Robert Hallock says the alleged Ryzen 3000 voltage problem is not a problem and is a matter of the "observer effect"

AMD Marketing Manager Robert Hallock says the AMD Ryzen 3000's voltage problems are just "the observer effect" problem

Users are mainly complaining about the operating voltages of the new Ryzen processors . There are many threads on Reddit about the excessive voltage that motherboards are delivering to the new processors. Robert Hallock, AMD's Marketing Director, addressed this issue on Reddit. He says the high voltages are related to modern processor monitoring tools.

These high tensions also, according to Hallock, have their origin in "the observer effect." According to these tools to measure the load, it generates load on the processor and affects the result. So the tensions that we are seeing are given by the very tools that we use to see these parameters.

AMD says that the Ryzen 3000 do not have high voltages, it is a matter of the "observer effect"

«We have determined that many popular system monitoring tools are quite aggressive in the way they analyze the behavior of a core. Some of these tools wake up each core in the system for 20 ms, and do so as often as every 200 ms.

From the processor firmware perspective, this is interpreted as a workload requesting sustained performance from the core(s). The firmware is designed to respond to that pattern by ramping up: higher clock speeds, higher voltages," Robert Hallock said on the Reddit forum.

“So if you’re sitting there looking at your monitoring tool, the tool is constantly commanding all cores to wake up and enable Turbo frequencies. This will keep clock speeds high, and the corresponding voltages will also be raised to support that increase. This is a classic case of the observer effect – the tool is expected to provide valid data, but it’s actually producing invalid data by virtue of the way it’s being measured.”

To complement his exhibition he has published several images

Hallock recommends using the CPU-Z to view the voltage. He says that this is the most accurate tool to see the stress of the processing without the observer effect. But the problem is that users who report voltage problems on AMD Ryzen 3000 use this tool. The problem is that the more applications that are running, the less accurate the measurement is.

It has proven it with a Ryzen 9 3900X and ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard with the latest BIOS. Specifically, the BIOS is 1.07.07 on this motherboard. This BIOS implements the power plan for Windows 10, “AMD Ryzen Balanced”, for which we also need the May 2019 (1903) version. This system allows you to take advantage of the cores of the Ryzen. Through this system, a voltage of 0.384V is achieved at rest.

Come on, you need a motherboard for AMD with the best possible BIOS, updated Windows 10 and maybe a little luck. The problem is that most motherboards use BIOS in beta phase, something that generates many problems.

Full explanation of the problem

“I'm looking for specific complaints where the voltage is stuck at a particular value, or in a small range of values, around 1,4v, no matter how long you sit staring at it.

Your CPU is perfectly healthy, periodically using a voltage between 1,4-1,5v to achieve Turbo frequencies, and you should run into -1,0v drops when the CPU goes into standby. These variations can be brief, and that's okay. Charging voltages of around 1,2-1,3v are perfectly fine too. This is the processor working as expected. AMD Ryzen is a highly dynamic system, with up to 1.000 voltage and clock speed changes per second. You will experience a lot of bouncing while working with your system.

I anticipate a lot of people are now trying out AMD Ryzen processors for the first time (because they are amazing), and they may not understand what to expect versus any CPU they previously owned. These people want to know if what they’re seeing is “normal,” but they may not know what “normal” looks like. I get it! I want to assure you that the CPU needs these voltages to boost frequencies, and voltages of 1,2-1,5v are perfectly normal for a Ryzen under load conditions (games, apps, whatever). Even on the desktop, Windows background tasks need love too. You’ll see the CPU boost frequencies and voltages as well. But if your voltage is fine, but it’s stuck not moving, that’s what I’m trying to troubleshoot.”