Are you using a 3rd Gen Ryzen CPU paired with an X570 motherboard, or even any other chipset ? If yes, then kindly go through this finding by HWiNFO, and the newly introduced feature and sensor known as Power Reporting Deviation.
This new feature reveals whether your 3rd Gen Ryzen processor is being tricked by your motherboard into thinking that its power consumption is within normal range and parameter. Some motherboard vendors are sending more power to the CPU, in order to sustain better and higher boost clocks, or to offer support for overclocking. At this time we don’t know the full list of Ryzen Models and Motherboard SKUs which exhibit this behavior though.
Without your knowledge and consent your current motherboard might be ‘silently’ killing the Ryzen processor. Some motherboard manufacturers are intentionally declaring an incorrect motherboard specific reference value in AGESA. They are being called out for misreporting key measurement values on AMD’s Ryzen processors, thus boosting performance in the end. AMD Ryzen processors rely on the motherboard’s VRM controller for power-consumption remote sensing.
Some Motherboard vendors have found out a way to trick and bypass the processor into thinking that the power consumption is within the normal parameters. But as a matter of fact, it is not, and HWInfo’s developer has found a way to calculate the difference between the power consumption value as reported to the CPU, against the VRM controller’s measured value.
This sensor is called Power Reporting Deviation. A 95-105% integer percentage value deviation can be considered as a normal behavior. But anything outside this range might indicate the Motherboard vendor is deploying a power enhancement trick designed to maximize the performance of the Ryzen CPU, even for those processors running at default stock speeds. This method can reduce their lifespan in the end.
This also results in a higher power draw and more heat production, thus reducing the Ryzen CPU chip’s lifespan, but without the user’s knowledge. To squeeze out more performance some Motherboard vendors adjust the chip’s stock power limits.
According to overclocking expert The Stilt, the method which is being used by motherboard vendors to boost performance on some X570 motherboards consists of willfully misrepresenting power consumption of Ryzen processors which are assigned to operate at normal stock settings. The use of this exploit is not something AMD condones with, let alone promotes.
This method or practice isn’t supported by AMD and could even kill your chip sooner than you might have expected. AM4 Ryzen CPUs rely on telemetry sourced from the motherboard VRM to determine their power consumption, so showing an incorrect reference value will alter the power consumption seen by the CPU.
If suppose the motherboard vendor declares 50% of the correct value, then the CPU would think it consumes half the power than it actually does. But in this particular case the CPU will consume twice the power of the limit set even at stock. Since the power limit is lifted, it allows the CPU to clock higher, thus making it run hotter. This will affect the life-span. This is similar to overclocking or using AMD’s PBO, but it is being done ‘without’ the consent of the end user in the background.
Any value over 100% means your motherboard is over reporting your CPU’s power usage, which would cause it to throttle earlier, hence affecting the performance. But, most motherboard manufacturers wouldn’t do this because it means that their CPU benchmark and Gaming scores will be lower.
A score of less than 100% means that your motherboard is under reporting the power consumption, which will make the CPU speed up, thus increasing the voltage and temperature in the end.
Those interested can download the latest beta version of HWiNFO from here.
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What the hell ? Are they doing this. very strange.
Probably doing it to get people to buy zen4.
nice informative article btw.
ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero AM4 AMD X470 – AMD 2700x
I am showing minimum of 98.1% and Maximum of 138% with an average of 118% at Idle
AIDA64 CPU Stress test it is consistent 86% I am going to play around with bios OC settings and see if numbers change.
X470 chipset is not concerned by this, and neither is Ryzen 2700X (2nd gen Ryzen), how can you be able to read those values?
I have exactly the same components and Power Reporting Deviation doesn’t appear at all on this HWiNFO64 beta version.
Hello. FYI, earlier gen Ryzen families are also officially supported, but there is some issue right now.
There seems to be some issue with reporting of the “Power Reporting Deviation” parameter on some earlier (Zen/Zen+) CPU families.
They are investigating this problem, so for the time being please take the
parameter into account only on Ryzen 3rd gen (Zen2) families. Expect an update of the HWiNFO app soon.
“Any value over 100% means your motherboard is over reporting your CPU’s power usage, which would cause it to throttle earlier, hence affecting the performance. But, most motherboard manufacturers wouldn’t do this because it means that their CPU benchmark and gaming scores will be lower.”
Well, it seems Gigabyte would do it. My Aorus Ultra X570, was displayed at 242% in this monitor.
Idle or under load? My X570 Taichi jumps between 90%-105% when idle, but under load it reports constant 74,1%
As of now, I’ve seen reports on this issue only by MSI and Gigabyte, though even other vendors might be deploying a similar tactic.
Ya, I actually ran the test again with cpu topped up, and it was sitting between 98.1% – 99.3% or so actually. When I had run it prior, it was indeed idle.
it needs to but under full load or else mine reports the same at idle
So is my ASUS TUF motherboard – 245% idle up till 275% maximum – Average while under full load around 210%
Ya so, I “was” half asleep when I read the article and had run the test and overlooked that, as it was just before I dropped over to sleep late last night.
I just ran the test right now under full load, and it registered ~98.8% actually.
Dang that sucks, ill have to check this out later. My pc is quite the power hog..
under full load ~172
Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS
172 Amps?!
lol no 172% power repoting deviation
edit: will update bios and also report new
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4, reporting 43.2% under load. Not good, if this monitor is accurate.
Edit: UPS power draw is increasing by 100W during the Cinebench test, while the indicated CPU power is maxing out at 56.909W. Definitely something fishy going on.
Edit 2: Updated my BIOS to the latest version and it’s now reading about 89% under load with CPU power usage reading up to 88W and slightly lower temps.
I’ve got a Gigabyte Aorus Elite Wifi X570, also getting 89% under latest BIOS (no idea what the values are on earlier BIOS versions). Definitely gonna file a support ticket and chew them out when I get a chance.
Minimum of 55% with PBO on and 102% with PBO off on my Tomahawk Max + 2700X.
I have an X470 Pro Carbon(MSI) would this effect me in any way or is it EXCLUSIVE to X570 for now?
Anyone want to guess if this was a ploy by Asus.