Emily Irish

AMD Ryzen Chips Reportedly Facing Burnout Due to Overclocked Memories

The overclocking community has been buzzing with reports of AMD Ryzen 7000X3D processors allegedly burning themselves to death due to excessive voltages while overclocking. AMD is currently investigating the situation, working closely with its ODM partners to ensure motherboard BIOS settings are within specifications for the Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs. If proven true, this could be a significant setback for the popular Ryzen series, which has been making waves in the market for its high performance and competitive pricing.

The issue seems to stem from excessive SoC voltages, either through AMD EXPO memory overclocking profiles or manual BIOS adjustment. EXPO memory profiles are utilized to achieve advertised overclocking speeds for DDR5 memory, similar to Intel's XMP profiles. This process may result in increased memory clocks and voltages, including the SoC voltage. Tom's Hardware suggests that the excessive voltage could potentially disable the thermal protection mechanisms on the chip, leading to continuous operation without thermal limits and, ultimately, catastrophic damage.

This damage is visible on some of the latest AMD chips, particularly in the form of bulging around the vCore pads. Although the focus is on Ryzen 7000X3D processors with 3D V-Cache, standard Ryzen 7000-series chips are also believed to be susceptible to the issue. While the investigation is still ongoing, it is crucial for users to take precautions to minimize the risk of damage.

A safe SoC voltage is generally considered to be 1.25V, as anything beyond that enters the potentially hazardous territory. Users can check their CPU's voltage through any reliable monitoring app, such as HWinfo. It's worth mentioning that using EXPO overclocking is not covered under warranty, which means users may not be eligible for a replacement if their chip is damaged due to this issue.

In conclusion, AMD is expected to develop a firmware or system management unit (SMU) fix that would limit the voltage and possibly restrict memory overclocking limits. This solution, however, may provide ways to circumvent restrictions and potentially cause further damage to the chip. As with any form of overclocking, users need to be aware of the inherent risks involved. Until a more permanent solution is discovered, it would be wise for users to be cautious with EXPO overclocking and monitor their voltages closely to prevent any potential issues that could lead to chip burnout.