AMD 9800X3D 'failures/deaths' Reddit megathread indicates the vast majority may be happening on ASRock motherboards

9800X3D Hero
(Image credit: AMD)

Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors appear to be dying at an abnormally high rate on ASRock motherboards, to the point where the issue has gained the attention of ASRock Reddit moderators. Moderator SoupaSoka on the ASRock subreddit created a "9800X3D Failures/Deaths" megathread revealing an allegedly high amount of user reports surrounding dying 9800X3Ds on ASRock motherboards. Over 40 reports have been made so far, with 32 of them on ASRock's boards.

We've reached out to ASRock for comment and will update if we get an answer.

The megathread reveals that Ryzen 7 9800X3D deaths in association with ASRock motherboards, while abnormally high, seem to be occurring in an inconsistent fashion. Some 9800X3D's are allegedly dying during boot-up, while some are dying within hours, days, or weeks of ownership. Some reports also claim their CPUs were dead on arrival. AMD and ASRock are allegedly aware of the problem; however (probably due to the aforementioned inconsistency), the sole cause of the issue causing 9800X3D's to die has yet to be determined.

Did my 9800x3d die? from r/ASRock

A summary of dead 9800X3D reports in the megathread features over 40 user reports of dead CPUs. A few non-X3D reports were sprinkled in there, suggesting the issues could extend beyond the 9800X3D. Some of the worst reports include users who went through two dead 9800X3D's to only have their non-X3D fallback CPU working well without issues. Still, some of the luckier users claim to have their replacement 9800X3Ds working fine.

One potential workaround mentioned in the thread is a BIOS flashback reversion to an older ASRock BIOS. At least one report claims to have "revived" a 9800X3D by using BIOS flashback to revert to an older BIOS. The megathread creator recommends that 9800X3D owners (with ASRock boards) revert to an older BIOS revision with this method if they experience POSTing failures after BIOS updating with their 9800X3D.

The full reports include a few MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus motherboards. 40 reports is not a critically high number, considering the amount of 9800X3D processors AMD sells every month. However, the most telling issue is that 32 of the 40 reports come from users featuring an ASRock motherboard.

This problem could be an extension of the original Ryzen 7000 burning catastrophe last year that was caused by badly tuned firmware pushing certain voltages beyond safe levels. It could be a case that ASRock's firmware is doing something similar to Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors, but time will only tell if this is the case. These issues also appear to be different from the first 9800X3D burnout reports we saw late last year that were allegedly caused either by user error or a faulty AM5 socket.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • Jagar123
    Seeing as I upgraded to a 9800X3D and an AsRock X870E Taichi Lite motherboard last December I have some minor concerns. My temperatures and stability have been great though.

    Chuckles
    Reply
  • toffty
    Jagar123 said:
    Seeing as I upgraded to a 9800X3D and an AsRock X870E Taichi Lite motherboard last December I have some minor concerns. My temperatures and stability have been great though.

    Chuckles
    Haha I'm in the same situation and same mobo. I'm keeping the firmware I have now since it's been great. If a fix comes out, I'll give it a few months and then update.
    Reply
  • EzzyB
    the most telling issue is that 32 of the 40 reports come from users featuring an ASRock motherboard.

    Why is that surprising seeing as how the thread was on an Asrock subreddit?
    Reply
  • UnforcedERROR
    Jagar123 said:
    Seeing as I upgraded to a 9800X3D and an AsRock X870E Taichi Lite motherboard last December I have some minor concerns. My temperatures and stability have been great though.

    Chuckles
    A cursory glance through the topics makes it seem like the culprit is the Nova x870e version almost specifically, but I didn't dig super deep so I could be wrong.
    Reply
  • DavidLejdar
    9800X3D since release day (Nov 7), on an ASRock X670E, and works. Updated UEFI/BIOS before install (3.10, and didn't update since), and then manually also the chipset driver. Device manager showed an error before updating driver, and the error then disappeared after the update. I did send a report about that to ASRock TechSupport, to let them know. I do use also the 4-pin MB-PSU-connector for CPU power, with a modular PSU (80plus Gold), which could carry a 5090.

    (ASRock BIOS newest beta,, has a note to update the chipset driver to version 7.01.08.129 - No clue if the note has to do with the issue, but from the overall description, also a possible point of failure, I suppose.)
    Reply
  • RXvsRTX007
    Well as I read it 9900 9950 3Dd caches are OK?
    My 9960X has a late BIOS....SO ITS ONLY A short time under a year and no trouble with 95w. and under 100w. highs registered in HWMON as peaks.

    Can it be some oddity of core counts and cache that mismatch, a disharmony or assemetry.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Buy an AMD 9800X3D, it may die!

    Buy an RTX 5080/5090, it may be missing ROPs, or it may die!
    Reply
  • RXvsRTX007
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    Buy an AMD 9800X3D, it may die!

    Buy an RTX 5080/5090, it may be missing ROPs, or it may die!
    Ur Big Tech buddies cherry pick the Golden Samples, but I might be lying as the use Thread Rippers on up and $10,000 Xeons.
    Reply
  • Jagar123
    UnforcedERROR said:
    A cursory glance through the topics makes it seem like the culprit is the Nova x870e version almost specifically, but I didn't dig super deep so I could be wrong.
    I was actually going for that exact board. I spent weeks trying for either that board or the Taichi Lite. I only ended up with the Tachi Lite because it was available for a few minutes whereas the Nova never was. I am guessing the Nova is just used more as it is the best bang for buck board for the X870E chipset.
    Reply
  • suryasans
    It seems the power controller IC might be the culprit for those Asrock AMD AM5 motherboards problems.
    Reply