AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz (Vermeer) AM4 - boxed without CPU cooler

The CPU cores' silicon has been lithographed through the advanced 7 nm FinFET manufacturing process, which makes use of stacked transistors (also known as 3D transistors) using Extreme Ultraviolet Technology (EUV). The space gained on the processor die thanks to the greatly reduced structure sizes enables the integration of a total of 4 MB level 2 cache and a full 32 MB level 3 cache, which are particularly important for games.

The I/O chiplet in the CPU package responsible for the data lanes is produced using a 12 nm FinFET process and provides 24 PCIe lanes, four of which are reserved to connect to the motherboard chipset and to connect NVMe SSDs. This leaves 16 lanes for communication with graphics cards, while the other PCIe lanes provide for additional NVMe flash drives, expansion cards and peripheral devices depending on the motherboard chipset.

PCI Express 4.0 with AMD X570 and B550 Chipset Motherboards

In combination with an AMD X570 or B550 chipset, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X supports version 4.0 of the PCI Express standard. PCIe 4.0 is downward compatible and can be used with all expansion cards from previous generations. Each PCIe 4.0 lane allows for data transfer rates that are twice as high as for PCIe 3.0. An NVMe SSD connected via four PCIe 4.0 lanes can achieve a theoretical read/write speed of up to 7.8 GB/s.

The AM4 platform also offers contemporary external device connections such as USB 3.1 with type-A and / or type-C ports and high data transfer rates of up to 10 Gbit/s. The CPU's integrated memory controller supports fast and energy-efficient DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode with or without ECC (error correction) at a native clock frequency of 3200 MHz. Significantly higher clock speeds are possible by overclocking.

Automatic Overclocking by Precision Boost Overdrive

Hardly anyone will worry about overclocking with an AMD Zen 3 since the CPU takes care of this all by itself: the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is equipped with an auto OC feature: Precision Boost Overdrive. This feature automatically increases the clock speed above the factory-set limit. An AMD X570 or B550 motherboard and sufficient CPU cooling are mandatory.

Motherboards with an AMD X570 or B550 chipset usually have additional DC-to-DC power converters (VRMs). The Ryzen processor communicates with the chipset in order to check for any unused power reserves to independently increase its clock speed. Results also depend on the CPU temperatures.