AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D Is Reportedly Not Overclockable

The launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor draws near, but this CPU with its huge 96MB of cache may not support overclocking according to a post from a user on Bilibili. On its own we might not read too much into that as it may have been disabled in BIOS or a trait of an engineering sample CPU. 

However, TechPowerUp adds to this news, saying that AMD is asking its motherboard partners to disable Ryzen 7 5800X3D overclocking. That will disappoint some users, but actually it’s not all that surprising.

We can speculate as to why this may be. Firstly, it might come down to poor heat dissipation characteristics. Having stacked dies will naturally make it harder to keep the underlying chiplet cool. Adding overclocking to the mix adds heat. AMD may not be confident that the CPU’s various hotspots can be kept within acceptable levels once overclocking is taken into consideration.

The use of through silicon vias (TSVs) to connect the cache on top of the regular Zen 3 chiplet is very much cutting-edge technology. AMD can build the chips to match certain design parameters but once you you move outside of the base specification with higher voltages and current, it’s probable that AMD can’t guarantee that the chips won’t fail. It has surely tested all of this internally.

We already know that AMD has lower the clocks of the 5800X3D compared to the 5800X. It’s set  to come with 3.4 GHz base clock and 4.5 GHz boost clock, which is 400 MHz and 200 MHz lower than 5800X respectively. Despite the lower clocks, AMD claims it can match or beat the Core i9 12900K in some gaming titles. 

It’s set to be released on April 20 with an RRP of 449 USD, matching the original launch price of the Ryzen 7 5800X. 

Chris’ gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an ‘educational PC’ that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he’s gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.