And the effect is not very noticeable.
Reviews of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor were published yesterday. We were able to evaluate the capabilities and energy efficiency of the novelty, but now we can evaluate overclocking. The authors of the SkatterBencher resource managed to overclock the new CPU, which is officially not suitable for overclocking.
The Ryzen 7000X3D, like the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, is multiplier locked, so traditional overclocking methods don’t work. But it is possible to increase the frequency by manipulating the parameters with Precision Boost Overdrive 2 or EXPO.
The officially non-overclockable Ryzen 9 7950X3D was overclocked to 5.9 GHz.
As a result, the authors of the source managed to increase the CPU frequency to 5.9 GHz. Such overclocking resulted in a considerable 9% increase in performance in synthetic tests, but in games the effect was much lower.
Given the difficulties with overclocking new AMD processors, the approach is likely to be interesting only from the point of view of the experiment itself.
In particular, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D is known to have an additional cache chip located on only one chiplet. And AMD had to change the behavior of the CPU in a rather unusual way in order for it to work with such changes. Chiplet CCD0 (with 3D V-Cache) has a lower maximum frequency limit of 5250 MHz and a lower voltage limit of 1.2 V, while CCD1 (without 3D V-Cache) can reach 5750 MHz and 1.4 V. When enabled, PBO2 and the voltage/frequency curve optimizer can make the CPU run at higher frequencies.
