These days, overclocking on workstation and HEDT chips is permitted by both AMD and Intel; although, as is always the case, doing so can cause damage that nullifies the warranty. It has come to light that AMD uses a previously undisclosed technique—a concealed fuse that blows when the function is enabled—to determine whether a chip has been overclocked. The good news is that, according to AMD, doing this won’t immediately void your warranty; nevertheless, if something goes wrong, it will inform AMD of your activities.
With the November launch of AMD’s Threadripper 7000 series CPUs, consumers are starting to become acquainted with the chips. These CPUs come in Pro and non-Pro versions, and they’re all “unlocked for overclocking.” But according to recent reports, doing so will nullify your guarantee. A screenshot of a BIOS warning stating that the user’s warranty has been voided due to overclocking was shared on Twitter, which is where these reports originated. It’s also odd that the BIOS claims that overclocking is always enabled. It appears that once AMD inserted a fuse within the processor, which blows when this feature is activated, the feature is permanently enabled, and there is no way to turn it off.
“Threadripper 7000 Series processors do contain a fuse that is blown when overclocking is enabled,” AMD revealed to Tom’s Hardware, exposing the tripwire. To be clear, your warranty is not invalidated if you blow this fuse.” In general, AMD supports overclocking, therefore users should exercise caution. However, any damage that results would void your warranty. Overclocking is certainly not very frequent given the expense of these CPUs and their motherboards, especially considering that the flagship CPU costs $9,999.
AMD stated, “Statements that enabling an overclocking/overvolting feature will ‘void’ the processor warranty are not correct” in reference to the BIOS warning. It appears that there is a misunderstanding between AMD and its partners who offer Threadripper workstations, since these original design manufacturers have added their own wording to the warning, stating that doing so will nullify your warranty. Anyone who has already enabled overclocking on their Threadripper CPU can exhale with ease, as AMD claims it is working with these companies to modify this language to be more accurate.
Furthermore, according to Tom, this capability wasn’t new; it was only mentioned recently. It was also included on the Threadripper 5000 series from the prior generation. When overclocking, damage to a chip might occur for a variety of causes, making the situation somewhat unclear. If something went wrong, AMD might figure out that an overclock was the cause, but at least it would know that you had turned on overclocking. Since Intel’s W-series CPUs support overclocking, it’s unclear if they offer a comparable feature.