Hi,

My PC is not using much of its CPU when running sims in PIOsolver (see pic for reference). When I first turn my PC on on, it'll use to around 75% of its CPU, and from there I'll slowly drop down to a baseline of around 30% within 5 or so minutes, never returning anywhere north of 35%.

https://i.gyazo.com/1fd17de29e1c7632...eba983ca33.png

Would anyone happen to have some advice on this?

Thank you in advance!

Which license do you have? The basic license only uses 6 threads, which would be in line with the usage you're seeing. Staying clocked down below baseline clocks seems like more of a problem, if accurate.
https://www.piosolver.com/collection...iosolver-basic

I use the PRO version, and it currently uses 16 cores (32 threads)

What can I do to stop being below the baseline clock? I can see it's only 1.17GHz out of 3.4GHz

Pio pro gets limited to 16 threads, with your cpu that would use 16 cores without hyperthreading. This would probably show as 50% use in task manager.

Have you checked your power saving settings? Try changing to the "full performance" power plan, that might make up the difference.

Changed all settings to high power, and there does seem to be a bit of improvement!

Wow, great spot about the threads! So, I need to upgrade to PioEdge to use the other 16 threads?

Not really worth it, you'll get a small performance increase but hyperthreading doesn't double the output of a core. It's something like 10-20%.

Oh... I see

Also, the power option change looked promising at first, but now it's back down to ~29% total CPU usage.

Any other ideas?

You could check your chipset drivers/BIOS are up to date but it's unlikely to be that. If you've previously been messing around in your BIOS maybe you've accidentally under-volted your cpu.

Try something other than Task Manager to check it's not a display bug - HWMonitor etc.

Also check your temps in something like HWMonitor, possible you're getting throttled because of poor airflow/cooling.

Have you tried running something else cpu-intensive to check it's definitely your machine that's the problem?

I agree with The Imp, update your chipset drivers/system firmware (BIOS) and check your temps.
https://www.amd.com/en/support

Ryzen Master overclocking utility may be worth poking at as well. You should be able to try forcing the system to run at baseclock all the time (not a desired end state for various reasons).
https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/ryzen-master

Download a benchmarking tool that can load all 32 threads, such as CineBench and try running that and see what your clocks and utilization hit.
https://www.custompcreview.com/artic...e-performance/

@Imp/Headtrauma

About the BIOS...

I got the PC back in late 2017, and immediately it began crashing whilst using PIO (it'd only crash when running PIO, stresstests like prime95 would run fine). The company I got it from said it must be the software and not the PC, as I couldn't perform a crash with any other software. I had it sent away for testing, and when it came back the PC didn't crash when running PIO, however it wouldn't use all of its CPU, just 40-45%. I told them this and they instructed me to go into the BIOS to change a few things (the only thing I remember changing was the memory speed from 3000 down to 2133), resulting in the PC using more of its CPU, but now going back to crashing. After telling them this, they instructed me to change it back. Fast forward 3-4 months of me returning the PC and them re-returning with the same issue (40-45% CPU usage, but stable), and I just decided to deal with the CPU not running at full capacity as the company wouldn't take responsibility and I couldn't see what I could do about it. This was now early 2018.

It's only recently that the PC has began to falter even more, going from 40-45% CPU to (now) ~22%. I also ran a prime95 test; the CPU starts @ 90% and slowly drops to 30%.

When I go into the BIOS, is there anything key I should look for that will cause the PC to not use all of its CPU?

Each board has a different bios with different names for stuff, you'd probably be best resetting your bios to default and starting from there. Find out what motherboard you've got, go to their website and check your drivers/bios versions.

Did you check your temps? If you've bought the system pre-built it's probably got crappy stock fans, replacing them with Noctuas or similar could help. Ideally you'd want a high-end cpu cooler but that's not as easy to install, case fans are just a few screws.

No idea why downclocking your ram helped, modern motherboards read the ram speed/timings off the chip itself. You'd only usually change those settings to overclock it. Ram speed isn't going to affect solvers either way though.

This seems like thermal throttling. Threadripper CPUs are demanding to cool.
Also, 40-45% indicated load is close to the 16 threads your license is for. The Windows scheduler loads physical cores before virtual cores to increase perf. Hyper-threading cores only add about 10% performance.

@The Imp: DDR4-3000 is probably and XMP profile on the RAM. 2133 is the baseline JEDEC profile. Early Zen systems were pretty picky about RAM to run faster than base JEDEC speed. Firmware updates helped with this quite a bit over time. If this system is running an older BIOS updating that could help. Zen based CPU performance is more impacted by RAM speed than most because the Infinity Fabric speed linking between CCX modules is based on RAM speed. DDR4-3200 has been the sweet spot in the testing I've seen.

@Clanty: Please provide more info on your system. Is this a major manufacturer system (Dell, HP, Lenovo), a whitebox (local computer shop or smaller online builder) or a self build?
Speccy or HWInfo should be able to provide more system info and temps for you to post in the thread. Getting your firmware current and confirming adequate power and cooling are the best next steps.
https://lifehacker.com/speccy-gives-...hardwa-5401456
https://lifehacker.com/hwinfo-provid...you-1044830886