Late last month, ASUS released an official statement regarding user reported discrepancies between AMD 800-series motherboards and highly popular "Zen 5" Ryzen 7 9800X3D desktop processors. At the time, the Taiwanese PC hardware manufacturer advised that customers immediately update relevant mainboard models with the latest BIOS revisions. Since the launch of Team Red's 3D V-Cache-augmented Ryzen 9000-series "Granite Ridge" CPUs, the majority of "killings" have been recorded on ASRock-made AM5 boards. Unfortunately, an increased number of processor failures—when platformed on ASUS designs—have been tracked in recent months. Yesterday, another puzzling case was presented on the official ASUS subreddit. Bizarrely, UniverseWillDecide's tale involved both of Team Red's 8-core gaming champion models, paired with an ASUS TUF Gaming X870-PLUS WIFI motherboard. The first build iteration was based around the Ryzen 7 9800X3D SKU.

UniverseWillDecide recounted a brief honeymoon period: "everything was working fine for a week or so, until my system started (going into) these weird freezes or locks ups, while booting into Windows or being idle. OCCT memory test passed without any errors, so memory was cleared, but it started crashing with AVX2. I got pissed off and decided to return it to Amazon, since it was still 30 day return window." The Australian PC enthusiast moved onto the recently released Ryzen 7 9850X3D model, purchased during AMD's official launch period. The unlucky owner enjoyed problem-free experience: "for (a) few weeks, (but) guess what. The chip is dead too. I am not blaming AMD directly, but I suspect...something related to the ASUS BIOS applying incorrect voltages. I am...above and beyond disappointed, and not sure what to do (next). I also have (an) ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 5090 (card)—I bought it because I believed this company builds quality products.Their mighty build also included an Arctic Liquid Freezer 3 Pro 360 mm AIO, G.Skill Neo 6000 MT/s memory, and a Corsair RM1000X PSU. UniverseWillDecide did not observe any visible burn marks on the failed pair of gaming CPUs. They tracked worrying "chip degradation" on the freshest BIOS release, as well as on rolled back versions. Hours after publishing their initial tale, the frustrated (soon to be former) ASUS brand enthusiast stated that they were weighing up premium mainboards produced by other brands. It seems that UniverseWillDecide's DIY system was one of the first examples capable of ending a brand-new Ryzen 7 9850X3D chip's life.