Famous overclocker der8auer visited Asus HQ this week and killed a shiny new AMD Ryzen 7000X3D with alarming ease. The 3D V-Cache enhanced Ryzen 9 7950X3D didn’t last long in overclocking tests, after tweaked voltages and lashings of liquid nitrogen cooling were applied. However, the untimely death of this CPU will ultimately save others, as Asus / AMD will “probably” implement a 1.35V ceiling on X3D processors in upcoming motherboard BIOS updates.
Der8auer is currently documenting a trip to Taiwan via YouTube. After quaffing a pint of the local bubble tea, he headed to Asus HQ for some computer testing and overclocking fun. The TechTuber explained it had been around seven years since his last visit to the tech treasure island, mainly because of the Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions.
After several days of Intel Sapphire Rapids testing, Der8auer was offered the opportunity to test the latest AMD Ryzen 7000X3D processors at Asus’ well-equipped labs. The expert overclocker had a feeling that there could be a “great risk” in undertaking such an endeavor, due to AMD’s warnings and locking down of the previous gen X3D parts (AMD Ryzen 5000X3D processors). However, with the latest gen, AMD has relaxed things a little, allowing more tweakability for those who like to dabble.
Using a Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme, der8auer began his investigations into performance and power. At the start of this section of the video, the overclocker says that the CPU typically ran at 1V, but the Crosshair motherboard allowed him to pump up the voltage to 1.35V, as a modest but worthwhile first step in LN2-fuelled overclocking. The observed temperatures of <90°C with liquid nitrogen cooling were comfortably near to what would be expected at stock voltages using an AiO liquid cooler.
Encouraged by the success of the overvolting and stability of the system, der8auer decided on a next step of 1.55V. He explained that this kind of voltage was a significant ramp up from stock, but would be a typical next step in exploring the capabilities of a modern Intel CPU or AMD CPU without 3D V-Cache.
Upon restart, right after the BIOS screen flew past, the open bench testing system fell flat, with the motherboard showing an ominous 00 error code. The usual means of error recovery didn’t revive this system, and subsequent investigations revealed that the CPU was stone dead. Der8auer’s video voiceover asserts that the demise of the CPU was entirely unexpected, especially as it only managed to run past the BIOS screen, and no testing or computational load was exerted using the new voltage.
The YouTuber didn’t want to draw conclusions about safe voltages for the Ryzen 7000X3D series based on a sample of one, but reported back to Asus, who will probably limit the max manual selectable voltage for X3D chips to 1.35V. He surmised that the voltage being so configurable, and options up to 2.5V being available, was probably an oversight by AMD motherboard partners and needed to be fixed.
Elsewhere in der8auer’s video, you can watch some Sapphire Rapids OC fun, look at some overclocking hardware prototypes, and more. The 35-minute video is well worth a watch. You can enjoy the full video above.
