AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 3D V

Sep 10, 2023

AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D received its first high-res die shots for the 3D V-Cache chiplet by Fritzchens Fritz which ended up in a wonderful disaster.

Fritzhens Fritz is known for sharing high-resolution infrared and closeup die shots of many CPUs & GPUs. His hobby is definitely an expensive one since many dies get broken or the chip becomes un-fit for further use after the delidding process. But that hasn't stopped Fritz from continuing to give the tech community those wonderful high-res chip close-ups and the latest CPU to go under Fritz's infrared scope is the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU is one of the three Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs that feature the latest gen of 3D V-Cache. The singular chiplet design is also the most popular chip on the market yet which is breaking sales records. Unlike the dual-chiplet designs on the Ryzen 9 7000X3D CPUs, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D features a single Zen 4 chiplet (CCD) with a singular 3D V-Cache stack which carries 64 MB of SRAM.

This SRAM is vertically stacked on top of the Zen 4 CCD and is considered the best solution for the gaming audience as the OS and CPU firmware don't have to decide between which CCD to pick for certain workloads as is the case with the higher-end chips. As such, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU delivers a great gaming experience. Following is a picture of the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D next to a Ryzen 5 7600 CPU.

You can note that the Ryzen 5 7600 CPU has its standard L3 cache visible next to its 8 Zen 4 cores (2 of which are disabled). Meanwhile, for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, the 8-cores are visible but the L3 cache beneath it is hard to notice since that is covered by the stacked 3D V-Cache SRAM. The 64 MB of L3 cache is combined with the 32 MB of L3 cache for a total of 96 MB of L3 cache on the chip.

There is also 8 MB of L2 cache which combines to form over 100 MB of total cache (104 MB to be precise). That's a healthy dose of cache and more than any Intel CPU has to offer.

Soon after getting these infrared pictures, Fritzchens Frtiz decided to get some thermal images of the cores bouncing based on workloads but that didn't end up well. Since the IHS was removed, it didn't take long for disaster to strike. It was reported that just after 60 seconds, Cinebench single-core tests started on the artifact and the PC immediately crashed. Given how thermally constrained the 3D V-Cache chips are, it is likely that the IOD (IO die) either wasn't able to sustain the extra heat or simply gave up on the pressure of the Thermal Grizzly Direct Die Frame.

Well, thermal imaging to see bouncing cores escalated quickly. Ryzen 5 7600 IOD broke into 5 pieces, not sure why but temperatures and power consumption was okay. After 60 seconds of cinebench single core test, image artifacts appeared and then there was a crash.

🧵1/5 pic.twitter.com/8gxy6JD3Eq

— Fritzchens Fritz (@FritzchensFritz) May 20, 2023

The CPU became unfit for use but it did broke the I/O die into five layers which almost resembles a 5-chiplet die which looks beautiful in a very destructive way. So while we may not get to see AMD's Ryzen 7800X3D thermal imaging from Fritz anytime soon, we can thank him for providing us with these lovely infrared shots and pictures of the cracked I/O die. You can also head over to Fritz's flickr where he posts several close-up and gorgeous close-up of old-school and modern chips.