Ryzen 9 7950X Delid Reveals 20° Drop

CPU deliding developer der8auer revealed an 18-21 °C drop in CPU core temperatures after removing the lid from an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X to cool its cores directly in a video outlining his development of a new “contact frame” CPU holder for AMD’s 7000-series (Zen 4) processors.

The video appears to confirm our speculation regarding AMD’s use of an extra-thick heat spreader to bring its new (AM5) LGA package up to its previous (AM4) PGA height, and everything about the radical temperature drop began to make sense once we thought about how much faster flowing water is able to move heat compared to a static chunk of copper.

Given these findings, users who have traditionally lapped their heat spreaders to get better water block contact may begin to consider removing even more material from those parts, particularly if given the exact specification for heat spreader thickness that they might be able to use to prevent accidental core exposure.