AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D review: so fast it looks like a mistake

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

MSRP $450.00

“The fastest gaming CPU you can buy, even better than much more expensive options.”

Avg

• Top gaming performance

• Great value

• Solid multi-core and productive performance

• AM5 is getting cheaper

Against

• Poor single core performance

I thought it might be a mistake.

Of course, I assumed that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D would be fast, given the proven results of Zen 4 combined with 3D V-Cache. In fact, I assumed it would be among the best gaming processors you can buy, especially delivered in this mid-range eight-core package.

But when I saw that it sometimes beats the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, its much more expensive bigger siblings, I did a double take. But the amount of gaming performance here is the real deal, and that makes the Ryzen 7 7800X3D an ideal choice for a wide range of PC gamers.

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D specifications

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Of all the specs you need to know about the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, the cache is the most important. It features AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology, stacking additional cache on top of the chip to improve gaming performance. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D comes with a total of 104 MB of cache. Compare that to the eight-core Ryzen 7 7700X, which comes in at just 40MB.

However, that extra cache doesn’t come for free. Compared to the Ryzen 7 7700X, the 3D V-Cache chip comes with a lower 5GHz clock speed (the Ryzen 7 7700X boosts to 5.4GHz) and a higher power limit of 120W. This is the opposite of what we saw with the Ryzen 9 7950X3D , which came with reduced power consumption and demonstrated AMD’s progress in efficiency.

The good news is that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D doesn’t come with a price increase, as it’s the same $450 that the Ryzen 7 5800X3D launched at. However, it is not entering a new market.

At the time of publication, the price of Intel’s 13th generation chips has dropped significantly, and you can find the Core i9-13900K for around $500 and the Core i7-13700K for around $400. AMD’s processors have also dropped in price, with the 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X costing slightly less than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

Beyond what it says in the specs, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is known for using a single-core complex (CCX). The Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 7900X3D used a dual CCX design, forcing AMD to focus the cache on a single CCX. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D doesn’t have that problem, allowing for faster transfers. Ultimately, this translates into higher gaming performance in some titles, which I’ll talk about later.

Test configuration

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

For this review I made three test beds and tried to balance them as evenly as possible. All three test benches used the RTX 4080 along with a 1TB MP400 NVMe SSD from Corsair. For the Ryzen 7000 and 13th gen Intel platforms I used DDR5-6000 memory, but for the Ryzen 5000 I stuck with DDR4-3200. Otherwise, the platforms were identical from the power supply to the cooler.

Other than the hardware, I left ReBar on, as well as EXPO or XMP on for memory. Just as the Ryzen 9 7950X3D required it, there were a few BIOS tweaks to make sure the Ryzen 7 7800X3D worked properly, but otherwise I left the BIOS settings default.

I also left AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) disabled, but note that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D can automatically overclock with PBO. Unfortunately, traditional multiplier-based overclocking is disabled, similar to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

Productivity performance

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AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D struggled outside of gaming in the previous generation, and AMD has focused on improving that area with its new 3D V-Cache processors. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D shows some gains, although it still lags behind the competition. Here I am comparing the Ryzen 7 7800X3D with the Core i9-13900K due to Intel’s recent price drop. You can now find the Core i9-13900K for around $500, putting AMD’s new processor in direct competition with Intel’s flagship.

For a broad view of performance, Cinebench shows the essential difference between the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and the leading chips in action. It also shows much slower single-core speeds compared to the Ryzen 9 7950X, which we didn’t see with the 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Other tasks that scale to more cores also show major drawbacks, including Blender, 7-Zip, and Handbrake. Even with the extra cache that boosts gaming performance, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is still limited to eight cores. If productivity is your main concern, a processor like the Ryzen 9 7900X or Core i9-13900K will serve you better for about the same price.

That’s not to say the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is slow because it isn’t. It still shows huge gains over the previous generation in the Jetstream web benchmark, and managed to match the Ryzen 9 7950X in Photoshop (although Intel still claims the lead in the Adobe benchmarks).

Gaming performance

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There has been some speculation that AMD released the Ryzen 9 7950X3D first because the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which is about half the price, is just as fast in gaming. My testing lends some credence to that assumption. In almost all games, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is just as fast, and in some games even faster.

Synthetic benchmarks still favor a higher core count, making the Ryzen 9 7950X3D appear to be around 20% faster in the Time Spy CPU test. I wouldn’t put too much stock in this test though. It also shows that the Core i9-13900K is 15% faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, which is completely false.

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Time Spy isn’t a good representation of performance here, but the 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D has a few advantages over its eight-core sibling. IN Gears tactics, The Ryzen 9 7950X3D was about 13% faster. On the other hand, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D showed an 18% advantage over the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and was within a few points of the Core i9-13900K.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Similarly, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D pulled out the win Hitman 3, but the cheaper eight-core part was within a few frames. This game is a great showcase of Zen 4 and 3D V-Cache in action, with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D outperforming the previous generation by a whopping 26%.

Beyond that, things get weird. In both F1 2022 and Far Cry 6, The Ryzen 7 7800X3D was actually faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. They are not negligible traces either. IN Far Cry 6, Ryzen 7 7800X3D led by 4%, and in F1 22, by almost 6 percent.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

This is not a coincidence. I repeated my test several times and finally reached out to AMD to verify the correctness. And of course, there are games where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is simply faster than the more expensive Ryzen 9 7950X3D. AMD says that, overall, it expects the octa-core part to be about 1% slower on average compared to the Ryzen 9 7950X3D.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Why? Well, it’s the same reason we saw the Ryzen 7 7700X outperform the Ryzen 9 7950X when Zen 4 first launched. AMD says this is due to faster cache-to-cache transfers with a single CCX. Ryzen 9 parts use two CCXs, while Ryzen 7 parts use only one, which speeds up performance in some games.

If you look at my benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a decimal point away from the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, and that’s just rounding. Beyond that, it outperforms the previous generation and the competition from Intel. Compared to the Core i9-13900K, it is 13% faster, and compared to the latest generation Ryzen 7 5800X3D, it is 20% faster. No doubt, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the A gaming CPU you can buy now.

Should you buy an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D?

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor is focused on games and in this sense there is no competition. It’s the fastest gaming CPU you can buy, matching and sometimes even beating the more expensive Ryzen 9 7950X3D. You lose a lot in productivity performance, but for gamers, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is still quite fast.

Now it’s a much easier upgrade to recommend. A few months after the release of the Ryzen 7000, AM5 motherboard prices have dropped significantly, and you can find a B650 motherboard for around $150. Similarly, DDR5 prices have nearly halved since late last year, so the overall cost of upgrading the platform is much lower.

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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn