So I’ve been trying out which MSI BIOS settings will give me the most FPS boost and I think I’ve finally found one. My benchmark method is quite sloppy though. All I basically did was just look at the average FPS on my Radeon Software every time I finished watching the same replay that I have stored in Overwatch. Keep in mind though that I have my in-game frame limiter capped at 300FPS, so the average frame could actually be even higher than this but this was just done to create consistency. My PC is only used for gaming also so there shouldn’t be anything that could get in the way of altering my results. My results were all very consistent since in some setups, I ended up watching the replay twice and the margin of error were only by 2 - 3 frames in Radeon Software. Anyways, here are the results: Best BIOS setting for Ryzen 5 3600 - Pastebin.com
This is my PC spec:
Windows 10 Home 64bit
MSI B450-A Pro Max Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with Wraith Stealth
Deepcool Gammaxx GT ARGB CPU Cooler
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB (2x8GB) 3600MHz CL16 DDR4
SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 5700 XT SE
Kingston A2000 M.2 NVMe SSD 500GB
Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Gold 650W Power Supply
Basically from my sloppy investigation, my findings was that aside from the more obvious things like overclocking my RAM, disabling CPPC Preffered Cores seems to help me gain the most FPS in Overwatch with my Ryzen 5 3600 CPU. I was actually surprised by this result, because I thought I needed to disable Global C-State Control, CPPC and CPPC Preffered Cores. But in reality, all I needed to disable was the last one and I could keep all the other power saving features without losing any frames at all.
TL;DR - disabling CPPC Preferred Cores in BIOS gave me a 20FPS boost in Overwatch. Overclocking my RAM from 2133MHz with 1066Mhz Infinity Fabric (stock setting) to 3600Hz with 1800MHz Infinity Fabric gave me ~60FPS boost. Overclocking further to 3733MHz with 1867Mhz Infinity Fabric gave me an additional 10FPS boost.
I hope my finding helps anyone who owns Ryzen 5 3600 and thinking about overclocking. I’m just sharing what I’ve found though and this by no means is a guide on what you should do. I’m not responsible for your CPU or RAM having a shorter lifespan early by doing this.
I would be interested to see if Windows 7 gives higher FPS.
Some nice RAM you got there. I overclocked mine from 3600 to 3800 myself, but it was only 10FPS more at the most. I doubt I will upgrade my ram to 4200MHz which is the fastest my motherboard will take. Not worth it.
i9 9900k at 5GHz.
I really need a new graphics card (RX480 lol), but will not be getting one until probably 2023 closer to Overwatch 2 launch.
For now I want to get a cheap second hand PC for watching streams in 1080@60fps on my other two monitors. So I can have smooth gameplay while watching streams and listening to music.
Have you tried higher voltages? MHz makes the biggest difference, but I never do it as I am too scared of frying something.
I love overclocking. Free performance.
Sometimes it annoys me how much time I put in to it though. Trying to have it max clock, but stable. I could be playing instead lol. Then only it have it crash later on anyway after playing some hours or on a hotter day. Lol.
Oh I haven’t overclocked by CPU at all, just my RAM. I did however, tried enabling and disabling Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) in BIOS and that barely made any noticeable difference in my FPS.
I don’t know if it’s placebo, but the FPS dips might have been smaller with PBO on when looking at the Radeon Software. But I need to re-test this to make sure I wasn’t just imagining it. Anyways overall, I didn’t notice any benefits from having PBO on or off on my FPS. Though I might see a different result if I upgrade my CPU cooler.
PBO might be being over-ridden by Ryzen Master software. It’s just a boosting resource really.
Possible if you’re thermally limited. If you’re reaching close to your max boost (~4.2Ghz), then it’s unlikely to be that though.
AMD chipset driver may help if you didn’t install it already (which enables the AMD Ryzen Balance power plan in the Windows power settings). Supposedly it helps with scheduling.
I had PBO enabled from BIOS, I tried Ryzen Master but didn’t like the idea of tweaking my BIOS from software so I just uninstalled it. But yeah I think lack of cooling is the issue in me not noticing any performance boost.
I also did install the AMD chipset driver just in time before doing this test luckily. Which further makes me wonder why disabling CPPC Preferred Cores would give me a whopping 20FPS boost in games. I still need to do more testing to make sure I’ve ruled out everything though.
For example, I still need to test and see whether changing the Power Supply Idle Control in BIOS from Auto to Typical or Low Current Idle has any effect on my FPS.
With PBO enabled, I was seeing upwards of 4.5GHz in task manager. With PBO disabled, I was seeing maximum of ~4.1 - 4.3GHz in task manager IIRC. But I have no idea how much I am getting during games so I need to test it out.
