Yeah, IMO it's more fun to find out what all architectures can do with some undervolting, incuding GPUs. I have CPUs and GPUs from all vendors and every one is undervolted except this 9700f which simply will not run stably at it's top turbo with any undervolt, the first pyrite sample I think I've ever received. Works at spec though so I can't complain, and with an .-05v it'll run all core 4.2GHz for a lot of power savings and a minimal performance reduction from it's typical 4.5 all core turbo.
If a CPU or GPU is being taped out, they are not going to run a custom profile for each and every chip. Nope. All chips from one wafer are'nt identical. So one chip might be cool and all at 1.2V and the other requires 1.25v to operate. They just set something in the middle that would work under all conditions. This is why there's headroom left in CPU's and GPU's; some GPU's might work problemless with 1090mv and others require 1140mv to do the very same. It's just luck of the draw really.
Other then that; the above does'nt suprise me. Intels TDP is'nt the TDP your getting at AMD. The PL stages is what make these CPU's so damn hungry. And on top of that the small node pretty much makes it very hard to cool. Lapping, liquid metal, high end watercooler for example, thats the region you need to start looking for if you want marginal improvements over stock. I mean we came from era's where your 300Mhz CPU could be oveclocked to 450Mhz. Or your Athlon 600Mhz just a rebranded 750Mhz was. Or the FX from 3.2Ghz up to 5Ghz if your cooling and board allowed it.
Now it's just ramp up large cooling and let the chip decide whats best for it while keeping silicon health in place. This is how AMD boost works pretty much. Keep it constant under 60 degrees and that boost will be in there a life time.
So FX turned out to be better this time, like I feared. Especially the 8370s! (which I never got a chance to have, but I apparently had a golden-sample-looking FX 8350 from 2014 (a late run) that I doubt I maxed out, as I only tried it at a paltry 4.4) (The VID was only 1.2-something volts on my FX 8350!)
Well, in order to get passed 4.4Ghz ~ 4.5Ghz your board had to support the current the chip needed, and be free of any AMD pre-determined overcurrent limits. If i'm correct it was 25A on the 12V line or so. Higher end boards could yield all the way up to 35 to 40 amps or so. The whole FX line where great overclockers. Not just core-clock wise but also the CPU/NB which was responsible for the L3 Cache / speed as well. That is something most reviewers never really highlighted, but that was the money shot in relation of overclocking in cranking those minimum FPS in games up.
FX's where just badly timed really in a era where single core still had the crown in applications. You can tell because the FX still holds to this day in various games while running a higher end graphics card.