AMD to Solve 7000X3D Overheating Problem by Capping Chips' Voltage

pcmag.com:

Owners of Ryzen 7000X3D chips should prepare to patch. AMD is rolling out a fix to prevent the CPUs from overheating after several chips were found burning their attached motherboards. 

In a statement on Thursday, AMD said it released a BIOS update to motherboard makers, with the fix designed to restrict voltage on the Ryzen chips.

“We have root caused the issue and have already distributed a new AGESA that puts measures in place on certain power rails on AM5 motherboards to prevent the CPU from operating beyond its specification limits, including a cap on SOC voltage at 1.3V,” the company said. 

AMD didn’t elaborate on the exact cause of the overheating. But the statement suggests the chips could overheat due to higher-than-accepted voltage levels. Earlier this week, Motherboard maker Asus went a step further and said the overheating could be blamed on the memory overclocking feature, EXPO, raising the chip to "overvoltage." 

"To support EXPO and/or memory overclocking at DDR5-6000 and beyond, SoC voltage has to be sufficiently increased to ensure compatibility and stability," Asus said(Opens in a new window) in a Facebook post. "The amount of voltage required varies between CPU samples. Some processors are more sensitive to overvoltage than others, and some are capable at running higher memory frequencies without needing as much voltage."

The good news is that once the patch is installed, users can continue using the EXPO memory overclocking function. “None of these changes affect the ability of our Ryzen 7000 Series processors to overclock memory using EXPO or XMP kits or boost performance using PBO technology,” AMD said. 

“We expect all of our ODM partners to release new BIOS for their AM5 boards over the next few