Is the Ryzen 7 7800X3D good?
is the all new Ryzen 7 7800X3D any good for gaming?
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Is the Ryzen 7 7800X3D good? AMD’s highly anticipated X3D CPUs are finally on their way. Although a release date has not been specified, we expect them to hit the market sometime in February.
Now read: AMD announces Ryzen 7000 series 3D V-cache CPUs at CES 2023
Out of the three X3D CPUs, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is expected to be the most affordable option. And most likely the most price efficient, it’s highly likely that the 7800X3D will offer the most bang for your buck.
UPDATE The release of the 7800X3D is just days away, we’re already starting to see benchmark data arise. As soon as we have some concrete numbers, we’ll update this article. Watch this space!
Ryzen 7 7800X3D – processor specifications
First of all, here are the processor’s base specs:
- Core count: 8 (Multithreading enabled)
- Thread count: 16
- Boost clock: 5GHz
- L2 cache: 8MB – 1MB per core
- L3 cache: 96 MB – shared
- TDP: 120 watts
- iGPU: Radeon Graphics
- Socket: AM5
As expected from a CPU equipped with a 3D V-cache, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is equipped with 96MBs of shared L3 memory. It doesn’t have the best core count or clock speed, though. We’ll see how that affects performance in a bit.
What’s so special about the X3D variants?
The Ryzen 7 7800X3D will feature AMD’s exclusive 3D V-cache technology.
3D V-Cache is an incredible innovation – it’s definitely among the most consequential improvements to CPU architecture we’ve seen in the last decade.
The cache is high-speed memory located very close to the processor, usually on the die itself. It prevents the CPU from having to access the comparatively slower RAM to retrieve data.
With its 3D V-Cache technology, AMD stacks L3 cache units vertically on top of one another, increasing the total shared cache available to the processor by two to three times the current standard.
As a result, the CPU is able to store much more of the data it needs for processing in the L3 cache. This improves performance by a remarkable margin, particularly in tasks that involve frequent fetching of data from RAM.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D, with its 96MB of L3 cache, for example, saw an average of 15% improvement in gaming performance over the standard Ryzen 7 5800X, with 32 MB of the same.
The upcoming X3D CPUs will likely outperform their default X variants by a fair margin – that’s what all the hype is about.
Intel just solidified its dominant lead with the i9-13900KS, but we could see it being dethroned very soon. Only time will tell.
Is the Ryzen 7 7800X3D good?
The Ryzen 7 7800X3D’s 96MBs of 3D V-cache will lend themselves beautifully to Triple-A gaming.
Gaming is an activity that utilizes the additional L3 cache very well. Games involve a high degree of randomness because your CPU never really knows what you’re going to do next and often ends up having to pull data from the slower RAM sticks as a result of unexpected actions.
Gaming is likely where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D (and all X3D CPUs, for that matter) will shine the most.
The Ryzen 7 7800X3D will be a decent option for streamers as well since streaming and gaming performance are somewhat tied together.
A great streaming processor has to be one that can run your games run at a high enough FPS to give your viewers a seamless visual experience.
With 16 threads, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has enough capacity for multi-tasking to record and stream your gameplay at high quality without noticeable lag.
Content creation involves CPU-intensive activities that rely more so on multicore performance. Unfortunately, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a bit lacking in that department, at least when compared to other high-end processors.
The extra L3 cache does help here, but it doesn’t make up for the lack of physical cores and threads suffered by the 7800X3D.
If you’re a content creator looking to get the most productive setup for your workflow, you’ll probably be better served by a standard 7000 X or non-X processor in the Raphael lineup.
Is the Ryzen 7 7800X3D worth it?
It is uncertain whether the new X3D CPUs will prove to be worthwhile, but their value can be estimated. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is expected to pose a significant challenge to Intel and the Ryzen 7 7800X, thanks to the incorporation of the 3D V-cache onto the CPU package in a clever way.
The 3D V-cache is implemented on only one of the two CCDs within the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, enabling it to boost single-core performance without limiting the overall CPU, as observed in the 5800X3D. This makes the CPU ideal for single-core workloads like gaming, while remaining less restrictive on multi-core workloads. Since only half of the CPU contains the 3D V-cache, it is less susceptible to temperature and voltage spikes, which can be limiting factors for overclocking.
Although manual overclocking is not feasible, automatic boost features such as BPO and Curve Optimizer provide significant advantages with updated technology. Therefore, we believe that the new 7000X3D processors, particularly the 7800X3D, will be worthwhile, at least in comparison to the previous generation.
Final thoughts
Overall, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is expected to be a great processor for gamers and streamers, based on its specs and what we currently know about 3D V-cache.
It will also be a decent option for content creators who game on the side. In terms of raw multicore productivity, there are more price-efficient options in non-X3D CPUs.
Since it’ll be releasing in February, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D might just be the perfect Valentine’s gift for your S/O.
