Ryzen 9 7950X3D, the top of the range with 3D V-Cache increased to 5.9 GHz

With the arrival of new processors Zen 4 with 3D V Cachewhich unlike the first iteration now offer a few more intervention options (more details here), the first ones did not take long to arrive overclocking of some importance. Specifically, the overclocker and youtuber SkatterBencher managed to bring the new top of the range Ryzen 9 7950X3D @ 5.9GHz.

To succeed in the enterprise, a high-end configuration was obviously used. Specifically, the CPU was installed on a motherboard ASUS ROG Crossair X670E Extreme along with 32GB of RAM memory G.Skill TridentZ DDR5-6400. The system memory, however, has been set to 6000MHz for greater stability.

For cooling, however, a customized liquid circuit with a water block was used EK Quantum Velocity2 and a radiator from 360mm. Three different methods were used to overclock and the results were then compared with the stock ones, naturally recorded with the same configuration.

The three methods used are: configuring PBO 2 with EXPO profile, using PBO Curve Optimizer with manual configuration, and using PBO with ECLK. In the first case, the test was quite quick, as the parameters are set automatically, but it is also the one that returned the least gain.

Using the PBO with the Curve Optimizer, on the other hand, was the one that took the longest because following an all-core configuration, you then proceed manually for each individual core until the point of individual instability is found. By doing so, the overclocker was able to push hard the CCD which does not host the 3D V-Cache bringing the maximum clock to a good 5.9 GHz.

The trial with PBO and intervention on ECLK led to results closer to the second method, but still less important. However, the creator has confirmed that the presence of the 3D V-Cache significantly limits the overclocking capabilities and affects the strategy to achieve it.

In any case, however, as can be seen from the shared table, AMD’s choice to concentrate the additional cache in only one of the CCDs has made it possible to make the most of the performance of the other and obtain improvementsin some cases, higher than10%.