AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs With 3D V-Cache Are Unlocked For Overclocking

AMD's Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs will officially feature an unlocked design for overclocking making them the first 3D V-Cache chips to do so.

Update (1/24/2023): It looks like AMD once again made an incorrect listing on its webpage as the company has now removed "Unlocked for Overclocking" entirely from the specs page of all three Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs. Following is the latest screenshot of the product page:

Got a response from AMD regarding the Ryzen 7000X3D OC mentioned on the product page: „Ryzen 7000X3D Series processors are unlocked for memory and infinity fabric overclocking, just like Ryzen 5800X3D. New to the 7000X3D, we have also added PBO and Curve Optimizer capabilities.“

— Andreas Schilling ???????? ???????? (@aschilling) January 24, 2023

There's been a debate on whether AMD would feature overclocking support for Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs or not and while the company wasn't clear about overclocking support at launch, they have now more or less confirmed that the Ryzen 7000 X3D "3D V-Cache" CPUs featured an unlocked design which would mean that users will be able to adjust the BCLK as they wish. Although AMD has listed "Unlocked" OC support, they have still recommended users to go with the auto-tuning options such as Curve Optimizer with PBO.

AMD is recommending users go with Curve Optimizer as it delivers the best balance of overall CPU performance but hard frequency overclocking is locked just like the previous generation Zen 3D V-Cache chips. According to the red team, the voltages have gotten more aggressive this time around, going up to 1.4V versus the 1.1V limit on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU. The stacked L3 cache featured on the chip is very sensitive to high temperatures and additional voltage and it is possible that the chips can break if these are tweaked, hence there's a hard lock just like the previous gen. So AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs have to do with the limited voltage they have to benefit from PBO and Curve Optimizer.

1.4V is still a lot of voltage to work with and we can expect some decent overclocks out of the AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D "3D V-Cache" CPUs. Now this update comes from AMD just a few weeks after they had mistakenly listed the release date of the CPUs to be 14th February which turned out to be false and the company had to release a statement on the matter. This may as well be another such case but we will have to wait and see if that's true or not.

What we do know for sure is that AMD's Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs are launching next month and will be the fastest gaming processors on the planet when they hit retail shelves. Overclocking will be a plus but even without OC, these chips have a huge market for success if they offer the right kind of performance and value.

News Source: HXL