News of the burned-out AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D has spread fast and wide enough to prompt an official response from MSI, the manufacturer of the MSI Mag X870 Tomahawk motherboard used by the PC builder who shared the original story on Reddit. While there’s no suggestion at this stage that MSI or AMD are at fault here, the company has been quick to release a statement updating customers about the incident.
Companies such as AMD and MSI can’t rely on bad press hitting the airwaves so quickly after such a major launch, so it makes sense for MSI to get ahead on this one. Some of the best gaming motherboards available are made by MSI, but AMD’s CPU is also potentially on the line. The 9800X3D immediately became the best gaming CPU when it was launched, but we can’t imagine AMD will want reputational damage like this spreading.
In a short statement posted on the MSI website, the company shared that it had “received a user report indicating damage to an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor on an MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk Wifi motherboard.” MSI states that the company is “fully committed to the quality” of the company’s products, and that an investigation is already underway.
MSI also states that it’s working closely with AMD and is “in contact” with Gamer Nexus, the PC hardware YouTube channel, as it begins to investigate the cause behind the damage. MSI says it will share further updates as the investigation progresses.
As we shared in our 9800X3D burn out report, Stephen Burke, Gamer Nexus’ editor-in-chief, has already offered to buy the damaged components to conduct an independent investigation, and it looks as though MSI is offering to keep the lines of communication open to support that effort.
Before new 9800X3D owners panic, however, it does seem like this incident is more down to user error than a design flaw. The original Redditor, “TrumpPooPoosPants”, has already shared his belief that it’s likely down to an installation error, and that’s a belief shared by others, based on the visual damage seen around the CPU socket and to the pins in the socket itself.
The Redditor also shared an updated statement in the original Reddit post thread, confirming that they’ve sent the components off to Gamers Nexus. TrumpPooPoosPants isn’t sure what caused the damage, or if the CPU was seated correctly, but according to them, it’s “more likely” that they themselves were careless.
There’s been no comment so far from AMD, but with Gamer Nexus and MSI both confirming investigations into the incident, we hope to have a clear answer as to where the blame lies soon, one way or another.
In the meantime, have a look at our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review to see what we think about AMD’s brand new gaming CPU that’s already replaced the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D as its new flagship, and is quite happily stomping well ahead of anything that Intel is able to throw at it.