AMD has simply introduced the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s price and release date, which means we now have some thought how this chip is about to face come launch day. This thrilling 3D stacked chip will fetch $449 at launch—the identical value because the Ryzen 7 5800X when it first launched over a 12 months in the past, and the identical value because the now heavily discounted Ryzen 9 5900X.
Which means there’s going to be a giant query in want of answering come launch day: Must you spend your cash on the eight-core Ryzen 7 5800X3D or go along with the 12-core Ryzen 9 5900X?
It is a robust name with out the entire image of benchmarking information, however what we do know is that AMD’s reporting the Ryzen 7 5800X3D will handle to take care of round a 15% lead in gaming at 1080p over the 5900X. That is a reasonably wild quantity—you would not anticipate that kind of uplift from a CPU with out some additional modifications to the underlying structure.
You are getting an additional serving to of L3 cache on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D as an alternative of any main updates to the Zen 3 structure that powers all Ryzen 5000-series CPUs. In shut partnership with TSMC, AMD is putting a financial institution of L3 cache on high of its present chiplet design—a style of the 3D die stacking expertise that we’ll see used all through chipmaking in coming years. Extra L3 Cache shut at hand means fewer calls out to reminiscence elsewhere, decreasing latency, and reportedly growing gaming efficiency by a formidable margin.
However we’re speaking 1080p right here. That is a decision that is extra affected by CPU efficiency because of the velocity at which a GPU can render frames. For each body a GPU spits out, the CPU has to observe. So naturally, at 1080p, the place body charges usually quantity within the a whole bunch, your CPU can have a bigger impression in your general efficiency because it tries to maintain up along with your highly-threaded GPU.
Testing or benchmarking a CPU at 1080p is a good way to extract an thought of the efficiency variations between them, but it surely’s additionally true that video games are inclined to grow to be way more GPU restricted of their efficiency the extra pixels you throw at them.
| Ryzen 7 5800X3D | Ryzen 9 5900X | |
|---|---|---|
| Cores / threads | 8 / 16 | 12 / 24 |
| Enhance clock (GHz) | 4.5 | 4.8 |
| Base clock (GHz) | 3.4 | 3.7 |
| TDP (Watt) | 105 | 105 |
| Course of node | TSMC 7nm | TSMC 7nm |
| L3 Cache (MB) | 96 | 64 |
| L2 Cache (MB) | 4 | 6 |
| MSRP | $449 | $549 |
| Sale value | N/A | $449 |
At 4K then, the dependency in your CPU is much much less pronounced. You possibly can completely nonetheless bottleneck on account of your CPU at 4K, however you are much less more likely to see a lot of a distinction between high-end CPU fashions whereas gaming at this decision.
Take the distinction in body charges whereas testing on an RTX 3080 machine powered by a Ryzen 9 5900X and one utilizing the less expensive Ryzen 5 5600X. In Far Cry New Daybreak at 4K, for instance, there is no. The identical goes for Intel’s last-generation processors: solely a single body separates the Core i9 11900K and the Core i5 10400F.
Whether or not you go for the Ryzen 7 5800X3D or the Ryzen 9 5900X comes all the way down to the decision you are gaming at, then. In case you’re seeking to maximise aggressive framerates at 1080p, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D should be excellently suited to that job. In case you’re on the lookout for 4K efficiency, then the Ryzen 9 5900X ought to suffice almost as nicely.
The truth is, you should purchase a dearer CPU for extra cores, better throughput, and improved single-threaded and multi-threaded efficiency. It ought to be a extra holistic buy.
And it should be mentioned that you simply’re getting an entire lot extra than simply matching gaming efficiency with the Ryzen 9 5900X. It has 4 extra cores and eight extra threads at its disposal, and people will make a distinction when you’re throwing your PC at numerous multithreaded purposes or demanding workloads, equivalent to video enhancing or messing about sculpting a 3D mannequin. GPU acceleration is widespread at the moment, however there are nonetheless many instances the place merely having extra cores to throw at an issue returns higher outcomes.
The Ryzen 9 5900X is price contemplating whereas it is on provide for much less.
And I feel therein lies the explanation why I am nonetheless leaning in direction of the Ryzen 9 5900X right here—I am not too swayed by the argument of sacrificing cores for extra L3 cache simply but. It isn’t as a result of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is not wholly thrilling as an idea—3D V-Cache seems like it’s the future—it is that current low cost pricing has the Ryzen 9 5900X providing such an ideal deal it is arduous to go up at this value.
The identical will be mentioned for the Ryzen 7 5800X, which will be had for $349 proper now. You could possibly argue that with out a lot want for a heavyweight core depend altogether, you could possibly simply save the money and chip that in direction of a greater graphics card as an alternative. That is undoubtedly cash nicely spent when you can handle to bump your GPU up a tier in efficiency, and body charges massively with it.
There’s one thing else I am just a little cautious of right here, too. I do not wish to over-commit to an unknown amount in Zen 4, but it surely’s one thing to consider because it’s set to reach later this 12 months.
The 5800X3D is a check case for a 3D V-Cache expertise, and like one other of AMD’s early expertise check instances, the Radeon VII graphics card, we’re more likely to see the purple group one-up this explicit chip fairly rapidly. The primary technology RDNA structure crushed the Radeon VII on launch, and for a lower cost. The upcoming CPU structure from AMD, Zen 4, is more likely to do the identical to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
You will want an entire new motherboard to run AMD’s next-gen chips, nevertheless, as they have been confirmed to make use of a brand new AM5 socket. And maybe you are on the lookout for one final hurrah on the AM4 socket earlier than ripping your whole motherboard and RAM out and changing it. However I might at the very least contemplate ready to see how the speedy new 5800X3D shapes up in real-world benchmarks earlier than dashing to drop it into your AM4 machine.
The Ryzen 9 5900X is price contemplating whereas it is on provide for much less, and when you’ve got any curiosity in a model new platform then AMD and Intel each have numerous thrilling stuff on the best way—the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is just the start of one thing particular.
