Some AMD 5600X and 5800X CPUs come with two CCDs

The creator of CTR and DRAM Calculator for Ryzen has found that some Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X processors feature a dual CCD design instead of a single CCD. For now, there isn't an easy way to check if one of these processors has one or two CCDs, but once CTR 2.0 releases, that will change.

According to AMD, the Ryzen 5000 series processors feature a multi-chip module design with 8-cores per CCD. This means that each processor with eight or fewer cores should have only one CCD, like the Ryzen 5 5600X and the Ryzen 7 5800X, but apparently, that isn't completely true.

Yuri “1usmus” Bubliy and Igors' Lab noticed that in a certain table used to monitor these processors, some CPUs had twice the number of entries as a Ryzen CPU with one CCD. Given that it has twice the entries, it follows there are twice the CCDs present on the CPU. This second CCD should be in deep sleep/disabled mode, but it still appears to be active, leading to random usage spikes reaching a clock speed of 550MHz occasionally.

Although there's still no official word from AMD on this, Yuri and Igor suspect that these chips are ‘failed' Ryzen 9 5900X CPUs which didn't quite make the grade, leading AMD to disable a CCD instead of just throwing away a perfectly good chip. Based on Yuri and Igor's testing, it seems that the Ryzen 5 5600X processors with two CCDs will operate within spec, but may have less overclocking potential.

Igor also commented on the possibility of unlocking the second CCD, transforming a Ryzen 5 5600X into a Ryzen 9 5900X and a Ryzen 7 5800X into a Ryzen 9 5950X. This could be a huge ‘upgrade' for some owners of these chips, but currently it's entirely hypothetical. If there's a way to unlock the second CCD, Igor and 1usmus will surely share it.

KitGuru says: Do you own a Ryzen 5 5600X or a Ryzen 7 5800X? If your processor has two CCDs, would you unlock the second one given the opportunity?

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