Ryzen users who prefer to take the more intricate and/or challenging route of unlocking the maximum performance of their processors may be mildly disappointed with the new Ryzen 7000X3D Series, according to AMD, which told members of the press that while the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and other new CPUs can be automatically overclocked with Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) and tweaked further via Curve Optimizer, manual overclocking remains off the table.
“AMD’s only allowed overclocking the memory and infinity fabric for the previous-gen 5800X3D, not other forms of core overclocking, but will now allow both the auto-overclocking Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) and use of the Curve Optimizer,” reads one report. “AMD tells us that the Curve Optimizer will work best to extract more performance, but both options are available. However, AMD will not allow direct frequency overclocking due to a 1.4V limit for the chip (this was a 1.1V limit with the previous-gen model).”
Robert Hallock (AMD’s previous Head of Technical Marketing) had seemingly teased that post-Ryzen 7 5800X3D processors with 3D V-Cache might include support for manual overclocking, but the latest developments would suggest that the performance of current and future X3D parts will be dictated largely by automatic technologies that include PBO.
AMD confirmed that its lineup of Ryzen 7000 Series processors would be expanding during its CES 2023 event last night, revealing three Ryzen 7000X3D Series SKUs in the form of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, Ryzen 9 7900X3D, and Ryzen 9 7950X3D, a flagship processor that features 16C/32T, boost frequencies of up to 5.7 GHz, 144 MB of total cache, and a TDP of 120 watts.
Slides shared by AMD have suggested that the Ryzen 9 7950X3D is capable of up to 24% better performance than the 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900K in certain games, including Horizon Zero Dawn.
AMD hasn’t revealed pricing for its Ryzen 7000X3D Series yet but confirmed that they’ll be available starting February 2023.