We finally got our gaming performance testing done for the AMD Ryzen 3000XT series. Since some games in our benchmark lineup are multi-core optimized, we selected the R7 3800XT as our candidate.
We also used a B550 motherboard for our test platform to see if it could affect our results - spoiler alert: it did not. The aim of our testing was to compare the discrepancy between the average and minimum FPS of the stock Ryzen 7 3800XT and its overclocked form. We should mention that the stock R7 3800XT has PBO enabled. The CPU cooler's cooling capability is the principal element that dictates the CPU’s PBO boost clock. Without further ado, let's dive right in!
▲We chose the MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK motherboard for its quality 10+2 phase VRM design that should easily handle any overclock we throw at it.
For the RAM, we picked the G. SKILL Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 CL16 kit, which let us access 3600MHz effortlessly via XMP. For storage, we used an XPG GAMMIX S50 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe SSD, which takes advantage of the PCIe Gen 4 lanes available through the CPU. It boasts a read and write speed of 5000M and 4400M, respectively.
▲We chose the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X because we wanted a competent 4K gaming graphics card for our experiment. The TWIN FROZR cooler with its two TORX Fan 3.0 kept the card nice and cool under load.
▲For cooling our R7 3800XT, we used an MSI MAG CORELIQUID 360R. This 360mm AIO liquid cooler provided ample cooling for our octa-core CPU.
For our average FPS value, we ran each gaming benchmark five times where the decimal value rounded up to the nearest one.
For our stock CPU runs, we only enabled the RAM’s XMP profile.
For our overclocked CPU runs, we set the CPU core voltage to 1.4V and the CPU core multiplier to 45X.
For our CPU cooler, we set the fans to 1700~1800RPM. Other than that, nothing else is cooling the rig.
The games ran at 2160P (4K) and 1080P at the highest preset on DX12 with V-SYNC, FidelityFX and DLSS disabled.
Windows 10 Pro 64bit 1909
NVIDIA Driver 451.67
Ambient temperature: 29C
UAC: off
Windows Defender: off
Screen saver: off
Power plan: High performance
Hibernate mode: off
Are you surprised by our test results? The R7 3800XT gaming performance at stock settings with PBO enabled was neck-in-neck with the ones we got with its overclocked state. Thanks to the fine-tuning done at the factory level by manufacturers nowadays, 90% of the consumers out there will be happy with the performance that they are getting straight out of the box.
Then what are the advantages of overclocking?
If you render video clips, encode files or run benchmarks daily, the boost offered by overclocking is worth it according to our previous results.
For gamers who want an easy-to-setup and stable system, we suggest investing in a better CPU cooler to take the full benefit of Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO).
The fun with the Ryzen 3000XT series begins when you dabble with LN2 extreme overclocking. But that is a topic for another day...
English Ver. Editor XMA.
