We’re overclocking the Ryzen 9 7950X CPU up to 5950 MHz in 5 minutes or less using the GIGABYTE X670E Aorus Master motherboard and EK-Quantum custom loop water cooling.

I’ll speed-run you through the BIOS settings and provide some notes and tips along the way. Please note that this is for entertainment purposes only and not the whole picture. Please don’t outright copy these settings and apply them to your system. If you want to learn how to overclock this system, please check out the longer SkatterBencher video.

Alright, let’s do this.

5 Minute Speedrun

When you’ve entered the BIOS, switch to the Advanced Mode view.

Set CPU Clock Control to 107.75MHz. That will increase our Precision Boost algorithm frequencies by 7.75%. In our case, the maximum boost frequency ceiling increases from 5850 MHz to 6303 MHz.

Set Async CPU/PCIe Clock to Enabled. This enables an external clock generator to drive the CPU frequency. Ryzen 7000 has three clock generator modes: internal, external synchronous, and external asynchronous. In External Asynchronous mode, there are two external 100 MHz clock generators. One is used exclusively for the CPU core frequency and the other for the other parts of the CPU.

Set CPU Ratio Mode to Per CCX. Each CCX has its own PLL and can run an independent frequency on Raphael. The cores within a CCX will run at the same frequency.

Set CCD0 CCX0 Ratio to 50.25

Set CCD1 CCX0 Ratio to 49.75

Set Active OC Tuner to Manual. This allows us to actively switch between Precision Boost Overdrive and manual OC Mode at run time, thus providing us with the benefits of Precision Boost single threaded boosts and high all-core manual overclocks.

Set CPU Current Limit to 150. This defines the switching point for the Active OC Tuner. Anything above 150A engages manual OC mode; anything below 150A will engage Precision Boost.

Enter the Advanced CPU Settings submenu

Enter the Precision Boost Overdrive submenu. Here is where we will do most of the performance tuning as PBO provides us with tools to increase the power, current, and frequency headroom of the Precision Boost 2 boost algorithm.

Set Precision Boost Overdrive to Advanced

Set PBO Limits to Motherboard. This adjusts the PBO platform parameters PPT, TDC, and EDC according to the motherboard auto-rules. On this motherboard, we find that the following values have changed:

Set CPU Boost Clock Override to Enabled (Negative)

Set Max CPU Boost Clock Override(-) to 325. This decreases the frequency ceiling by 325 MHz from the factory-programmed max 1T limit. On the Ryzen 9 7950X, that’s 5850 MHz. Reducing this by 325 MHz results in a ceiling of 5525 MHz, but adjusted by our ECLK of 107.75 MHz, that becomes 5953 MHz.

Enter the Curve Optimizer submenu.

Here’s where the real magic happens as curve optimizer allows us to adjust the V/f curve for each core by up to 30 steps in a positive direction and up to 300 steps in a negative direction. Each step represents around 5mV.

Setting a negative curve means the CPU will use less voltage for a given frequency and boost to a higher frequency at a specific voltage. Setting a positive curve means the CPU will use more voltage for a given frequency and boost to a lower frequency at a particular voltage. It is the former that we need in our overclock.

Set Curve Optimizer to Per Core

• For every core, set Curve Optimizer Sign to Positive
• For Cores 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14, set Curve Optimizer Magnitude to 15
• For Core 2, set Curve Optimizer Magnitude to 20
• For Cores 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15, set Curve Optimizer Magnitude to 10

Leave the Curve Optimizer submenu

Leave the Precision Boost Overdrive submenu

Leave the Advanced CPU Settings submenu

Set Extreme Memory Profile(XMP/EXPO) to EXPO 1. That will make the memory run at our EXPO-rated frequency of DDR5-6400 and timings. EXPO I will load only the primary timings and have the motherboard tune the secondary timings. EXPO II will load the entire profile without motherboard adjustments.

Set XMP/EXPO High Bandwidth Support to Enabled. This particular setting provides an additional performance boost in memory-sensitive all-core workloads like Geekbench or AI Benchmark.

Set System Memory Multiplier to 60.00. While our memory kit is rated at DDR5-6400, unfortunately, our CPU isn’t able to run that frequency. By enabling EXPO, we still benefit from the improved memory timings.

Set CPU Vcore to 1.25. This is our manual voltage when the Active OC Tuner has switched to OC Mode. When Precision Boost is active, this voltage setting is ignored.

Ryzen 9 7950X Overclock Performance Improvement

To ensure everything is working as intended, we re-run some benchmarks and check the performance increase compared to the default settings. Higher is better, and all are higher. We see the best performance improvement of +13.94% in AI Benchmark.

And that’s it! I want to thank my Patreon supporters for supporting my work, and see you next time!