AMD's quad-core EPYC 4124P appears to have great overclocking potential, as avid overclocker der8auer pushed this supposedly "locked" CPU to 5.65 GHz with a custom water cooling setup and a slight pinch of delidding. While impractical for daily usage, overclockers have found a new niche and are extracting every last bit of performance out of this processor to claim the number-one spot at HWbot.
Coming in at €160 ($174.48), the EPYC 4124P is not cheap and costs €10 ($10.91) more than the hexa-core Ryzen 5 7500F. When hearing the word "EPYC," many would imagine a monstrous chip with 192 or so cores, but the EPYC 4004 lineup is exclusively made for the AM5 socket, which is compatible with the Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series. The EPYC 4124P doesn't precisely have a Ryzen-equivalent as it features just four cores; however, the internals are mostly similar with 1xIOD and 1xCCD (4 cores).
Interestingly, the CPU runs seamlessly when tested on the ASUS X670E ROG Crosshair Hero, which supports motherboard, CPU overclocking, and AMD EXPO. Most motherboards don't list this CPU as supported on their websites, but here we are. This starkly contrasts what we saw last month when overlockers used custom firmware to overclock the same chip to 6.6 GHz.
Paired with DDR5-6000 memory and a 360mm AIO, the CPU ran at 5.15GHz while drawing around 85-90W of power. Let's get to overclocking, then. Der8auer delidded the CPU, which could potentially destroy the chip, mounted the AMD Mycro Direct-Die Pro Water Cooler, and booted the CPU; it was a great success.
As expected, the CPU ran at 5.15 GHz without overclocking, but the temperatures dropped by a whopping 20 degrees Celsius. The CPU package power was also reduced by roughly 6-7W. After overclocking the delidded CPU, all four cores were clocked at 5.65 GHz, and the power draw increased to over 100W. The core voltage was seeping into the 1.5V territory, which is unsafe for the longevity of any given chip.
Fun fact: in Cinebench R23, the CPU attained 2023 points in the single-threaded category, on par with the Zen 4 flagship, the Ryzen 9 7950X.
With overclocking, the EPYC 4124P gains 11% better performance in Cinebench R23 Multi Core but still loses to the Ryzen 5 7600X by a significant margin. Remnant 2 sees the 4124P inch closer to the 7600X, yet in Valorant, the Ryzen counterpart is almost 60% faster.
Despite all these efforts, the EPYC 4124P fails to achieve parity with the Ryzen 5 7600X. The days of quad cores are long gone, and this test proves that fact. However, the 4124P is still an interesting chip, given its overclocking potential and, well, the "EPYC" branding.
