How to overclock an AMD Ryzen processor

Overclocking an AMD Ryzen processor is not difficult. You still need to know what you are doing and do it well. We tell you everything.

When AMD launched its Ryzen processor lineup in 2017, it meant redemption for the company. Previous years have been synonymous with rather disappointing processors. The performance of the first generation was far from perfect, and sometimes very far from Intel’s offerings. But AMD offered a very good price/performance ratio. Instead of paying $500 for a mid-range Intel processor, you can get a high-end AMD processor for the same price. And overclocking support was another trump card up AMD’s sleeve.

While things have changed a lot since then as the AMD processor lineup has become more competitive, AMD Ryzen processors still support overclocking compatibility. And AMD makes it easy with its Ryzen Master app to work directly from Windows without going into the BIOS.

Understanding Overclocking and Risks

The principle of overclocking is quite simple: manufacturers don’t sell chips pushed to the limit. As TechSpot explains, this has to do with the quality of the silicon and the “silicon lottery”. Processor manufacturing is complex and processors are manufactured under highly controlled conditions using extremely precise machinery to minimize issues with the final product.

A defect in the wafer—a very thin wafer of single-crystal semiconductor material used to make microelectronic components—and you end up with a processor running at sub-“normal”speeds. Manufacturers test a batch of processors at a certain frequency and artificially limit the frequency to what they can guarantee. Overclocking uses this headroom.

Before you start, you need to understand a few things. First, overclocking is about finding a balance between performance and instability. If you overdo it, the processor is unstable. The second aspect is to find a balance between voltage, frequency and heat. The more you increase the frequency, the more high voltage will be taken and the more the processor will heat up until it fails. It is important to know the limits and not wait for them.

What tools do you need?

For overclocking, you will need AMD Ryzen Master for overclocking itself and software to monitor and verify the performance improvement and overclocking stability.

For monitoring, you can download HWINFO64 to monitor CPU temperature. During the process, keep an eye on the “temperature Tctl”(control temperature, which, depending on the generation of the processor, has an offset to take into account), which should not exceed TjMax (junction temperature). If the temperature rises too much, your processor will reduce its clock speed, power, and voltage to avoid damage.

There are two tools for testing and verification. Cinebench R23 is a small benchmark that will give you a good idea in both single and multi-threaded mode. Run it before overclocking to get a benchmark and after to see the score go up. Prime95 is a test software that allows you to test stability, specifically with the Small FFT test. Some recommend running Prime95 for 15-30 minutes, others for 8 hours. Theoretically, the longer your computer can run without errors, the better.

Where to overclock in Ryzen Master?

When you fire up Ryzen Master, you have a basic view, a simple display, and controls for CPU clock speed (frequency), voltage, and temperature. If you’re into overclocking, the basic look is perfect. If you’re used to it, you can switch to the advanced view by clicking Advanced View in the left pane.

To start overclocking in base mode, you must change the control mode to manual to unlock the CPU clock and CPU voltage. You must work with one or the other parameter each time, not both at the same time. To be able to easily return in case of instability. After changing the voltage or frequency, click “Apply”to save.

Once you’ve mastered the basic view, you can move on to the advanced view and delve into a lot of small details, which, however, will give you minor advantages.

Do not make any changes right away, read at the end of the article.

Processor overclocking basics

Start by increasing the CPU frequency in 100 to 200 Hz intervals, then run the Cinebench R23 multi-threaded benchmark to evaluate stability. Cinebench isn’t exactly a stability test, but it’s fast and gets rid of major stability issues.

If your settings are stable, increase the frequency until you see instability, then increase the voltage in 0.15V increments. Continue testing until you find instability. Gradually increase the voltage and frequency, one change at a time, following Tctl until you reach the voltage limit, temperature limit, or high jitter.

Another approach is to set the voltage to its maximum value and then increase the frequency by 100-200 Hz, checking Cinebench between each change until instability appears. Once an unstable frequency is reached, reduce the frequency by about 50 MHz and check by decreasing the frequency until it becomes stable. Once the frequency is stable, you can start lowering the voltage until you reach instability again. If you have unstable voltage, go back to the last stable voltage and run Prime95 for an hour or more. If Prime95 crashes, is unstable, reduce the frequency or increase the voltage and try again.

Also don’t forget to enable XMP in the BIOS.

One of AMD’s biggest issues with the first generation Zen architecture is memory and compatibility. AMD even released a compatibility list for official RAM due to a lot of issues. If AMD has fixed all of this in the next generations, it’s often necessary to activate each RAM profile manually in order to reach the advertised RAM frequency.

Memory profiles on AMD motherboards can have a variety of names. ASUS has DOCP, Gigabyte, EOCP and most others use XMP. The exact location of the option depends on the motherboard, but it is always found in the BIOS and most often in the advanced options. If you don’t know where to look, check your motherboard manual.

Overclocking memory manually or using a profile above 3200 MHz in DDR4 RAM often gives a small performance boost on AMD systems.