Following recent reports of AMD’s Ryzen 7000X3D processors being corrupted, MSI has released a series of firmware updates to address potential issues. A highlight of MSI’s new wave of BIOS versions for AM5 motherboards is that the company has further locked down the voltage control of his X3D chips, removing support for positive offset voltages. From now on, only negative offset voltages can be used on the X3D chip, ensuring that his X3D chip with sensitive V-Cache is not overvoltaged and at risk of damage.
Over the past few days, concerns have arisen across various social media platforms, including: reddit, regarding reports of AMD’s Ryzen 7000X3D processors spontaneously “burning out”. Several users have posted an issue where his Ryzen 7000X3D processor with 3D V-Cache stopped working. Interestingly, all with ASUS motherboards.
Perhaps one of the most famous images of the last few days came from a Reddit post. speed rookieIn the image above, the user has uploaded a picture of an AMD Ryzen 7800X3D and an ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming motherboard. The CPU socket itself has very noticeable burn marks and a very large bulge on the CPU contact pads.
Image credit: Speed Rookie/Reddit
There’s little concrete information on where the problem lies – whether it’s a system issue or just a statistical fluke – but MSI is taking immediate action via a new firmware version for its AM5 motherboards. You seem to think that is an important enough issue. With the X670E, X670E, B650, and A620 chipsets.
announced via Post on Reddit, the company has released a new BIOS for all AM5 platform motherboards. MSI’s new firmware targets overvoltage Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs or limits their ability to do so. MSI’s new firmware essentially locks down options and settings related to voltage regulation. This includes not only direct voltage adjustment, but also positive voltage offset blocking. Therefore, the new BIOS can only be used to provide a negative offset voltage setting on the X3D chip.
These updates not only affect the firmware itself, but MSI has also limited overvoltage through the MSI Center application. So, similar to the firmware, MSI Center will not allow users to add additional CPU VCores to the processor when used with Ryzen 7000X3D processors such as the recently reviewed Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
With the exception of the MSI Pro X670-P WIFI and MAG B650M Mortar WIFI motherboards, the rest of MSI’s lineup have new firmware that allows users to install and flash the current BIOS version. MSI says the remaining two boards will soon have new firmware versions. Also note that the official product pages for each motherboard and corresponding BIOS version list these new BIOSes as “Beta”.
Meanwhile, for those who want to get a little more out of their X3D processors, MSI is telling users to take advantage of the enhanced mode boost option within the firmware. This essentially optimizes the Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) settings without manual voltage adjustments.
As the situation evolves, we expect more voices from other vendors and users to voice their concerns. In the meantime, if you have an MSI AM5 motherboard with a Ryzen 7000X3D processor, these new he BIOSes are guaranteed to look great and install quickly.
