With AMD’s new Ryzen 7 9800X3D fresh out of the oven, the curious crowd naturally wants to know the inner workings of the silicon, especially with the new second-generation 3D V-Cache technology that finally enables full overclocking support and much improved thermals.
Cracking 9800X3D Open, For Science
Ever wondered what’s hiding beneath the shiny-looking silicon? You have to literally crack it open to know, and that’s what the Bilibili user 万扯淡 did, and posted the results online. The user took one 9800X3D and cuts the glue open (which was said to be very accessible thanks to its gap), and then a blowtorch is used to melt the solder between the IHS and the silicon, which only melts at temperatures beyond what a CPU can normally handle.
Once the silicon is exposed, the video immediately cuts to the aftermath of the silicon being cracked open – with suboptimal results (unfortunately, two chips were destroyed in the process). Still, here it’s possible to see the two layers of the silicon that makes it impressively fast, which is the Zen 5 core (blue), and the 3D V-Cache (gold). Note that during the disassembly process the silicon is faced downwards, so the top layer that comes in contact in IHS is the one sitting the deepest from this video’s point of view.
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D has utilized TSV (through-silicon vias) to connect the cores through the cache layer, which allows the core to sit on top and better dissipate heat to the IHS, and that’s why overclocking is no longer limited on this chip. (X/Twitter user @94G8LA has reconstructed the image and this is what the bare silicon looks like.) Reviews agree that this chip is plenty fast, and is the best gaming CPU you can buy today – in fact, stocks are struggling to keep up with the demand in overseas as we speak.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
Pokdepinion: Oof. My wallets felt that pain.
