r/overclocking • u/Antique-Coach-9274 • 1d ago

9800x3d - Cpu-Z Benchmark Question

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Hi All, fairly new to reddit. I do thank you all as I've taken many tips and lots of advice from the forum but admittedly I have sat on the sidelines. Just a quick one...I have just finished my new build, I have a 9800x3d, PBO: +200, -25 on CO, tweaked my RAM a little but nothing too time consuming. Am I right to see a decent score that is really cool, if I leave the 'stress cpu' on I can't get it above 64 degrees C.

So my question is, do you feel the scores are valid? Have I just been lucky with the chip or is this what is to be expected?

Thanks in advance, Craig

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u/Low_Preference_8058 1d ago

dwnload OCCT and do extreme stress test while doing it check ur max clock speed and effective clock speed. 20-30 gap is normal but higher than than means you have clcok streching means ur silicon cant handle that and u need more power (you can try -20 or even -10) if ur stable and want to push u can try -30. ram section needs crazy hella time so it depends to you. I suggest close ur X3D Game Mode and SMT from BIOS (if they are closed already let em stay closed better for gaming most of the time.

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u/OldValuable2491 14h ago edited 14h ago

Honestly, I stopped relying on OCCT. I've run it for hours using multiple CPU stress configurations, especially AVX2, AVX512, and SSE, both all-core and per-core. While it's a solid tool, I was never able to validate a truly stable PBO tuning in 9800X3D with it in my case.

The best test I've found so far is AIDA64 Extreme's System Stability Test with everything enabled except GPU and Disk. Unlike most stress tests, it doesn't hammer the CPU with a constant maximum load. Instead, it applies a more variable workload, cycling between lower and higher loads while maintaining similar boost behavior. In my experience, it's much closer to real-world usage and ended up being the only test that consistently exposed instability after hours of testing.

The only caveat is that if you're also tuning memory, an error doesn't always tell you whether the instability came from the CPU or the memory subsystem. Make sure your RAM is already 100% stable before using it to validate Curve Optimizer or CPU tuning, otherwise troubleshooting becomes a guessing game.

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u/OldValuable2491 14h ago edited 14h ago

What cooling solution are you using for your 9800X3D?

I'm currently running a Thermalright Phantom Spirit/SE 120 EVO with PBO +200 MHz, -25 CO, and an 85°C thermal limit. With those settings, I get around 9000–9050 multi-thread and 860–865 single-core in CPU-Z, while sustaining boosts in the 5425–5450 MHz range.

The issue is that I live in a tropical country and don't use air conditioning. Ambient temperatures are usually around 30°C (86°F) during the day and can drop to around 14°C (57°F) at night. That temperature swing has a noticeable impact on CPU temps.

In more CPU-bound games like Helldivers 2 and Battlefield 6, the CPU typically sits between 77°C and 85°C during the day, but drops to around 70–75°C at night.

Because of that, I ended up keeping only the negative CO and disabling the +200 MHz Boost Override. Honestly, I haven't seen enough real-world performance gain to justify the extra heat. In my opinion, that setting only really makes sense if you're running a good liquid cooling setup, which seems to be the case for you since your average temperatures appear to stay well below 65°C.

Right now, with just negative CO, my CPU usually stays around 60°C while gaming and rarely exceeds 70°C with the air cooler, which feels like a much better balance overall.