Project Hydra Overclocking Tool Coming Soon With Ryzen 6000 Support
An overclockers dream!
According to @1usmus on Twitter, overclocking tool Project Hydra will go online at the end of November, and interestingly it will support both Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 6000 series CPUs. In addition, the tool will give Ryzen users a plethora of controls to target single-core and multi-core overclocks by taking direct control over the CPU's boosting algorithm.
At the end of November, there will be a public release of HYDRA 1.0D (non PRO) for Ryzen 5000 and 6000 processors. The project is an OC sandbox with incredible customization possibilities, automatic diagnostics and two proprietary "boost" technologies.@AMDRyzen @AMD @LisaSu pic.twitter.com/2rNeJKs16ONovember 2, 2021
We covered Project Hydra several months ago when it was in early development, and the program is one of the most ambitious overclocking projects we've ever seen. The goal of Hydra is to eliminate all the quirks of overclocking modern Ryzen processors, especially regarding manual overclocking of the multiplier and core voltage.
Due to Ryzen's design, manual overclocking will usually degrade performance and result in faster silicon degradation, thanks to the CPU disabling some of its silicon fitness features when applying manual voltages to the chip.
Hydra gets around all these issues by ensuring that each manual core overclock is performed with precision and safety in mind. First, each core is overclocked automatically with Prime95 to provide the most stable frequency possible. Next, Hydra considers the chip's default VID levels (requested core voltage) to ensure voltages stay within safety limits.
Beyond this, there are also several profiles you can set and adjust yourself for the most optimal overclocking setup for your needs. Whether you are gaming, using heavy multi-threaded apps, or are running AVX/AVX2 workloads.
What's most interesting about the 1usmus update is the announcement of Ryzen 6000 series support. This is very interesting since Ryzen 6000 as a name is still highly speculative, as we don't know exactly which AMD architecture will reside with that name, whether it be Zen 3 with V Cache support or Zen 4.
However, previous Tweets highlight the notion that 1usmus is indeed talking about Zen 3 V-Cache CPUs. For example, on July 1st, 1usmus made a Tweet about Project Hydra, noting it would support both "Zen 3 /Zen 3+" CPUs. If true, then 1usmus believes or knows for a fact that the Ryzen 6000 branding will represent a Zen 3 refresh with 3D-Vcache technology.
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There is no firm date on the release of Project Hydra, but expect it to release around the last week of November, according to the Tweet. This tool could bring to life some untapped CPU performance in current Ryzen CPUs that we've never seen before! So it'll be great to see what overclockers can accomplish with the new software.
However, be warned, this is still a 3rd party overclocking tool, and it has no official AMD support. So use the software at your own risk once it releases!
Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.