- Joined
- Dec 16, 2017
- Messages
- 2,730 (1.18/day)
- Location
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
System Name | System V |
---|---|
Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 |
Motherboard | Asus Prime X570-P |
Cooling | Cooler Master Hyper 212 // a bunch of 120 mm Xigmatek 1500 RPM fans (2 ins, 3 outs) |
Memory | 2x8GB Ballistix Sport LT 3200 MHz (BLS8G4D32AESCK.M8FE) (CL16-18-18-36) |
Video Card(s) | Gigabyte AORUS Radeon RX 580 8 GB |
Storage | SHFS37A240G / DT01ACA200 / WD20EZRX / MKNSSDTR256GB-3DL / LG BH16NS40 / ST10000VN0008 |
Display(s) | LG 22MP55 IPS Display |
Case | NZXT Source 210 |
Audio Device(s) | Logitech G430 Headset |
Power Supply | Corsair CX650M |
Mouse | Microsoft Trackball Optical 1.0 |
Keyboard | HP Vectra VE keyboard (Part # D4950-63004) |
Software | Whatever build of Windows 11 is being served in Dev channel at the time. |
Benchmark Scores | Corona 1.3: 3120620 r/s Cinebench R20: 3355 FireStrike: 12490 TimeSpy: 4624 |
Just saw this around.
I was not aware that motherboard makers tampered with the metrics in such a blatant way.
By the way, this feature is only available in the latest beta version of HWiNFO, v6.27-4185.
IMPORTANT - Explaining the AMD Ryzen "Power Reporting Deviation" -metric in HWiNFO
Ryzen CPUs for AM4 platform rely on external, motherboard sourced telemetry to determine their power consumption. The voltage, current and power telemetry is provided to the processor by the motherboard VRM controller through the AMD SVI2 interface. This information is consumed by the processors...
www.hwinfo.com
Some motherboard manufacturers intentionally declare an incorrect (too small) motherboard specific reference value in AGESA. Since AM4 Ryzen CPUs rely on telemetry sourced from the motherboard VRM to determine their power consumption, declaring an incorrect reference value will affect the power consumption seen by the CPU. For instance, if the motherboard manufacturer would declare 50% of the correct value, the CPU would think it consumes half the power than it actually does. In this case, the CPU would allow itself to consume twice the power of its set power limits, even when at stock. It allows the CPU to clock higher due to the effectively lifted power limits however, it also makes the CPU to run hotter and potentially negatively affects its life-span, same ways as overclocking does. The difference compared to overclocking or using AMD PBO, is that this is done completely clandestine and that in the past, there has been no way for most of the end-users to detect it, or react to it.
HWiNFO will display "Power Reporting Deviation" metric under the CPUs enhanced sensors. The displayed figure is a percentage, with 100.0% being the completely unbiased baseline. When the motherboard manufacturer has both properly calibrated and declared the reference value, the reported figure should be pretty close to 100% under a stable, near-full-load scenario. A ballpark for a threshold, where the readings become suspicious is around ±5%. So, if you see an average value that is significantly lower than ~ 95% there is most likely intentional biasing going on. Obviously, the figure can be greater than 100%, but for the obvious reasons it rarely is
As stated before, this metric is only valid during a relatively stable near-full-load condition. That is due to the typical measurement accuracy of the VRM controller telemetry, and also due to the highly advanced and fast power management on Ryzen CPUs, that not only result in extremely low idle, but also in extremely rapidly changing power consumption. A suggested workload to get a stable and reproducable deviation metric is Cinebench R20 NT, with the HWiNFO sample rate set to less or equal to 1000ms.
I'd like to stress that despite this exploit is essentially made possible by something AMD has included in the specification, the use of this exploit is not something AMD condones with, let alone promotes.
Instead they have rather actively put pressure on the motherboard manufacturers, who have been caught using this exploit.
I was not aware that motherboard makers tampered with the metrics in such a blatant way.
By the way, this feature is only available in the latest beta version of HWiNFO, v6.27-4185.