Delidded Ryzen 9 7900X Shows A Huge Drop In Temps But Don't Try This At Home
The AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors already have a reputation for running hot, but we are assured this is perfectly as planned. As such, it won’t be an issue in the near or distant future. Nevertheless, TechTuber Der8auer has been up to his old tricks, cracking open one of these newly released CPUs with his Delid Die Mate tool – to see if delidding might be a good idea for advanced tinkerers and overclockers looking to tame AMD’s spicy Raphael CPUs. The short answer is delidding (facilitating direct die cooling) appears to work wonders, with Der8auer seeing his all core temperatures drop by approx 20°C.
Even with capable cooling solutions affixed, a new 5nm AMD processor like the 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X can quickly ramp up to 95°C, which some have called the “new normal” for Raphael processors under load. AMD’s power management is tuned for performance at this relatively toasty temperature, and it is assured to be a safe limit, even run 24/7.
The relatively high standard temperatures of Ryzen 7000 chips, and the conspicuously thicker than usual integrated heatspreader (IHS) atop of the silicon, got Der8auer thinking, so he designed an adaptor for his Delidding tool to prise off the IHS without any threat to surface mount components. The new tool works by ‘waggling’ the IHS off, pushing it and pulling it back and forth by about 1.5mm until metal fatigue works its magic and the IHS becomes detached. Direct die cooling also required some work on a special surrounding frame, so the cooler makes contact but doesn’t crush the naked silicon. Also, work had to be done to make what were previously compatible coolers workable with the reduced height chip.
Der8auer came to a very forthright conclusion after making lots of adaptations to the cooler mounting mechanisms he used to make them work with the reduced height delidded CPU in its socket. In brief, the OC expert asserted that the new AMD Ryzen 7000 IHS “is so thick your thermals will suffer from this.” So, it brings into question AMD’s focus on maintaining of AM4 cooler compatibility for many brands and models.
Above is the result of Der8auer’s extensive works to prepare and test direct die cooling on AMD’s newest processors. You can clearly see the delidded advantage, a huge delta which astonished the overclocking expert. In addition to this thermal benefit, Der8auer found the CPU could be overclocked stably 100MHz higher than before delidding.
