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Despite being tested in a cool environment, the Ryzen 9 9950X failed in both instances. In each case, a noticeable yellow patch appeared on the pin side of the CPU.
#### GMP Project Reports Burnt Ryzen 9 9950X CPUs in Two Different Instances; No Overclocking or Overvolting, and Extra Fans Were Deployed
Sometimes it seems that motherboards are not the only factor that can cause a CPU to fail. In cases involving ASRock boards with Ryzen 9000 processors, such failures appear rare. However, this time, GMP Project reported two similar incidents where the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X CPUs failed.
GMP Project conducted tests using their tool suite and found that despite proper measures, both the first test in February and the second a few days later resulted in CPU failure. In each instance, a large yellow patch appeared on the pin side of the CPU. Both setups used ASUS B650 chipset motherboards: the ASUS Prime B650M-K with BIOS 3057 for the first test, and the ASUS Prime B650M-A WiFi with BIOS 3278 for the second.
#### Cooling and Ambient Temperature
Both are budget motherboards suitable for handling high-end processors unless overclocking. Apart from some changes in PSU and RAM, the CPU cooler remained the same—Noctua NH-U9S. This is a solid single-tower cooler but might not be ideal for processors like Ryzen 9 9950X at full load (rated at 170W). However, adequate cooling measures were implemented.
The ambient temperature was below 20°C in the first test and just over 20°C in the second. With extra fans and proper ventilation, the setup should not generate significant heat, especially since the CPUs were not overclocked or overvolted. Yet, both CPUs failed, which is surprising given that its predecessor, Ryzen 9 7950X, did not show such behavior despite running hotter and longer.
#### Possible Causes
It seems that the Ryzen 9950X was pulling more power than expected when running GMP tests. One possible reason cited by GMP could be an offset mounting issue on the second setup, as suggested by Noctua to cool down the hotter side of the CPU. However, the thermal paste application created a void between the CPU and heatsink, which might have caused the failure. In the first case, with a centered mounting, they also faced the same issue.
#### News Source
News source: [GMP Lib](https://gmplib.org/gmp-zen5)
