Another dead Ryzen 7 9800X3D reported, this time with an MSI X870E Tomahawk WiFi motherboard

There has been another case of a dead Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU but this time it is not with an ASRock motherboard. A Reddit user shared images of their “exploded” CPU that was used with an MSI motherboard. The exact reason for this unfortunate circumstance is unclear but several Reddit users have pointed out that a lot of such cases have had the MSI Tomahawk motherboards as the culprit. 

At the time of writing, the Reddit post by user Realistic_Age_718 was shared about 15 hours ago on the r/pcmasterrace subreddit. In it, the user didn’t really share much information other than some pictures and mentioning the Ryzen 7 9800X3D exploded. The images clearly show a bulge or abnormality of some kind in the middle of the CPU which lead to the processor not working anymore. One of the images shows the socket which seems to be intact and unaffected. 

Another image shows the motherboard SKU which was supposedly used with the 9800X3D when it died. It was an MSI X870E Tomahawk WiFi motherboard, which, as per the image, was housing a Ryzen 5 8500G APU. The user likely took the photo with a different CPU sitting on the motherboard to get to the BIOS, suggesting the motherboard is still working fine. While there has been no response from MSi yet, several Reddit users have pointed out that it was not just ASRock motherboards that were killing 9800X3D CPUs, but also MSI Tomahawk boards.

ASRock investigated the issue when it was occurring with its motherboards and released a BIOS update that seemingly worked. It also launched a dedicated Reddit megathread allowing users to post their experiences and also collect more information through a web form. As mentioned earlier, MSI is yet to respond.