570 that needs a chipset fan.

Honestly, not sure, maybe just my "wall power usage" is because I've got a 750W Gold PSU (Antec EDG), and I'm below the efficiency sweet-spot at idle?
 

HutchinsonJC

Senior member
Apr 15, 2007
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~115V & 750W Gold would be ~87% efficient at 20% use.

20% of 750W would be 150 Watts. Below 20% the rating/standard has no way to mandate/dictate any particular efficiency at all.

For a given power supply, efficiency varies depending on how much power is being delivered. Supplies are typically most efficient at between half and three quarters load, much less efficient at low load, and somewhat less efficient at maximum load. Older ATX power supplies were typically 60% to 75% efficient. To qualify for 80 Plus, a power supply must achieve at least 80% efficiency at three specified loads (20%, 50% and 100% of maximum rated power). However, 80 Plus supplies may still be less than 80% efficient at lower loads. For instance, an 80 Plus, 520 watt supply could still be 70% or less efficient at 60 watts (a typical idle power for a desktop computer).[9] Thus it is still important to select a supply with capacity appropriate to the device being powered.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Going from a i7-6700k to a AMD 2700X, my idle power increased around 20w. It was actually around 30w higher, but I changed some of Asus' default settings which were pretty aggressive on boosting the CPU.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
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That doesn't surprise me too much, actually. Skylake (and by extension, Kaby Lake) had pretty low idle power usage. Really quite amazing, really.
Yeah, Intel is really good at idle power usage. Their CPUs can drop down to a pretty low speed (my 6700k dropped to 800 Mhz I believe), while I think my 2700X never drops below 2.2 Ghz.
 
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burninatortech4

Senior member
Jan 29, 2014
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Yeah, Intel is really good at idle power usage. Their CPUs can drop down to a pretty low speed (my 6700k dropped to 800 Mhz I believe), while I think my 2700X never drops below 2.2 Ghz.

The lowest I've seen with my 2700x (Asrock X470-ITX) is around 2.0ghz clock with HwInfo reported CPU+SoC power around 40w. I'm not sure how much that value can be trusted though.

System idle with a kilowatt is about 120w (2700x stock, 16gb 3200mhz, Vega 64, X470-itx). Platinum 750w Silverstone PSU.
 

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
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...........
Honestly, not sure, maybe just my "wall power usage" is because I've got a 750W Gold PSU (Antec EDG), and I'm below the efficiency sweet-spot at idle?
Thats probably it. I think mostly only the old analog or hybrid vrm motherboards had poor idle power efficiency.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
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The lowest I've seen with my 2700x (Asrock X470-ITX) is around 2.0ghz clock with HwInfo reported CPU+SoC power around 40w. I'm not sure how much that value can be trusted though.

System idle with a kilowatt is about 120w (2700x stock, 16gb 3200mhz, Vega 64, X470-itx). Platinum 750w Silverstone PSU.

I'm not sure what Vega64 draws at idle, but 120w seems insane to me. My test rig draws ~48watt with no video card and drives spun down.

Do you have a lot of drives maybe?
 

Mr Evil

Senior member
Jul 24, 2015
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mrevil.asvachin.com
Having a second GPU will add about 10W DC. Reduced PSU efficiency at low load will add a bit more. Consider my system for example, which idles at around 60W AC, with a PSU that I chose specifically because it has decent efficiency of about 85% there. If I had a PSU of only 70% efficiency, my system would use (60*0.85)/0.7 = 72W AC. Add another GPU and it would use more than yours.

You didn't mention fans. They can consume more than you might think. Setting them to a lower speed can help reduce idle power by a few watts.
 

burninatortech4

Senior member
Jan 29, 2014
661
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I'm not sure what Vega64 draws at idle, but 120w seems insane to me. My test rig draws ~48watt with no video card and drives spun down.

Do you have a lot of drives maybe?

I'll check again with my kilowatt. 120w does seem a little high. Will report back.

[EDIT] The at wall reported idle is 70w for the whole system. Rig details in sig. Includes 2x 140mm fans (front intake), 1x 120mm (bottom intake), 1x 120mm (rear exhaust) [set to quiet mode], Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4 [1x 120mm and 1x 140mm attached], 1x 7200rpm harddrive.
 
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