Looking to boost the performance of your modern AMD desktop computer? Here’s how to confidently overclock your AMD Ryzen CPU.
In all but the most cost-conscious setups, AMD long since lost ground to Intel. Ryzen changed that by offering a large number of CPU cores with good performance for a superb all-around CPU. With a little overclocking, you can take this CPU a little bit faster than it comes pre-configured.
Today, overclocking is quite simple, but there is some risk involved. If you don’t take care, you might shorten the lifespan of your CPU or perhaps permanently harm it. Your computer will often shut down automatically to avoid this, but it’s best to go carefully and with caution. (Oh, and in case you were wondering, this will void your warranty.)
Although several of AMD’s most recent chips, including the Ryzen 5 3600X and Ryzen 7 3700X, are excellent processors, there is probably little advantage to overclocking them higher. Precision Boost from AMD will make sure you aren’t wasting any performance. In comparison to some of the previous Ryzen chips, like the 1000 and 2000 series, the non-X chips, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, have a little bit more, but there are still diminishing returns. But all it takes is a few adjustments in your computer’s BIOS to see how far you can push your processor. Techpotamus can help you to overclock your AMD Ryzen processor by following an easy procedure.
What You Need to Overclock: Hardware
Contrary to Intel, which only permits overclocking on a select few chips, all AMD Ryzen processors, as well as the majority of motherboards, are overclock-ready, so assembling your hardware should be simple. To overclock your processor, just two pieces of hardware are required.
A motherboard that supports overclocking: All of AMD’s chipsets, including the B350, X370, B450, X470, B550, and X570, support overclocking, so you’re safe as long as your motherboard doesn’t have an “A” series chipset. For this guide, I’ll be using an MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon, but the majority of the settings we’ll go over should work on other boards as well.
A good CPU cooler: While AMD’s built-in Wraith Spire cooler can handle some overclocking, it will probably get very warm very quickly. To get the most performance out of your CPU, I advise purchasing a larger heatsink like the Cryorig R1 Ultimate CR-R1A(Opens in a new window) (pictured) or a liquid cooling loop.
What You Need to Overclock: Testing and Monitoring
When it’s time to overclock your CPU, you’ll need a software tool to keep track of your progress and a way to keep track of the outcomes.
OCCT(Opens in a new window):
You will receive five different responses if you ask five overclockers what tools they use. Since OCCT includes numerous stress tests in a single programme and a variety of monitoring options to help keep an eye on those CPU temps, I like it for these reasons.
OCCT should be adequate if you’re just starting out and aren’t pushing your CPU to its absolute limit. AMD’s own Ryzen Master and HWiNFO are arguably better at monitoring temperature readings and have a lot of other useful stats.
A notepad, digital or physical: You should make notes as you go about the settings you’ve tried and whether they were successful because this is a trial-and-error process. I assure you that it will simplify the process considerably.
What to Know Before Overclocking Ryzen
Overclocking carries no assurances. You are exceeding the chip’s rated limits, and every chip is unique. It doesn’t necessarily follow that you will achieve an overclock just because someone else online did. Every motherboard has a slightly different selection of overclocking features, even with the exact same model CPU.
Overclocking may or may not have a significant influence on your job because newer model Ryzen processors are so great at boosting right out of the box. Even then, results may vary. Multi-threaded applications like video editing or rendering are where you’ll see the advantages of overclocking the most. With my Ryzen 5 2600 overclocked, Handbrake was able to convert a typical 2.5-hour 4K Blu-ray in about 20 minutes, which is quite impressive.
It’s a good idea to research your motherboard, your CPU, and the results that other people are obtaining before you decide to overclock. You won’t necessarily obtain the same outcomes, but you’ll still have a basic understanding of what’s reasonable. The steps in this guide are the fundamental ones, but if you know more about the advanced features of your motherboard, you can always take things a step further.
Auto-Overclocking
Even though they have recently become more intriguing, I don’t typically advise using the auto-overclocking (or Auto OC) functions that you can find on most motherboards. For instance, AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) doesn’t increase clock rates over what is indicated on the box. Your CPU will be able to reach the advertised clock speed more frequently, for longer periods of time, or in circumstances when it otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
It’s not quite overclocked, but it’s also not regarded as “stock,” thus your warranty does not apply. It is intended to work with your motherboard’s Auto OC feature, but if you manually overclock using the techniques below, you shouldn’t need PBO and can turn it off. This guide will concentrate on manual overclocking because I find it to be more reliable and tried-and-true.
Step 1: Reset Your Motherboard’s BIOS
Even though you probably can’t wait to get going, fight the impulse to start accelerating the clock right now. I advise taking a baseline measurement of your CPU using its default settings first. Press Delete, F2, or any other key the boot screen suggests to restart your computer and load the BIOS.
Spend some time in your BIOS becoming familiar with the layout and investigating the locations of the various options. Each motherboard manufacturer organizes its BIOS a little bit differently and may have different names for certain settings. (On some boards, you may have to enter Advanced or Expert Mode to see them all.) Google is your friend if you read through this guide and are unsure of the name of a specific motherboard feature.
Find the Load Optimized Defaults option first; it’s typically next to the Save and Exit button. This will start over your motherboard to its default settings so you may start fresh. To boot from the correct hard disc, you will, nevertheless, need to reconfigure your boot order.
You normally don’t want or need those while manually overclocking, therefore I also advise disabling Precision Boost Overdrive, Game Boost, and any other built-in functions intended to push your processor further. Save your settings after doing that, then leave the BIOS and restart Windows.
Step 2: Run a Stress Test
After that, it’s a good idea to perform an initial stress test to verify sure everything is working well at stock settings and rule out any potential stability problems or damaged chips that could interfere with your overclocking efforts.
Start OCCT, then click the toolbar’s tiny graph button in the Monitoring window until a table similar to the one in the preceding screenshot appears. I believe that this table, which contains all the information you’ll need to monitor your CPU, is simpler to read than the graphs.
Check the three boxes in the middle of the CPU: LINPACK tab in the main OCCT window: 64 Bits, AVX Capable Linpack, and Use All Logical Cores. This will configure OCCT to stress your CPU more than you typically would in normal usage. If it holds up under OCCT, it will undoubtedly hold up for your regular work.
When you press the On button, OCCT starts the stress test. Allow it to run for about 15 minutes, then restart your computer and enter the BIOS to start overclocking if there are no freezes or blue screens.
Step 3: Increase Your CPU Multiplier
The Base Clock, which controls a number of motherboard operations, and the CPU Multiplier determine the clock speed of your CPU. The math is quite simple because most contemporary CPUs have a base clock of 100MHz: 100MHZ times 34, for instance, gives you 3.4GHz, the factory setting of our Ryzen 5 2600. Individual cores can “boost” even faster than that, but we’re going to manually overclock every core, so no matter how many are active at once, you’ll get the same speed on everyone.
The base clock can also be increased, but doing so will have an adverse effect on other system components and make stability much more difficult. Instead, we’ll focus on the multiplier value because it is the simplest way to overclock. If the BIOS offers you a choice, locate the multiplier option (also known as Core Ratio or something similar), set it to Manual or Sync All Cores, and then select a number for your initial overclock.
For my Ryzen 2600, I started at 37, a few notches above its default multiplier of 34. You may need to research your CPU to find a good starting point, though. (Note: I prefer to make all changes in the BIOS itself; some people prefer to adjust the multiplier using the aforementioned Ryzen Master, which is fine for testing phases.)
Step 4: Reset Voltage and Run Another Stress Test
After choosing a multiplier, move your cursor down to the CPU Core Voltage option, sometimes just referred to as “Vcore,” and switch it from Auto to Manual (since Auto tends to be overly aggressive). Again, you may need to investigate your CPU to determine a reasonable starting point, but I picked a voltage of just under 1.24v for my Ryzen 2600 because I knew it would operate at 3.7GHz.
Reboot, save your BIOS configurations, and then launch OCCT once more to perform the same 15-minute stress test as before. Reboot into your BIOS, increase the multiplier by 1, and repeat the process if everything goes smoothly.
Your computer will eventually freeze, you’ll encounter an error, or you’ll witness the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. You will need to give your CPU a little more power because this indicates that it isn’t receiving enough voltage to maintain the proper clock speed. Return to the BIOS, increase the Core Voltage by approximately 0.01 volts, and then rerun the stress test. In order to keep track of your progress, record the outcomes of each stress test on your notepad as you go. It’s best to alter just one variable at a time, as with all experiments.
Watch your CPU temperatures as well when performing stress tests. The temperature inside your CPU will rise as your voltage rises. You can look up your CPU’s temperature limit online, but I suggest allowing yourself some wiggle room below that. You should be safe if you can keep it below 85°C/185°F, especially as those temperatures are rarely encountered in daily use. Since hotter temperatures can shorten the chip’s lifespan even if they don’t reach the CPU’s true upper limit, I wouldn’t push it any higher than that.
It’s a good idea to keep an eye on OCCT’s leftmost window’s clock speed to make sure it’s maintaining the clock speed you set. If it’s significantly lower, your chip might be throttling for some reason, and you’ll need to look more to find the issue.
Step 5: Push Even Further
As you increase your multiplier and voltage one at a time, repeat the previous steps until you reach your limit. If you just can’t move up to the next level to stay stable, or perhaps your body temperature rises to uncomfortable levels. Make a note of your most steady settings, then take a break. (With a core voltage of 1.2625, I was able to get a multiplier of 40.)
You may choose to end there. Nevertheless, there are a few additional things you may check out in your BIOS if you’re still hankering for more performance.
Load-Line Calibration: When your CPU requests voltage, it may occasionally experience “Vdroop,” in which the voltage falls below the desired level while under load. This is countered by load-line calibration, also known as LLC, which improves the accuracy of voltage delivery.
If your motherboard is delivering too much voltage, LLC can help get your temperatures a little bit lower. LLC can also help bridge the gap if you’re trying to get things a little bit more stable at a higher clock. Just be careful not to set LLC too high as this could result in your voltage overshooting rather than undershooting, which would lead to temperature spikes.
Investigate your motherboard’s implementation of LLC; some use the value “1” as the highest setting, while others use it as the lowest. Try a few different things and see which option most closely matches the Vcore that you specified in the BIOS (you can see the voltage being provided to your CPU in OCCT or your monitoring app of choice). However, I’ve used motherboards that were drastically off, and in those situations, LLC can be a big help. My motherboard’s auto setting was actually quite good.
XMP and RAM Overclocking: Ryzen’s Infinity Fabric(Opens in a new window) architecture, in contrast to some older CPUs, causes faster RAM to result in observable performance improvements. So when your CPU speed reaches a ceiling, try increasing the speed of your RAM instead.
This is simple to accomplish by turning on XMP, which will allow your RAM to operate at its rated speed rather than the lowest supported speed (sometimes referred to as AMP, DOCP, or EOCP on AMD boards). The RAM frequency, timings, and voltage can also be manually adjusted, but for the majority of users, XMP should be effective with just a few keystrokes.
You might be able to push it further if you make manual adjustments than what the box’s specifications suggest. Any setting you choose for your RAM should be thoroughly tested with Memtest86+(Opens in a new window) to ensure stability.
Step 6: Run a Final Stress Test
While overclocking you would also think to consider a different processor instead of going for the overclocking because it somewhere hurts your processor life. You can read a different crazy comparison of Ryzen 5 3600 Vs 5600x, Ryzen 7 5800x VS Ryzen 9 5900x, and others to make up your mind for upgrades rather than overclocking. When you’re finished fiddling, you ought to have a set of options that will hold up during 15 minutes of Linpack testing by OCCT. That’s a good start, but we need to do a few more extensive tests if we want to ensure that this overclock is rock solid. Run the OCCT Linpack test for three hours to start. Although some overclocks may be stable for 15 minutes, they cannot withstand long periods of stress.
After that, I like to perform a few additional stress tests because they can push certain CPU components to their limits and reveal instability that Linpack did not cause. If you wish to test your computer the old-fashioned way, run the CPU: OCCT tab for three hours or Prime95’s Blend test for 12 to 24 hours. Your CPU can handle almost anything if it can handle those.
You must either increase voltage or decrease the multiplier if you experience any freezing or crashing, whether it be during these tests or regular gaming sessions. All things considered, my Ryzen 5 2600 maintained a steady 4.0GHz on all six cores, which is a nice little increase from the 3.6GHz-to-3.7GHz all-core boost I was experiencing at stock settings.