AMD Ryzen For Simracing?

[Alex Townsend]

The sellers here wouldn't be that helpful I'm afraid...
Would a board with BIOS flashback be the best option?

 

[Bob Gnarley]

You can ask the seller, maybe borrow a 1st or 2nd gen Ryzen from a friend or there is a boot kit available (they send a cpu which you return when done) from AMD if are completely stuck. See bottom of page.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-100

 

[Case_]

BTW, I have Asrock B450 Fatality and I'm pretty happy with the choice. The BIOS could have a bit more overclocking options (most notably it's sadly missing load line calibration), but other than that, I'm very satisfied. It might be the first Asrock board I ever had in my hands (if you can believe that), I was somewhat apprehensive going in, but it had everything I wanted for a noticeably better price than others, and really don't regret it.

But any of these older boards obviously needs a BIOS update for Zen 2 support, so that can be a hassle when buying new.

 

[Terry Rock]

The processor loan option from AMD listed in the article, is a really good business solution.
It's about time somebody began to think outside the box on issues like these.

 

[Case_]

One of our PC hardware store chains here has been offering something like that for a while as well. They offer a service where they will take your ordered board and make sure the BIOS is updated to the latest version so it supports the newest processors. It will cost you like 15 euro I believe and delay the delivery for 2 days I believe, but that's all the trouble it will cause you.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Well... eeeks
I've only gone and bought the CPU...
3600x incoming
I figured the MB decision is taking a little more time to discuss and compare so will carry on for a bit longer if you guys dont mind...
I think I may be in need of future proofing a little. Like maybe being able to sling a better CPU into the board without it crying for forgiveness at some point down the line.

I made the mistake with the i7 3770k of topping out before the next gen released with no refresh on the cards and had no upgrade path, which wasn't ideal... No way to tweak an upgrade out of that set up without an OC, which I did for minimal performance gains if I'm honest.

Although this set up has lasted me for 7 years so far... GPU upgrade notwithstanding of course.

 

[Dan Costa]

Think like this: Even if AMD stopped developing new CPU's for the AM4 socket today (which it isn't), there's still a 16 core beast compatible with your AMD board that you could buy years from now for dirt cheap (R9 3950X).

 

[Case_]

My personal recommendation regarding MB would be...don't overthink it. You can easily spend days considering various options and not really get anywhere (speaking from a lot of experience), because you will always get conflicting information about reliability, brand recommendation/preference and all that stuff.

Look at the main brands and pick a board that has all the features you want. Check the internet to see if there are maybe some clear red flags regarding the board. Also check if there isn't a board that's very close to the one you are considering with possibly some clear advantages. If you're planning to overclock manually, add an extra step to check VRM info, BIOS features and such.

Then just order and enjoy.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Thanks to all of you for your extremely helpful and insightful advice.
Its greatly appreciated, as always with all subjects of a technical nature here on RD, and I'm going to spend a shorter amount of time internally deliberating on this MB subject.
Basically the next hour and a half as thats when the sale is supposed to end here.
Will let you all know how that goes...

 

[Terry Rock]

Thanks to all of you for your extremely helpful and insightful advice.
Its greatly appreciated, as always with all subjects of a technical nature here on RD, and I'm going to spend a shorter amount of time internally deliberating on this MB subject.
Basically the next hour and a half as thats when the sale is supposed to end here.
Will let you all know how that goes...

You will not be disappointed with that CPU.
I'm speaking from personal experience.
I run mine with 32 GB of Ballistix Sport DDR4-3000.
I just encoded a bunch of simracing videos this morning.
It absolutely chewed through that process as well.

 

[RobertR1]

Just a few tips if you plan to tune your Ryzen chips:

- Your fabric clock should be the same as our memory bandwidth to keep a 1:1 ration. fclk 1800 means RAM 3600mhz. Then tighten the timings
- SMT off can help with performance but it's game specific. Do benchmarking on your most played games
- You can undervolt to keep temps and voltage in check
- Don't mess with base clock
- Don't expect a major all core frequency jump by manual overclocking vs using PBO + auto OC
- Check your SOC, DRAM and other voltages. Most bios are setting them too high

The biggest gain will likely come from SMT toggle if a game is hampered by it and RAM tuning.

 

[Case_]

Alternatively, especially on a 3600X, just don't bother with manual overclocking or obscure things like turning off SMT, you'll hardly gain anything, but spend a lot of time testing settings instead of gaming.

Unless, of course, that's what you prefer to do.

 

[Terry Rock]

Alternatively, especially on a 3600X, just don't bother with manual overclocking or obscure things like turning off SMT, you'll hardly gain anything, but spend a lot of time testing settings instead of gaming.

Unless, of course, that's what you prefer to do.

You are 100% right on that one.
There simply is no good reason to overclock it.
I set the DRAM voltage to the 1.35 volts called out by Crucial...set the CPU voltage to something less than 1.40 volts and go have fun on track.

 

[Durge Driven]

Bad news how? If anything the CPU consumes even less power than what was published.

First off I was asking not telling which should have been obvious by the question mark
Second I never wrote the review

X570............very high power consumption of the new CPUs, even when idle

That it might be fixed with bios update is not reassuring at least to me

Simple use a B450 or X470- problem solved

P.S. They lost me when a chipset needs a fan
Having to buy a $800+AU board ( Gigabyte Extreme) for passive cooling is ridiculous

 

[RobertR1]

Asus is supporting pcie 4.0 now on older boards. So those platforms just got a nice extension. Not that we’re close to saturating 16x 3.0 bandwidth even on a 2080ti

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/r...upport-for-selected-x470-and-b450-boards.html

Really hard to justify any X570 lineup at this stage. Even for the 12core.

 

[Durge Driven]

The processor loan option from AMD listed in the article, is a really good business solution.
It's about time somebody began to think outside the box on issues like these.

Better still is distributors offer a Flash update cheap

Like one of my stores ................. https://www.pccasegear.com/products/15503/pccg-bios-firmware-update
That is $7US and if something went wrong it is their problem
It also saves delivery and return of loan CPU ( someone has to pay for it )

Much better solution for novices ....imo
That all stores don't offer similar service is plain dumb

 

[Frank]

Note: I haven't read any of the thread.

I am running a 2700x for over a year now, soon upgrading to a 3800x. This is combined with a Vega 64, soon upgrading to a 5700xt.

I can max out any sim on my 1440p screen and I can play on high settings in VR, no issues at all.

 

[Alex Townsend]

I've checked, (I know... took longer and now missed the sales, and it was only a small saving on boards so no big deal), and there are some things that have tipped the balance with my choices.
Stores here will update the bios... as long as you buy the CPU from them and won't entertain the idea otherwise... talk about customer service, or lack thereof. I've already bought my CPU from one retailer who was offering a discount so that option is not available.
Also, I'm an expat in Malaysia so don't have many friends here... I know, sad innit, cry for me some time, so I can't borrow a CPU from anyone either.
So, I checked the MSI and Asus websites and, the MSI b450 gaming pro carbon, MSI b450 Tomahawk and Asus Strix b450-f all have bios flashback functionality. So I think I may get one of these instead as then it doesn't matter if the bios is right or not as I can use bios flashback instead.
One confusing thing is that the MSI b450 carbon is actually more feature rich than the x470 board to the point where the b450 costs more than the x470 here.

 

[RasmusP]

Friend of mine will grab a MSI b450 pro carbon too. It costs only a little bit more (20€ here) than all the other boards but got more slots, wifi, bluetooth, better VRM cooler etc etc.
It really seems like the go to b450 board

 

[Alex Townsend]

Friend of mine will grab a MSI b450 pro carbon too. It costs only a little bit more (20€ here) than all the other boards but got more slots, wifi, bluetooth, better VRM cooler etc etc.
It really seems like the go to b450 board

I think I'm getting close to getting this board. It comes up top when querying best b450 boards.
I just need another long hard and then unnecessarily long internal debate about whether or not the strix or the carbon. Basically there is a difference in price between the boards, carbon is RM715 vs the Strix at RM520
Basically RM195 diff or about £37 or €42...