Overclock your Ryzen CPU from linux
If you happen to have a 1st generation Ryzen CPU you may well have tried overclocking it. Usually this is done via the Mainboard UEFI interface. Except here I am are going to do things differently!
On Windows there exists ‘Ryzen Master’, a tool provided by AMD to overclock a Ryzen CPU from an easy to use interface while the system is running. But I am running Linux and want to do the same. What’s there to do?
With this little python application and the help of MSR’s (Model Specific Registers) on Ryzen CPU’s you can manually overclock your Ryzen processor while it’s running!
And I will show you how!
Load kernel modules
These should come as standard on any distro
sudo modprobe msr cpuid
Download the tool
https://github.com/r4m0n/ZenStates-Linux/
git clone https://github.com/r4m0n/ZenStates-Linux.git
Now once that’s done it’s time to get well acquainted with your processor
Run zenstates
sudo ./zenstates.py -l
State tables
For a 1700X on stock settings you should see something like this
P0 - Enabled - FID = 88 - DID = 8 - VID = 20 - Ratio = 34.00 - vCore = 1.35000
P1 - Enabled - FID = 78 - DID = 8 - VID = 2C - Ratio = 30.00 - vCore = 1.27500
P2 - Enabled - FID = 84 - DID = C - VID = 68 - Ratio = 22.00 - vCore = 0.90000
P3 - Disabled
P4 - Disabled
P5 - Disabled
P6 - Disabled
P7 - Disabled
C6 State - Package - Enabled
C6 State - Core - Enabled
For a stock 1800X it looks like this:
P0 - Enabled - FID = 90 - DID = 8 - VID = 20 - Ratio = 36.00 - vCore = 1.35000
P1 - Enabled - FID = 80 - DID = 8 - VID = 2C - Ratio = 32.00 - vCore = 1.27500
P2 - Enabled - FID = 84 - DID = C - VID = 68 - Ratio = 22.00 - vCore = 0.90000
P3 - Disabled
P4 - Disabled
P5 - Disabled
P6 - Disabled
P7 - Disabled
C6 State - Package - Enabled
C6 State - Core - Enabled
Warning
Most Ryzen CPU’s only seem to support P-states P0, P1 and P2.
All values are set in hexadecimal values and require a bit of thought and math to use safely
YOU CAN TOTALLY BREAK THINGS HERE!
You and only you the reader take responsibility for performing any of the actions described here on your system. Don’t come crying to me if you entered the wrong values and flames came shooting out of your Hardware.
Explanation of Values
- FID – Frequency ID in Hexadecimal
- VID – Voltage ID in Hexadecimal
- DID – Divisor ID in Hexadecimal
- Ratio - CPU Clock Ratio * 100Mhz to get Full CPU base frequency
- vCore - The actual CPU base voltage (This will vary with Line Load)
This in all works very similar to what you see in your BIOS P-states settings under the AMD CBS menu.
Calculations
For a standard DID value of 8 the FID value is calculated as follows:
(CPU ratio * 4) = FID(Decimal)
So lets take an example for 3900Mhz. This means we want a ratio of 39.
39 x 4 = 156
Now we convert 156 to hexadecimal to get 9C
To help you here is a table of all the common VID’s, and FID’s
FID Table
| FID | Base Clock (MHz) |
|---|---|
| 90 | 3600 |
| 91 | 3625 |
| 92 | 3650 |
| 93 | 3675 |
| 94 | 3700 |
| 95 | 3725 |
| 96 | 3750 |
| 97 | 3775 |
| 98 | 3800 |
| 99 | 3825 |
| 9a | 3850 |
| 9b | 3875 |
| 9c | 3900 |
| 9d | 3925 |
| 9e | 3950 |
| 9f | 3975 |
| a0 | 4000 |
| a1 | 4025 |
| a2 | 4050 |
| a3 | 4075 |
| a4 | 4100 |
VID Table
| VID | Voltage (V) |
|---|---|
| 30 | 1.2500 |
| 2f | 1.2560 |
| 2e | 1.2562 |
| 2d | 1.2680 |
| 2c | 1.2750 |
| 2b | 1.2812 |
| 2a | 1.2870 |
| 29 | 1.2930 |
| 28 | 1.3000 |
| 27 | 1.3062 |
| 26 | 1.3125 |
| 25 | 1.3180 |
| 24 | 1.3250 |
| 23 | 1.3312 |
| 22 | 1.3375 |
| 21 | 1.3430 |
| 20 | 1.3500 |
| 1f | 1.3560 |
| 1e | 1.3625 |
| 1d | 1.3680 |
| 1c | 1.3750 |
| 1b | 1.3812 |
| 1a | 1.3875 |
| 19 | 1.3937 |
| 18 | 1.4000 |
| 17 | 1.4060 |
| 16 | 1.4125 |
| 15 | 1.4180 |
| 14 | 1.4250 |
| 13 | 1.4321 |
| 12 | 1.4375 |
| 11 | 1.4430 |
| 10 | 1.4500 |
Example Clocks
These are based on rough CPU quality binning estimates
Ryzen 7 1700
97% reach 3.8GHz @ 1.376V
70% reach 3.9GHz @ 1.408V
20% reach 4.0GHz @ 1.440V
Ryzen 7 1700X
100% reach 3.8GHz @ 1.360V
77% reach 3.9GHz @ 1.392V
33% reach 4.0GHz @ 1.424V
Ryzen 7 1800X
100% reach 3.8GHz (assumed)
97% reach 3.9GHz @ 1.376V
67% reach 4.0GHz @ 1.408V
20% reach 4.1GHz @ 1.440V
For most 1700X I have simply set both P0 and P1 to 3800MHz with the following settings, yours may differ. And 1.35V is generally safe for 3.8Ghz.
Obviously all of these have to be executed as root with the msr and cpuid modules loaded.
Overclocking
P0 = 3.800GHz, 1.3500v
./zenstates.py -p 0 -f 98 -d 8 -v 20
P1 = 3.800GHz, 1.3500v
./zenstates.py -p 1 -f 98 -d 8 -v 20
P2 = 2.200GHz, 0.9000v (The Power saving Idle state)
./zenstates.py -p 2 -f 84 -d C -v 68
Making it persistent
Now if you want to have your system load these settings at startup you can create a simple systemd service as follows:
First ensure that the necessary modules are loaded:
sudoedit /etc/modules-load.d/cpu.conf
Now in this file simply enter these two lines and save it.
msr
cpuid
This will ensure that your kernel loads these two modules at startup.
First copy zenstates.py from the local directory to /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp ./zenstates.py /usr/local/bin/
Then make sure it’s still executable
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/zenstates.py
Now create our shell script that will invoke zenstates.py in /usr/local/bin
sudoedit /usr/local/bin/enable-pstates
Add the following lines and save it
#!/bin/sh
## The default configuration incase you want to revert
# P0 - Enabled - FID = 88 - DID = 8 - VID = 20 - Ratio = 34.00 - vCore = 1.35000
# P1 - Enabled - FID = 78 - DID = 8 - VID = 2C - Ratio = 30.00 - vCore = 1.27500
# P2 - Enabled - FID = 84 - DID = C - VID = 68 - Ratio = 22.00 - vCore = 0.90000
## P0 = 3.800GHz, 1.3500v
zenstates.py -p 0 -f 98 -d 8 -v 20
## P1 = 3.800GHz, 1.3500v
zenstates.py -p 1 -f 98 -d 8 -v 20
## P2 = 2.200GHz, 0.9000v
zenstates.py -p 2 -f 84 -d C -v 68
## List the result.
zenstates.py -l
Startup script
Now make the script executable
sudo chmod +x /usr/loca/bin/enable-pstates
Systemd service
Next up create a new file for our systemd service
sudoedit /etc/systemd/system/ryzen-overclock.service
This will be our systemd service file that will get tell systemd to run our small bash script very early at boot for maximum benefit
[Unit]
Description=Ryzen Overclock
DefaultDependencies=no
After=sysinit.target local-fs.target
Before=basic.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/enable-pstates
[Install]
WantedBy=basic.target
Now reload your systemd services for good measure
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
And enable the service to run at startup
sudo systemctl enable ryzen-overclock
You can now either reboot or manually start the service via systemctl and enjoy your overclock.
sudo systemctl start ryzen-overclock
FIN
