ASRock Motherboard Team Believes That Overly Fierce PBO Settings Have Damaged Ryzen 9000 CPUs

[T0@st]

Earlier this month, Bryan Bilowol—of Tech YES City fame—was taken aback by the unexpected "death" of his Ryzen 9 9950X processor, at the alleged hands of an ASRock X870 Steel Legend motherboard. Throughout early 2025, widespread news reports and community tracking efforts have largely implicated ASRock boards. AMD's highly popular Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming CPU has "fallen victim" on numerous occasions, but a smaller number of incidents have affected non-3D V-Cache equipped Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" models. The Taiwanese manufacturer and Team Red have investigated these problems, and have released fixes via BIOS updates. Despite these efforts, unhappy owners have experienced CPU failures in Q2'25. Following the uploading of initial findings and theories, Bilowol promised further reports. Fortunately, a sit-down—with ASRock's motherboard team—happened late last week, at Computex 2025. At the time of writing, the company has not published an official statement regarding their latest findings or fixes. Tech YES City shared a couple of compelling details in a May 26 YouTube upload (viewable below).

Commenting on the Ryzen 9000 CPU failure situation, Bilowol relayed important ASRock material: (the motherboard team) told me it had to do with the EDC and TDC, which is the electric design current as well as the thermal design current. Essentially, they're saying it's an ampage problem that exists with the precision boost overdrive (PBO) settings. In particular, these mid-range and high-end motherboards—say for instance a B650E or an X670E Taichi or even a B850 Steel Legend—have the ability to run Ryzen 9000 series CPUs at their maximum PBO settings out of the box. What's happening here is ASRock told me they were implementing these settings to what they believe was too aggressive for what the CPUs were able to handle, at least for earlier samples. However, they do promise me that these issues have been fixed with their latest BIOS updates that they're rolling out for these mid-range and high-end motherboards. They also told me that the lower-end boards, say for instance, an A620 HDV or something like that, shouldn't be affected by this issue simply because those PBO settings have been deliberately tuned down, due to the motherboard in question not being a high-end model." Three months back, ASRock's Japanese branch accused the PC hardware community of spreading "misinformation." Hopefully, the latest batch of fixes will bring an end to all Ryzen 9000 CPU + high-end/mid-range ASRock mainboard controversies.




Tech YES City: "in Taiwan I sat down with ASRock on the Friday afternoon and questioned their motherboard team about the Ryzen 9000 series CPUs dying on their motherboards, and they said they have just fixed this issue coming in Computex, and are rolling out BIOS updates."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[besthijacker]

There are still reports with latest bios 3.25 and CPUs being dead with pictures of bios version on ASRock sub.

This is will my last ASRock motherboard. And today there is still no official statement made by ASRock except via third party.

 

[Hecate91]

Is it Asrock or AMD to blame for PBO settings?
Not getting an honest answer is disappointing given the otherwise really nice boards Asrock has.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

And I'm thinking of buying asrock mobo but with 7000 series non 3d model cpu.
Everything what I've read for now is that it cooked 9000 series cpu.
I think both parties are to blame, cause if info about specs is true than amd has made problems, and asrock for not checking it properly, but hey it's normal this days, that consumer is the beta tester.
I've heard that other manufacturers had problems with pbo too, but not as much as asrock.

 

[rv8000]

Is it Asrock or AMD to blame for PBO settings?
Not getting an honest answer is disappointing given the otherwise really nice boards Asrock has.

Considering the overwhelming majority of CPU deaths are on ASRock boards, it’s far more likely it’s due to something in their BIOS.

That being said auto rules for certain voltages come across as excessive to me even on my ASUS board, and can retain stability while significantly reducing certain voltages.

 

[AlonsoTy]

Considering the overwhelming majority of CPU deaths are on ASRock boards, it’s far more likely it’s due to something in their BIOS.

That being said auto rules for certain voltages come across as excessive to me even on my ASUS board, and can retain stability while significantly reducing certain voltages.

Och... at the level of quantitative observation it now seems clear.
When will it be possible to have a bios for ASRock X870E Taichi Lite that can be considered SAFE???
Definitely it seems like a joke at this point...

 

[Bobaganoosh]

Coming from a little ignorance here, so I thought I'd ask folks that know better...are the PBO limits specified by AMD to the board partners? I mean, reading this...it sounds like a situation where AMD sends out a table of CPUs and corresponding limits for BIOS settings (as "maximums") and then the board partners would normally do a bunch of testing and figure out how they can best optimize settings for stability and performance...and some did better than others. I would guess this is a situation where ASRock didn't do as much testing as others and just left settings at the max specs provided by AMD. So then who's fault is it? I would say both...as if AMD provided specs that cause failures it's hard to blame anybody else for that, but ASRock clearly didn't do as good of a job testing this as the other board partners did.

A lot of guesswork on my part though, as I'm not sure who determines the PBO specs initially. Also, I was under the impression that PBO was covered under warranty, which means it would have be approved by AMD and thus within their specifications, right?

 

[Event Horizon]

Hard to trust a motherboard vendor after something like that. Is there a trustworthy motherboard vendor left? Maybe we need Sapphire and Powercolor and XFX motherboards.

 

[Guwapo77]

MSI and Gigabyte "mid-tier" boards are really good. While I'm on a MSI board now, I felt Gigabyte boards were easier to maneuver... MSI isn't bad, it's just the growing pains I've had learning their system - stable af tho.

 

[JohH]

And don't turn on PBO.

 

[jaggerwild]

They will not be publicly admitting fault, I’ve had a few Asrock boards(high end). I will usually buy another, but AMD I’ve not touched in a long time,. That Said AMD boards are a whole new world…

 

[Guwapo77]

They will not be publicly admitting fault, I’ve had a few Asrock boards(high end). I will usually buy another, but AMD I’ve not touched in a long time,. That Said AMD boards are a whole new world…

Once you dive in bro, it ain't that bad at all. AMD CPU and mobos are legit. I've had a lot less problems with them than Intel boards since the launch of Zen.

 

[TheDeeGee]

We have too many "boost" and "OC" features.

Let's go back to the early 2000's were everything just ran.

 

[rv8000]

We have too many "boost" and "OC" features.

Let's go back to the early 2000's were everything just ran.

If only, maximizing boost nonsense has both neutered and ruined overclocking and ironically gotten both cpu companies into boost voltages/algorithms murdering their own products at one point or another.

 

[Cheeseball]

Bryan might be on to something there as those who have blown 9800X3Ds all had AIOs, so the CPUs are colder so the motherboard starts pushing more voltage/current as per PBO2.

I'm probably not affected because I'm on a Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO, which is just a normal tower HSF where it idles at around 48C to 52C and maxes out at 72C at 5.2GHz. But I also have CO all cores at -30 and my SoC voltage at 1.150v.

 

[_roman_]

to sum it up in my own words. Maybe I am so wrong, I am sorry.

Asrock made a lot of text for the fact. Asrock factory overclocked, maybe hidden, too much those cpus so they died early. Later Uefi updates reduce those factory overclock settings. So the initial board review will make an expensive Asrock mainboard looks awesome, fabulous, best in class but the real life will show mediocre to poor ASROCK mainboard performance. The marketing goal was met. The few processsors can be easily replaced in rma. the consumer than thinks asrock is awesome but it was strategy most likely. ... Feel free to get your own ideas about why. Many will update their uefi so the predamaged cpu will be most likely never be discovered. I think amd also only give on box cpus only 3 years warranty

They will not be publicly admitting fault, I’ve had a few Asrock boards(high end). I will usually buy another, but AMD I’ve not touched in a long time,. That Said AMD boards are a whole new world…

my am5 asus mainboard has still faults in the firmware. Still after 2 years of ownership.

msi has am5 issues

i honestly do not know what to buy to replace my am5 asus mainboard. They are all bad, regardless if nzxt, gigabyte, asus, asrock or msi. colorful and sapphire do not sell mainboards in my area biostar i will ignore as they only offer one or two mainboards for each socket generation in my area. that is too few.

 

[freeagent]

Gotta call BS on the overly aggressive PBO settings.

I literally run double the power those little X3D chips run, for months on end.. massive swinging type loads of varying strength just to see what happens.

 

[blinnbanir]

I have a As Rock X870E Taichi paired with a 9900X3D. I do see higher temps with my CPU. I think there is something to As Rock turning up their MBs like Gigabyte did on AM4. What is crazy is As Rock is the only MB vendor that gives you 120Hz support on the HDMI and DP on board ports. I guess you can't win them all.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Gotta call BS on the overly aggressive PBO settings.

I feel like this too. If I remember correctly even with PBO enabled FIT (or whatever it's called today) should still be in effect to protect the CPU unless Asrock was misreporting to the CPU in order to edge out performance. Like during AM4 I wonder if HWiNFO Power Reporting Deviation will show if Asrock (and other vendors) are juicing the boards again when comparing old and new UEFI/BIOS.

I have a As Rock X870E Taichi paired with a 9900X3D. I do see higher temps with my CPU. I think there is something to As Rock turning up their MBs like Gigabyte did on AM4. What is crazy is As Rock is the only MB vendor that gives you 120Hz support on the HDMI and DP on board ports. I guess you can't win them all.

With HWiNFO64 running if you apply an all core load what do you get for Power Reporting Deviation? I'm curious to know if this value changes pre vs. post UEFI updates they are putting out to fix this issue. (edit) This value is not showing up in my HWiNFO64 on AM5. It may not be available anymore.

Bryan might be on to something there as those who have blown 9800X3Ds all had AIOs, so the CPUs are colder so the motherboard starts pushing more voltage/current as per PBO2.

This is an interesting comment. The 9000 series moved the temperature sensor. I wonder if this factors into the problem especially if there is a relationship to the cooling method.

 

[Chomiq]

And don't turn on PBO.

Don't turn PBO on Auto. Turn it on if you know what the default setting should be and can adjust it.

 

[Igb]

And don't turn on PBO.

This.

None of that options should be enabled by default. Period.

I don’t know how manufacturers still artificially bump their scores like that. Specially with the problems on intel and MCE being so recent in time.

 

[Jism]

Is it Asrock or AMD to blame for PBO settings?
Not getting an honest answer is disappointing given the otherwise really nice boards Asrock has.

Well, most motherboard makers have these build in one click OC your chip. It existed since the Athlon already. The problem with these one click OC's or enabling auto PBO is that many times voltages are set higher then what works for your chip. I guess they do this to offer a one click for all chips to even guarantee a OC on a less binned chip. Looking at above arcing means too much of a voltage has been shoot through that chip, and we know from the first set of Ryzen's that CPU degradation is a real thing; meaning you can blow your chip up within just weeks. This whole OC'ing on Ryzen chips should be looked carefully through rather then clicking these one click things and thinking you just did it.

Real overclocking is still spending hours and hours with pots of coffee to get the best and most finetuned result. Not auto clickers. PBO is designed to get the most out of your chip - all that there is to it is slap on a big cooler these days and call it a day.

 

[Squuiid]

" Three months back, ASRock's Japanese branch accused the PC hardware community of spreading "misinformation."
Just don't buy ASRock. This behaviour should not be encouraged.

 

[Chaitanya]

" Three months back, ASRock's Japanese branch accused the PC hardware community of spreading "misinformation."
Just don't buy ASRock. This behaviour should not be encouraged.

whats options are left at this point other than Biostar, Maxsun and Colorful? NZXT, MSI, Gigabyte and Asus all have long history of throwing customers under the bus.

 

[Bagerklestyne]

did they end up limiting it to a range of motherboards ?

Or was it the bios revision across all motherboards ?