AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D reportedly won't get cooked by ASRock motherboards any more

It looks like ASRock has finally figured out why AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming CPUs keep burning out on its motherboards. While the company hasn't made an official statement, ASRock engineers reportedly discussed the cause, off the record, at the Computex 2025 trade show last week, with the issue now reportedly fixed with a new set of BIOS updates.

Reports of burned-out AMD Ryzen gaming CPUs have been racking up on Reddit for months, but the cause hasn't been completely clear, leaving owners of the best gaming CPU at risk when using ASRock motherboards. ASRock initially sought to downplay the situation in public, but it looks like the problem was more problematic than the company initially realised.

ASRock engineers, speaking off the record, spoke to YouTuber Tech Yes City at Computex 2025 about the motherboard issues. The YouTube channel reports that the issue with ASRock motherboards and recent AMD Ryzen CPUs burning out is due to the current supplied to the CPU using AMD's Precision Boost Override (PBO), a feature used by Ryzen CPUs that automatically adjusts your voltage and clock speed limits for best performance.

According to the engineers, power settings for AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPUs on these motherboards were "too aggressive" for the CPUs to handle. However, the engineers also say that the issue has been resolved with the latest updates rolled out for mid-tier and high-end motherboards, while lower-end boards shouldn't have been affected at all.

ASRock has reportedly been able to adjust hidden voltage settings, named "shadow voltages" by the engineers, in the BIOS for Ryzen CPUs that the company was previously unable to modify. The electric design current and thermal design current limits for PBO, which were previously too aggressive, have also been apparently modified to meet AMD's design specifications for these newest CPUs.

While this is good news on the whole, it does leave some unanswered questions, not least about what will happen for owners of CPUs that may have been damaged before the fix was issued. Neither ASRock nor AMD has confirmed this information independently, so we'll be hoping that these recent BIOS updates really have resolved the issue for those gamers with so-far unaffected systems.

There's also a strong possibility that gamers may have been affected without even realizing the setting was active. According to tech journalist Dr Ian Cutress in a recent X post, simply installing certain versions of the AMD Ryzen Master overclocking software on systems with ASRock motherboards would enable PBO, even if it wasn't being reported in the software or in the BIOS itself. The only fix for that problem would be to enable the setting manually, then disable it again, to stop it from working.

If you're using an AMD Ryzen 9000-series CPU on an ASRock motherboard, we recommend updating to the latest available BIOS release as soon as possible – you can check out the latest release for your board via the ASRock website, which lists recent updates with "Optimize PBO settings" as an update item. If you've never performed a BIOS flash before, check out our guide on how to update a BIOS first.

If you've been using AMD Ryzen Master, you should also make sure the software is up-to-date and follow the steps to manually enable, then disable PBO if you don't want the feature to be active.

You should also keep a copy of your warranty and purchase details to make sure that, in the event of a failure, you can request a repair or refund.

Thinking about a CPU upgrade? Check out our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review next to see why this eight-core powerhouse is still the best for gaming, thanks to its 3D V-cache technology. Our how to install a CPU guide also explains how to replace your processor without any fuss.

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