Ryzen 7 7800X3D swelling appears again despite updated AM5 BIOS

According to the owner, the system had no manual CPU tuning, undervolting, or overclocking. EXPO was the only BIOS setting changed, while a 360 mm AIO handled cooling. The owner confirmed that temperatures appeared normal before the failure.

This case brings back Ryzen CPU issues from 2023. AMD eventually identified operation outside specification limits as the cause and distributed new AGESA firmware that capped SoC voltage at 1.30V. At the time, AMD specifically recommended updating AM5 motherboard BIOSes while keeping EXPO and PBO support available.

ASRock acknowledged a separate AM5 issue in 2025 involving overly high PBO TDC and EDC settings, which were later reduced through BIOS updates. But this case involves an MSI X870 board with an updated BIOS. The familiar package swelling shows that this type of physical damage can still occur years after AMD introduced its AM5 voltage safeguards.

The Redditor was told to send the CPU through RMA. AMD might be able to determine what caused the failure, although it would be surprising if the company shared the results of such an investigation publicly.