Enthusiasts have been whining about third-generation Ryzen chips not being able to hit their advertised boost clocks, but are the complaints overblown? Maybe not, as AMD has responded to a Tom’s Hardware test alluding to inconsistent core performance with a Ryzen 5 3600X.
Senior editor Paul Alcorn found that only one core in his 3600X managed to hit AMD’s advertised boost frequency, with the worst core being 75 to 100 MHz slower than the fastest. The company has admitted that some cores in Ryzen 3000-series processors are indeed faster than others, a contrast from the previous generation, which could “reach boost frequencies on all cores.”
We theorize the slower cores could be a contributing factor to low overclock ceilings with Ryzen 3000 processors. Ryzen 3000 series processors hit all-core overclocks 200-300MHz below the single-core boost frequency. Slower cores simply may not be able to achieve/sustain higher frequencies, thus serving as the weakest link in the chain.