4.2 GHz at 1.15V is very good, I'd say borderline golden sample level. I've seen people needing 1.3V to hit 4.1 all-core on various 3000-series chips (and for the record, exceeding >1.3V is when silicon degradation starts becoming a problem, with 1.35 being pretty definitively unsafe over any extended time period. Stock operation exceeds this, but only for very short times, and monitors things closely to avoid degradation or damage. Software voltage readouts in stock operation are generally inaccurate due to how the chip's control and protection systems work.).I am not using the LNA adapter. I was really trying my best to find an approach that could keep the processor cool in the tiny case, that was a higher priority for me than noise. I wanted to make sure that I could get the higher cpu fan speeds to keep things cooler.
I had read that same advice for Ryzen 3rd gen as well, but I haven't found that to really be the case. I think it might be a function of the fact that I built in a very small case with no real way to cool other than the cpu cooler or perhaps I have a processor that undervolts well. But I have actually found MUCH better performance (both single threaded and multi-threaded) with undervolting and running a fixed frequency than with stock conditions. I briefly tried to use voltage offsets, but I didn't find much success with them. Perhaps I need to investigate that further.
Stock cpu with memory OC:
4.2GHz all-core @ 1.15V
It might be that with a chip as good as yours in a low-spec SKU like the 3600 you're better off running fixed clocks and voltages like that simply because the specs of the chip won't allow it to boost that high for all-core loads. The 3600 doesn't AFAIK have the features to boost beyond its rated 4.2GHz peak speed, so given that you're hitting that all-core at a reasonable voltage you're doing as good as can be expected. But that's a very rare case.
Btw, is the stock operation pic with PBO on or off? It seems the current recommended mode of operations is leaving PBO off. IIRC this is due to it causing voltages to spike higher than necessary, triggering thermal protections too early. Looking at your stock image you're close to the EDC (peak socket current) limit at 96.7%, so increasing that slightly might be a good idea. There's still nearly 25% headroom before hitting the sustained current limit. My understanding is that adjusting EDC/TDC/PPT needs to be done carefully and generally only adjusting one parameter at a time, as just increasing everything tends not to work as one might think.
If you want to experiment my recommendation (mind you, this is all second-hand knowledge based on reading forums, not personal experience) would be to keep PBO off, UV on an offset, and possibly increase EDC incrementally, all the while running scored benchmarks to monitor if performance is actually changing. Monitoring voltages and frequencies generally won't do much, as they'll look good in software even if performance is degrading (say, due to too low voltages, current limits being exceeded, or conflicting parameters). Of course, as noted above, with your chip you're unlikely to ever see better performance than you're currently seeing. But your chip does sound very, very good.
