What SHOULD Default Threadripper 3960x Voltages be?

[Zarathustra[H]]

Long story short, but I am on my third Threadripper 3960X after RMA:ing two of them.

The first two lasted a few weeks then suddenly stopped working. The third wouldn't start up at all until I replaced the motherboard.

One of my theories was that the stock voltage settings on my Gigabyte TRX40 Aurus Master were too high, and it was just frying the chips, but I never checked the voltages, as I was just running at stock.

So, I went out and bought a new motherboard. Wound up with a super expensive christmas tree LED light Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha in large part because it was the only one I could find locally quickly.

I popped in the CPU, flashed the latest 1303 BIOS, loaded optimized defaults (just in case) and then saw this:

(please excuse dirty monitor, this is a spare I leave in the basement, so it is a little nasty)

Does that look a little high for a modern CPU to anyone but me? I mean, 1.48v seems like too high for an overclocked chip, and absolutely insane for stock settings.

Or Maybe Threadripper 3xxx chips just use high voltages?

I'd appreciate any inputs. What SHOULD the stock voltages be?

 

[tangoseal]

I had Aorus master on mine and it worked just fine and dandy. Never had a problem with voltage or anything. My chip ran flawless. I have no idea what could be going on.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I had Aorus master on mine and it worked just fine and dandy. Never had a problem with voltage or anything. My chip ran flawless. I have no idea what could be going on.

What was your default voltage set at, if you don't mind sharing?

 

[tangoseal]

What was your default voltage set at, if you don't mind sharing?

Stock. I cant even remember. I never once played with voltage settings. I just used Precision Boost as it was out of the box. I think chip was idle like 1.4 or something which is zero threat to the chip. And full load was 1.3x something or another.

Is it possible you have a bad PSU that is surging badly? Test it?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Stock. I cant even remember. I never once played with voltage settings. I just used Precision Boost as it was out of the box. I think chip was idle like 1.4 or something which is zero threat to the chip. And full load was 1.3x something or another.

Is it possible you have a bad PSU that is surging badly? Test it?

All PSU rail outputs look pretty normal to me in the BIOS health monitoring screen.

Is that a typo, or are you daying that your CPU was at a higher voltage at idle than at full load? Usually it's the other away around.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hmm. According to this I may just be worrying for nothing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/f62esk/threadripper_3_cpu_voltages/

Still makes me pretty uneasy that it is just sitting at 1.481v in BIOS.

I should hook it up properly, boot up and see what it looks like in OS.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Stock. I cant even remember. I never once played with voltage settings. I just used Precision Boost as it was out of the box. I think chip was idle like 1.4 or something which is zero threat to the chip. And full load was 1.3x something or another.

Is it possible you have a bad PSU that is surging badly? Test it?

Yeah, looks like I was worrying for no reason. Apparently according to AMD Robert on reddit, Threadrippers can burst all the way up to 1.55v at stock settings. Seeing this in BIOS is normal, and on desktop at idle I am seeing anywhere from 1.05v to 1.2v.

 

[noko]

Long story short, but I am on my third Threadripper 3960X after RMA:ing two of them.

The first two lasted a few weeks then suddenly stopped working. The third wouldn't start up at all until I replaced the motherboard.

One of my theories was that the stock voltage settings on my Gigabyte TRX40 Aurus Master were too high, and it was just frying the chips, but I never checked the voltages, as I was just running at stock.

So, I went out and bought a new motherboard. Wound up with a super expensive christmas tree LED light Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha in large part because it was the only one I could find locally quickly.

I popped in the CPU, flashed the latest 1303 BIOS, loaded optimized defaults (just in case) and then saw this:

(please excuse dirty monitor, this is a spare I leave in the basement, so it is a little nasty)

View attachment 313305 View attachment 313304

Does that look a little high for a modern CPU to anyone but me? I mean, 1.48v seems like too high for an overclocked chip, and absolutely insane for stock settings.

Or Maybe Threadripper 3xxx chips just use high voltages?

I'd appreciate any inputs. What SHOULD the stock voltages be?

So how long did the RMA take, what did you have to do? I submitted one but due to holidays not sure how long this will take. In bios with default CPU settings, my voltage was 1.47v or the same as yours if that means anything.

Well my 3960x also needs to be RMA due to 3 cores not able to even do 3.8ghz. I also notice the very high voltages and thought it was normal how AMD did Precision Boost, maybe not. Mine ran at default settings which has PB on. Only very briefly did I use Automatic OC in Ryzen Master on some benchmarks but never used it beyond that. It was not a significant boost or did I like the increase in temperature, fan noise etc. Do not recall ever using PBO at all in Ryzen Master. Never OC in the bios until yesterday and today to troubleshoot CPU and come up with options for usage.

Being holidays, virtually no Threadrippers at MSRP one can obtain now, I wonder how successful my RMA will be once AMD responds. Got two automatic replies but nothing substantial yet.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So how long did the RMA take, what did you have to do? I submitted one but due to holidays not sure how long this will take. In bios with default CPU settings, my voltage was 1.47v or the same as yours if that means anything.

Well my 3960x also needs to be RMA due to 3 cores not able to even do 3.8ghz. I also notice the very high voltages and thought it was normal how AMD did Precision Boost, maybe not. Mine ran at default settings which has PB on. Only very briefly did I use Automatic OC in Ryzen Master on some benchmarks but never used it beyond that. It was not a significant boost or did I like the increase in temperature, fan noise etc. Do not recall ever using PBO at all in Ryzen Master. Never OC in the bios until yesterday and today to troubleshoot CPU and come up with options for usage.

Being holidays, virtually no Threadrippers at MSRP one can obtain now, I wonder how successful my RMA will be once AMD responds. Got two automatic replies but nothing substantial yet.

The one bright spot - if there was one - in my trials an tribulations of 2020 - was how painlessly AMD replaced my CPU.

Both times they shipped out a replacement as soon as they received the old one.

As bummed out as I am about this experience, AMD's warranty team were perfect.

 

[tived]

I’ll check mine tomorrow and let you know on a Gigabyte Trx40 Designare

 

[thesmokingman]

I'd appreciate any inputs. What SHOULD the stock voltages be?

Just asking means ya still are missing it man, voltages change to meet the load as with any other Zen 2 cpu. It could show as high as 1.5v and it doesn't matter.

How do you guys kill TR3 cpus? They are almost bulletproof. These things will take as much voltage as you can throw at it given commensurate cooling.

 

[noko]

Just asking means ya still are missing it man, voltages change to meet the load as with any other Zen 2 cpu. It could show as high as 1.5v and it doesn't matter.

How do you guys kill TR3 cpus? They are almost bulletproof. These things will take as much voltage as you can throw at it given commensurate cooling.

By running it at stock settings, CPU must wanted more.

 

[sram]

Long story short, but I am on my third Threadripper 3960X after RMA:ing two of them.

The first two lasted a few weeks then suddenly stopped working. The third wouldn't start up at all until I replaced the motherboard.

One of my theories was that the stock voltage settings on my Gigabyte TRX40 Aurus Master were too high, and it was just frying the chips, but I never checked the voltages, as I was just running at stock.

So, I went out and bought a new motherboard. Wound up with a super expensive christmas tree LED light Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha in large part because it was the only one I could find locally quickly.

I popped in the CPU, flashed the latest 1303 BIOS, loaded optimized defaults (just in case) and then saw this:

(please excuse dirty monitor, this is a spare I leave in the basement, so it is a little nasty)

View attachment 313305 View attachment 313304

Does that look a little high for a modern CPU to anyone but me? I mean, 1.48v seems like too high for an overclocked chip, and absolutely insane for stock settings.

Or Maybe Threadripper 3xxx chips just use high voltages?

I'd appreciate any inputs. What SHOULD the stock voltages be?

That's too bad to hear. I'm now afraid I'll buy one of those threadrippers and have it fail on me. Will the local office of AMD replace the cpu if it was bought internationally?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Just asking means ya still are missing it man, voltages change to meet the load as with any other Zen 2 cpu. It could show as high as 1.5v and it doesn't matter.

How do you guys kill TR3 cpus? They are almost bulletproof. These things will take as much voltage as you can throw at it given commensurate cooling.

That's what I'm trying to figure out too.

In 30 years of doing this I've never had a CPU die on me before, but I had to RMA two of these after they turned into rather expensive paper weights.

I didn't do anything crazy with them. Just ran them at the out of the box settings, and after a few weeks of use in both cases they were just dead. Not able to power up.

Mind you, this was after the builds were complete, everything was buttoned up, and nothing was being touched. Just one day, unable to power on.

One by one I eliminated all of the other components as the source of the problem. The only things I couldn't trouble shoot were the CPU and the motherboard because I only had one TRX40 each.

At first, I naturally assumed it was the motherboard. I mean, I've never seen a CPU die before, so I RMA'd it back to Gigabyte. They returned it to me, "no problem found".

Then I RMA'd the first CPU. AMD replaced it, and when the new one came in I assembled everything, and it worked. I thought this was behind me. Then a few weeks later, the same symptoms. System was a brick. No power at all.

I did a more basic troubleshooting this time because of my experience from the last one, and RMA'd the CPU again.

At the same time the pandemic hit and I had to move so A LOT of time passed. Just got to it this week.

With the third CPU installed the system still would not power on.

Again, I went through the detailed troubleshooting and determined it had to be the CPU or the motherboard, and since AMD had just sent me a brand new CPU, I decided to go to MicroCenter and buy a new motherboard.

With the new (expensive) Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha (Christmas tree lights edition) everything just works again.

I'm just hoping history doesn't repeat itself. Right now I'm blaming Gigabyte, so I am probably going to try to RMA it again. At least that way I can sell the replacement board if they replace it, and get some of my lost money back.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

That's too bad to hear. I'm now afraid I'll buy one of those threadrippers and have it fail on me. Will the local office of AMD replace the cpu if it was bought internationally?

I am sure they are mostly fine. I'm guessing I just had a randomly bad motherboard with a problem that was difficult to track down.

As far as how the warranty process works if you move internationally after buying the product, I couldn't help you with. I've never had to deal with that problem.

You could contact them and ask?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So how long did the RMA take, what did you have to do? I submitted one but due to holidays not sure how long this will take. In bios with default CPU settings, my voltage was 1.47v or the same as yours if that means anything.

Well my 3960x also needs to be RMA due to 3 cores not able to even do 3.8ghz. I also notice the very high voltages and thought it was normal how AMD did Precision Boost, maybe not. Mine ran at default settings which has PB on. Only very briefly did I use Automatic OC in Ryzen Master on some benchmarks but never used it beyond that. It was not a significant boost or did I like the increase in temperature, fan noise etc. Do not recall ever using PBO at all in Ryzen Master. Never OC in the bios until yesterday and today to troubleshoot CPU and come up with options for usage.

Being holidays, virtually no Threadrippers at MSRP one can obtain now, I wonder how successful my RMA will be once AMD responds. Got two automatic replies but nothing substantial yet.

I just realized I didn't completely answer your question.

I contacted them in their warranty form and received a confirmation email. Within a few hours I received an email from an actual person requesting detailed information about the problem, as well as pictures of the CPU and serial number. Remarkably quickly the RMA was approved and they even sent me a pre-paid shipping label, which NO ONE does anymore.

So, I dropped off the old CPU, and followed it in tracking. Same day it got to their center, a replacement was in the mail heading my way.

It was about the smoothest RMA process I have ever experienced.

 

[thesmokingman]

That's what I'm trying to figure out too.

In 30 years of doing this I've never had a CPU die on me before, but I had to RMA two of these after they turned into rather expensive paper weights.

I didn't do anything crazy with them. Just ran them at the out of the box settings, and after a few weeks of use in both cases they were just dead. Not able to power up.

Mind you, this was after the builds were complete, everything was buttoned up, and nothing was being touched. Just one day, unable to power on.

One by one I eliminated all of the other components as the source of the problem. The only things I couldn't trouble shoot were the CPU and the motherboard because I only had one TRX40 each.

At first, I naturally assumed it was the motherboard. I mean, I've never seen a CPU die before, so I RMA'd it back to Gigabyte. They returned it to me, "no problem found".

Then I RMA'd the first CPU. AMD replaced it, and when the new one came in I assembled everything, and it worked. I thought this was behind me. Then a few weeks later, the same symptoms. System was a brick. No power at all.

I did a more basic troubleshooting this time because of my experience from the last one, and RMA'd the CPU again.

At the same time the pandemic hit and I had to move so A LOT of time passed. Just got to it this week.

With the third CPU installed the system still would not power on.

Again, I went through the detailed troubleshooting and determined it had to be the CPU or the motherboard, and since AMD had just sent me a brand new CPU, I decided to go to MicroCenter and buy a new motherboard.

With the new (expensive) Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha (Christmas tree lights edition) everything just works again.

I'm just hoping history doesn't repeat itself. Right now I'm blaming Gigabyte, so I am probably going to try to RMA it again. At least that way I can sell the replacement board if they replace it, and get some of my lost money back.

That is messed, sorry you had to go thru that.

 

[tived]

That's too bad to hear. I'm now afraid I'll buy one of those threadrippers and have it fail on me. Will the local office of AMD replace the cpu if it was bought internationally?

That makes no logical sense given many of us are running without issues (knock on wood )

I would like to think that it is the odd one out that shows rear it’s head here every now and then
But we all look to learn from it and share our collective knowledge to help

h

 

[noko]

I just realized I didn't completely answer your question.

I contacted them in their warranty form and received a confirmation email. Within a few hours I received an email from an actual person requesting detailed information about the problem, as well as pictures of the CPU and serial number. Remarkably quickly the RMA was approved and they even sent me a pre-paid shipping label, which NO ONE does anymore.

So, I dropped off the old CPU, and followed it in tracking. Same day it got to their center, a replacement was in the mail heading my way.

It was about the smoothest RMA process I have ever experienced.

Thanks for the answer, received confirmation emails couple of days ago. Nothing since, no actual person contact yet.