An AMD fan has found that the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D might not just be the best gaming CPU out there right now, but it can do so at an incredible efficiency. By undervolting his AMD CPU, one fan has managed to get the chip to less than 1V (that's 0.35v lower than its stock settings) while maintaining the same level of performance.
One of the stark differences between AMD and Intel CPUs right now is efficiency. While there is some back and forth on performance, and Intel ultimately holds the crown in most tasks, including gaming, AMD's chips are all vastly more efficient, consuming and outputting less than half the power and heat in most cases. The 5800X3D changes things up even more, though, by offering high-end 12900k-like performance, at a fraction of the cost and power draw.
Its standard voltage is 1.35v -- that's its maximum too, theoretically, as the 3D VCache is highly susceptible to degradation at higher voltages. But it turns out the chip can continue to perform exceptionally well, even at 1V, as per WCCFTech.
The undervolter in question started at 1.19V and continued stepping it down from there, eventually getting it 1V, with a 4.4GHz all-core overclock. That super low voltage meant that when the chip was running at full tilt in cinebench, it was only running at 43 degrees C. In comparison, the stock chip would hit over 80 degrees in the same benchmark.
In all fairness, the chip was running under a quad radiator watercooler, but that's hardly necessary with such a low power chip. In one test they were able to run Cinebench with the chip at just 0.884V and 4.4GHz. Performance loss does start to occur under 1V, but it's not dramatic, and shows what an incredible effect 3D VCache can have on overall performance and efficiency.
