In two separate posts at Reddit, Robert Hallock, IP/Technology Evangelist at AMD, felt that he needed to explain that newly launched Raven Ridge APUs are mainstream products and thus need a balance between performance and cost, which is why the company went for non-metallic TIM, rather than soldered approach between the die and the IHS.

In one of those posts, Hallock added that TIM made the most sense for the performance and thermal characteristics of the Raven Ridge APU design, describing it as the right tool for the right job. He also was quite keen to note that "a pure processor, designed for enthusiast gaming machines, plays in a different market" and as such has "different prices, different thermal and mechanical requirements", which is why the second generation Ryzen, as he calls it, will use solder.

Raven Ridge APUs were never meant to be high end products and it is probably just the pure curiosity that pushed overclockers and enthusiasts to delid these APUs and put them in extreme overclocking scenarios.

It is good that AMD keeps its eye close to the ground and is quite fast when it comes to clearing any issues and concerned about its future products. It has managed to grab a lot of market share with its Summit Ridge Ryzen CPUs so hopefully, Pinnacle Ridge with Zen+ cores at 12nm will bring significant performance gains and hold the company until its 7nm Zen 2 core design comes.