B Grade AM5 pin discolouration.

[sgoaty]

I bought a 7900X3D from B Grade it arrived yesterday and I noticed that some of the pads are a little discoloured compared to the rest. They don't look like the burnt ones you see online just a little different to the surrounding ones.



I wasn't studying it or anything it was noticeable enough to catch my eye. It's a little more noticeable in person than in the photos. I just wondered if anyone has seen this before and if I should be concerned about it? (Perhaps this is why it was returned)



I went ahead and fitted it to the my new B650E-F and it seems to be fine but just thought it could be worth asking.







Thanks

Scott

 

[LtMatt]

It’s fine, I’ve had some like that. I’ve even had it after cleaning the cpu with rubbing alcohol, but giving it a or third pass usually cleaned it up. As long as the cpu is works fine you can ignore it.

 

[sgoaty]

Thanks Matt I suspected as much that's why I went ahead and fitted but it's always nice to get confirmation.

 

[deviation]

Cant see anything mate. The pictures say "upgrade to a Pro account to embed images in emails"

 

[sgoaty]

That's strange they were showing ok here earlier this morning.

I'm never sure which hosting site to use these days. I'll see if I can fix it.

 

[lepharaon33]

I bought a 7900X3D from B Grade it arrived yesterday and I noticed that some of the pads are a little discoloured compared to the rest. They don't look like the burnt ones you see online just a little different to the surrounding ones.



I wasn't studying it or anything it was noticeable enough to catch my eye. It's a little more noticeable in person than in the photos. I just wondered if anyone has seen this before and if I should be concerned about it? (Perhaps this is why it was returned)



I went ahead and fitted it to the my new B650E-F and it seems to be fine but just thought it could be worth asking.

A bit of discoloration on the contact pads is totally normal, especially for B-grade or even brand-new CPUs. On AM5 chips (like the 7900X3D), the pads are gold-plated, and the shade or reflectivity can vary slightly from one to another.


If the CPU has been installed before, the socket pins can leave faint marks that look darker or less shiny — that’s just normal contact wear and doesn’t affect anything electrically. Sometimes there’s also a bit of oxidation or residue from manufacturing, which can make a few pads look different.


The only time you really need to worry is if the pads look burnt (blackened, pitted, or bubbled), missing, or damaged. If your system boots fine, all cores are recognized, boosts properly, and remains stable under load, then it’s perfectly safe to use.


B-grade stock is often just open-box or returned items with minor cosmetic imperfections, so that’s probably why it was classified that way.


You can just keep an eye on temps and stability (using something like HWInfo, OCCT, or Cinebench), but if everything checks out, you’re good to go — slight discoloration like that is really common.