AMD Confirms Ryzen 3000 Processors Are Soldered

[Tsing]

AMD Senior Technical Manager Robert Hallock confirmed this week that 3rd generation Ryzen processors will have soldered IHS (integrated heat spreaders). This isn’t exactly a surprise because last-gen Ryzen chips (and the more recent 3000-series APUs) enjoyed this privilege, but any doubts can be put to rest.

Soldering as an interface material is preferred as it offers better heat transfer between the processor die and the IHS, as opposed to using a fluid TIM such as pastes. "Matisse" will be one of the rare few examples of a multi-chip module with a soldered IHS. The package has two kinds of dies, one or two 7 nm "Zen 2" 8-core CPU chiplets, and one 14 nm I/O Controller die.

Based on Hallock’s language, it’s possible that all dies on Ryzen 3000 CPUs will be soldered. Some chips in the past (e.g., Intel’s Clarkdale series) utilized both solutions.

Interestingly, Intel used two different sub-IHS interface materials for "Clarkdale." While the CPU die was soldered, a fluid TIM was used for the I/O controller die. It would hence be very interesting to see if AMD solders both kinds of dies under the "Matisse" IHS, or just the CPU chiplets. Going by Hallock's strong affirmative "Like a boss," we lean toward the possibility of all dies being soldered.

 

[Dan_D]

I wish people would quit worrying about this. Intel switched to soldering on some CPU's and it did almost nothing for their overclocking headroom. AMD has been soldering its IHS on all its chips for some time now. Their overclocking headroom is still pretty slim. Intel spec's what it needs for its CPU's to run within a certain temperature range and TDP. If it can be accomplished without soldering, it saves them money. Money that people think is insignificant, until they become aware of just how many of these CPUs Intel sells throughout the life of that product.

 

[GP40X]

Yep, 5 cents seems insignificant until you apply it to an entire series of CPU's. How many units of Clarkdale were produced? What about Skylake? That is a whole lot of processors.

 

[IceDigger]

But will it blend......?

 

[Riccochet]

I wish people would quit worrying about this. Intel switched to soldering on some CPU's and it did almost nothing for their overclocking headroom. AMD has been soldering its IHS on all its chips for some time now. Their overclocking headroom is still pretty slim. Intel spec's what it needs for its CPU's to run within a certain temperature range and TDP. If it can be accomplished without soldering, it saves them money. Money that people think is insignificant, until they become aware of just how many of these CPUs Intel sells throughout the life of that product.

It's a item that puts enthusiast consumers minds at ease more than it is a performance enhancing part of construction. At least in current CPU's. It wasn't that long ago, few years maybe, where TIM was causing a good bit of people to hit thermal walls while overclocking. I was one of them with my Haswell CPU. Delidding and using liquid metal between the IHS and core was pretty common to fix thermal issues. Sure, it's not needed to run at stock clocks. Nevertheless the stigma remains.

 

[alxlwson]

I had to delid my 6600K. Even under a custom loop, it was hitting max thermals trying to boost. Tried multiple reseats of the monoblocks and no joy. Pulled out a DE safety Razer and put in some CLU, OC'd to 4.5 all day with great temps