No, AMD is not targeting Zen 4. Their focus remains on other processors and technologies.
No, AMD is not targeting Zen 4. Their focus remains on other processors and technologies.
Hey there, I've been checking the situation around C-state limits on Zen 4 CPUs lately. As a 7950X user for the past three months, I noticed my CPU isn't reaching the advertised speeds. It settled at a C-state of 5.5GHz, which was first introduced with AGESA 1.0.0.3. According to Scatterbencher, if your workload needs more than four cores, it will cap at 5.5GHz instead of the advertised 5.7GHz. This isn't new—AMD has addressed this before, especially on Zen 2 CPUs, where many R5 3600 models didn’t hit the 4.2GHz target right out of the box.
For me, the fix was reinstalling the BIOS to upgrade to a motherboard version supporting AGESA 1.0.0.2. That way, my CPU could run at the advertised 5.7–5.8GHz across all cores during gaming. But now I’m stuck again because I got a Trident Z5 Neo 6000MHZ CL30 RAM kit. It didn’t work well with the release BIOS, though it performed perfectly on newer systems—though it took a long boot time.
I also have an Asus B650E PG Ripjaw Wi-Fi. I reached out to ASUS, and they were surprised but said they’d contact AMD. They mentioned there’s still the 5.5GHz limit in place, even with AGESA 1.0.0.5c.
Some brands like ASUS, Acer, and Gigabyte seem to have this same restriction without any clear explanation from AMD. Any chance you could reach out to AMD directly about this issue?
5.7 ghz is suitable for one core tasks, occasionally two cores. That's the limit. Anything beyond that will fall in the 5.3-5.5ghz range.
I understand the question. On release info and many ASUS boards with the BOOST feature, they reach 5.7-5.8GHz across all cores. However, this changed after a certain point. What happened?
AMD has a history of making AGESA changes that break stuff. I've seen times where it completely breaks memory overclocking (there's one AGESA version on AM4 where I cannot run 3600 CL14 at all, across 3 motherboards from different manufacturers), completely breaks PBO tuning, drops max clock speeds like it's doing now, breaking auto recovery, etc. None of this is new to AM5, it's happened on AM4 as well for as long as the socket's been released. It's just AMD being AMD. There's a reason why people say with BIOSes "if it ain't broke, don't update it", because an update can and will break it, especially on AMD stuff. Your only real options are to either revert to an earlier BIOS or just wait and hope AMD fixes it.
This device supports up to 5.7GHz on a single core, possibly even dual cores thanks to two CCDs. Beyond that performance will decline. The specific workload affects each core's speed, so tools like prime95 will show reduced boost frequencies as the system pushes more power.
I've rarely achieved such high frequencies—most setups stick to 5.7-5.8 GHZ across all cores by default, usually only for two cores. Even with overclocking and adjustments, running at 5.7 GHz on every core tends to heat things up significantly, often reaching around 95°C. Unless you're using a custom loop, it won't maintain that temperature consistently. My 3800x usually hits 4.4 GHz all-core, which works well; I could tweak it to 4.6 manually, but it caused some RAM stability problems. It really depends on the motherboard and cooling solution available. I've seen 3600x perform at 4.2-4.3, though I didn't notice many hitting that speed in benchmarks during testing.
I'm currently running 1.0.0.5c and the 5.5GHz all-core cap remains active. Honestly, daily usage hasn't changed much, so it hasn't bothered me much. Before this update, I was getting 5.6-5.65Ghz across the board in Cinebench, but now it's consistently 5.5. I don't mind too much, and since adjusting presets on my board has improved benchmark results, I don't have many complaints.
It seems unclear what you're referring to. Could you provide more context?