Overclocking the Threadripper 7980X:
We couldn’t do without trying to overclock this platform and see what else we can get out of the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X! In this first series of tests, we’ll be using the watercooling system installed on our benchtop, but this week we plan to install the Alphacool Eiszeit 2000 chiller, to bring the water temperature down to around 10/15°C. And the good news is that, in a second phase, we’ll be offering this Threadripper a move to LN2, since the socket makes it easy enough to fit our bucket.
When overclocking such a processor, it’s essential to activate the ” overclocking ” mode of our be quiet! Dark Power PRO 12 1500 watt power supply. The principle is that it will switch to monorail. If you don’t, your PC will simply shut down when a benchmark is launched, because the processor is pumping too much.
Overclocking the Ryzen Threadripper 7970X:
We’ll start with the overclocking of the Threadripper 7970X, which has a BIOS SP of 105, compared with the 7980X’s SP of 110. We pushed the frequency to 5.4 GHz, with a BIOS voltage of 1.30 v and a loadline calibration at level 6.
Results improved, with our Cinebench R23 score rising from 65710 to 75520 points, a gain of 15%. Under Geekbench 3, the multithreaded score rises from 1889231 points to 211731 points, a gain of 12%.
Ryzen Threadripper 7980X overclocking :
This is the first to go. We’re going to modify the parameters within the BIOS. Although the Ryzen Master software is available, we’ll be using it when testing with the chiller. We therefore modified the BIOS settings for the multiplier coefficient, processor voltage and loadline calibration. This enabled us to reach a frequency of 5.3 GHz on all 64 cores!
The results are violent, as our score under Cinebench R23 rises from 98427 points to 130160 points, a gain of 32%. Under Geekbench 3, the multithreaded score rises from 288461 points to 355653 points, a gain of 23%. We can’t wait to see how far we can go under LN2, as the gains are monstrous on the 7980X compared with the 7970X!
The cold Alphacool Eiszeit 2000 chiller:
Finally, last night, we installed the chiller with the water temperature set at 15°C, and didn’t go any lower to avoid condensation. The idea is to try and gain a few more MHz with cooler water.
We were thus able to increase the frequency from 5400 MHz on the 64 cores to 1.275 volts. It’s difficult to go any higher, as the processor requires more voltage, so we’ll be using liquid nitrogen.
In the meantime, our Cinebench R23 score has risen to 133960 points!
Overclocking the G.SKill ZETA R5 NEO 6400 MT/s CL32 kit:
We took some time to see how the memory kit behaved when overclocked. We were able to push it to 7800 MT/s CL34 by increasing the voltage to 1.55 volts for the VDD/VDDQ and the SOC to 1.25 volts.
We’ll come back to memory overclocking in the weeks to come, but this 7800 MT/s frequency with four 32 GB memory modules is already incredible. We were unable to display all the timings as no software is yet compatible with this platform.
