AMD sells partially activated Ryzen 5900X / 5950X with only one CCD
Source: Hardware Luxx added 11th Jan 2021
AMD’s chiplet design enables the company to flexibly design the product accordingly. In the case of the Ryzen 5000 processors, there is either one or two CCDs with eight cores each in the package in addition to an I / O die. All processors with eight or fewer cores use only one CCD. But as soon as we get from the Ryzen 9 5900 X with 12 or the Ryzen 9 5950 X speak with even 16 cores, two CCDs come (CCD # 1 and CCD # 2)
How this looks in the case of a Ryzen 5 X with a CCD is shown by the corresponding die-shots . AMD always tries to keep as many cores as possible together on one CCD. It would be quite conceivable to manufacture an eight-core processor with two CCDs with four cores each, but in practice this would lead to disadvantages due to the higher latencies. So it stays the same: Everything from the Ryzen 7 5800 X and below uses only one CCD (CCD # 1).
Now there seem to be models of the Ryzen 5 5600 X and Ryzen 7 5800 X, which do not just consist of an I / O die and a CCD. In addition to a CCD # 1, there is also a CCD # 2 – but only one CCD is still active.
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This cannot be read out in the Ryzen Master either, but the API that @ 1usmus uses for the ClockTuner for Ryzen (CTR) seems to be able to access certain information which suggest that AMD has left a CCD # 1 completely idle and only uses a CCD # 2 – despite only eight or six cores for the Ryzen 7 5800 X and Ryzen 5 5600 X, which actually only requires a CCD # 1. Such processors appeared for the first time before Christmas.
Why such eight-core processors and with two CCDs exist at all is not entirely clear. AMD selects the CCDs before they are soldered. The good chips are used on the fastest Ryzen processors. After the CCDs have been placed on the package together with the I / O die, AMD will certainly test them again and errors can occur that could lead to a Ryzen 9 5900 X but only a Ryzen 7 5800 X or Ryzen 5 5600 X
The hopes of bringing the deactivated CCD back to life should be relatively low. Although these seem to be in a kind of deep sleep status and are also supplied with a supply voltage, there are no indications that reactivation could be possible.
For technical reasons So the discovery of a “small” Ryzen processor with two CCDs is quite interesting. However, it is not known whether it also has (negative) effects on the practical use of this processor. The number of these processors seems to be very limited – the pure use of a CCD # 2 is a real rarity.