X370 Taichi VCore nasty spikes

Hey there, fellas!

I'm also a long-time PC enthusiast, and I have built and tweaked many PCs during the years. I'm a happy owner of a X370 Taichi for some time now. That's where the bad part starts. Read below.

I bought a brand new X370 Taichi from a renowned German web shop 2 months ago. It came with BIOS version 2.40 pre-installed. Immediately I plopped a brand new 1700X in it, booted and changed the BIOS version to 3.0, which was the latest at that time.

With everything left at auto, I installed Win 10 Pro on a 960 EVO. After running Ryzen Master and HWiNFO64 I noticed some odd CPU VCore behavior. When CPU was under light or no load I could see some nasty voltage spikes, even though no OC was in place and all was left on auto. When CPU is under heavy load, VCore settles between a good 1.20V and 1.25V with NO voltage spikes.

Check it all on the screenshots below.

System overview:


HWiNFO64 readings from MULTIPLE sensors:


Idle mode behavior. Note the bad spikes:


CPU is loaded here. Note how spikes disappear when the load kicks in:



All this is still present no matter which LLC option I choose, no matter XMP or mem defaults. This is even present with the latest BIOS version 3.10! Bear in mind that I have done many CMOS resets, incl. every time I was updating the BIOS. I HIGHLY doubt these are just bad readings.

I also have no issues with thermals or performance; I just think these spikes are a killer in the long run.

ASRock staff, forum fellas, help!

Do NOT use Auto VCore voltage! You are lucky you only get spikes to ~1.48V. If you check the VIDs in HWiNFO at the top of the sensor display, if your board is like mine (X370 Killer SLI/ac), they are over 1.5V. If you over clocked your CPU with Auto VCore, it would be even higher.

In the OC Tweaker screen, set CPU Frequency and Voltage Change to Manual.

You can leave the CPU Frequency on the value shown, which should be the stock base clock speed, 3400.

The CPU Voltage shown should be 1.35V, or you can change it to 1.35V or whatever you like.

Next, scroll down to the Voltage Configuration area, and set CPU Vcore Voltage to Offset Mode. That's what I use, if you want to use Fixed, that's your choice. I use Offset Mode, with the Offset Voltage set by pressing the '+' key once, to change it from Auto to 0.00625V.

Your board's UEFI may be a bit different than mine, but those are the main things to do. I set CPU LLC to Level 2.

You can experiment with various VCore voltages using Offset or Fixed, but you really must set CPU Frequency and Voltage Change to Manual, or you'll get the usual high Auto VCore voltages that are programmed into the UEFI/BIOS. That is done to insure all processors will work for users that don't do anything in the UEFI/BIOS. I'm surprised you've never seen the Auto VCore setting on other boards give very high VCore voltages, I've never had a board that didn't do that.

The spikes you see are just higher CPU load situations, with the cores at Turbo speed. I just read about a new Gigabyte UEFI/BIOS release for their Ryzen boards that has the VCore up to 1.7V!

Thanks, parsec!

Quite useful info, indeed. I have to admit same thing has crossed my mind on many occasions. Due to my mediocre experience with Ryzen platform I'm not sure how a fixed voltage would affect the system.

On my previous AMD builds I always ended up with a fixed multiplier, manual voltages and CPB disabled. As I mentioned, I'm not yet experienced with Ryzen, so I decided I'll give it a try on auto. Boy, was I wrong!

So, I want to keep CPB/XFR on, and I want to use Qool'n'Cuiet (R) (TM). Can I just put some sane offset voltage and call it a day?

ive had set 3.9 ghz and 1.3 volts fixed voltage and llc 2

heres the taichi guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Tw-wcT7o4

my p states settings are

9c
8
27

that will make sense when you watch the video

I was just researching what datonyb said. These custom P-states are very powerful thing! It's as close to metal as you can get. With these you can program the CPU on a low HW level, pretty much as you wish. 2000MHz for idle? You gots it! 4000MHz for the lulz? You gots it! Thanks, AMD.

I don't think I've noticed the temp spikes you're mentioning. Then again, I don't use AIDA64 for reading or stress-tesitng. HWiNFO64 reports good and stable temps for me. My advice to you is to check if your CPU cooler is seated properly and the TIM is spread well. Improper cooler contact with the CPU IHS is a frequent reason for the thing you're mentioning.

I will definitely try tweaking the UEFI these days and I'll report back the results.

On a side note, I'd really like to hear ASRock's engineering justification behind these crazy auto VCore voltages, and see a fix in the future.