There is a very strong argument to be made that the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the best gaming CPU out there today; it is arguably the best gaming chip AMD has ever produced, but it has the ability to outperform Intel's top CPUs in terms of gaming frame rates And it does so at a considerably lower price.

It is also much less thirsty. [This is the most interesting thing about the Zen 4 generation of 3D V-Cache processors: they are much more efficient than the first top-of-the-line chips in the Ryzen 7000 series. In fact, with each release of this new generation, AMD improves the latest processor range, making previous processors almost redundant.

The Ryzen 9 7950X3D (open in new tab) is the first of the new 3D V-Cache chips placed on our test bench, offering a mix of high-end gaming performance and the full 16 cores of Zen 4 processing. However, its hybrid design, which offers an 8-core chiplet (or CCD) with an additional 64MB of L3 cache and another CCD that does not, requires some extra hoops for the operating system to go through, and the standard 16-core chip's raw It sacrificed some of the multi-threaded performance. [But the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is as simple as AMD's 3D V-Cache. There is a single 8-core chiplet with additional cache, so you don't have to worry about provisioning or worrying your head about which of the large CPU's CCDs your application should be using at any one time.

It highlights how well AMD has managed to pull off the hybrid design of the 7950X3D, but it makes far more sense as the CPU at the heart of the next gaming PC.

Simply put, if you absolutely need high gaming frame rates and don't mind CPU-intensive chores like rendering and encoding at all, AMD's latest chip is the processor for you AMD's latest chip rolls up its sleeves to its gaming orientation, Core i9 performs at a blush. [This new 3D V-Cache processor's combination of gaming power and low power consumption makes it an attractive option for gaming rigs, and now that AMD's AM5 platform has matured, more affordable motherboard options are being found every day, with DDR5 memory and PCIe 4.0 SSDs also seem to be constantly dropping in price.

If you can build an impressively future-proof PC from AMD's affordable options, the value argument for Intel's Raptor Lake platform is beginning to look increasingly thin.

At $450, it's more expensive than the more versatile Core i5 13400F (open in new tab), but until Intel can address the power demands of its chips, AMD's best gaming CPUs are by far the most elegant. the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is not a panacea, but one It is definitely a CPU that has mastered one thing.

The Zen 4 architecture (open in new tab) in the new 7800X3D is now known. Most of it is a derivative specification of the old Zen 3 design, but here it uses TSMC's 5nm process for the CCD and a 6nm process for the I/O die. The big news at launch was the addition of PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support from the start, and a new socket with a funky new heatsink design.

The Zen 4 CPU makeover adds 1MB of L2 cache to each core and optimizes the front end. The number of cores has not changed. [However, while the 7800X3D is in some ways a further step forward, in others it is a step backward. This is a resolutely 8-core CPU in the same vein as the Ryzen 7 7700 (open in new tab) and Ryzen 7 7700X (open in new tab), and this 16-thread design alone is nothing new for a Zen 4 chip. However, the 64MB of L3 cache on top of the 8-core CCD is new.

The compromise is about clock speed, as with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D (open in new tab), which kicked off this cache-biased enterprise.

Where the 7700X maxes out at 5.4GHz and the 7950X (open in new tab) at 5.7GHz, the 7800X3D is resolutely stuck at 5GHz. Yes, we are getting to the point where we can say "just" about using 5 GHz regularly right out of the box.

However, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is still a 120W chip, which puts it in the higher category than the 105W 7700X. However, given the chip's high operating efficiency, these TDP numbers are starting to feel a bit deceptive. While it does offer virtually the best gaming performance of any chip we tested.

The fact that the 7800X3D can achieve the same gaming frame rates at worst as the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Intel Core i9 13900K (open in new tab), the most expensive processors in this industry, is quite impressive. Especially considering that the nominal clock speed is much slower than both processors.

However, the 7950X3D's peak clock speed of 5.7 GHz is a bit misleading, as this is for a CCD without the 3D V-Cache. The CCD with the added cache is likely running at the same speed as the 7800X3D, which is responsible for the majority of the gaming workload. [The Core i9 13900K is a 5.8GHz processor and is in the classic Intel gaming tradition. However, it still loses out to this $450 chip.

In the documentation provided by AMD, the 7800X3D should lose to the 7590X3D in most areas, but not in our standard PCG test suite. Of course, this is by no means conclusive. There are more games and apps than one person can test before launch. But this is our normal suite, and does not support either the red or blue side of the CPU divide, but highlights what the chips in our hands are like.

Gaming Performance

Switching from gaming to more creative and productive apps, you can see why we say this is a gaming-specific processor. Sure, it beats the previous generation Ryzen 7 5800X3D with the same number of cores and Zen 4 architecture, but it is significantly off the pace when compared to similar chips in the same price range.

So Intel's top CPUs, Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5, will make cache-intensive AMD chips look like they are still aggressively lagging behind. If you are looking for an all-rounder, i.e., a processor whose multithreaded task load is as high as your game, go ahead; the 7800X3D is not that versatile.

Rendering and encoding benchmarks, as well as memory bandwidth tests, highlight areas where the 7800X3D is hampered by slow clock speeds due to the 3D V-Cache. But honestly, this is not about that. This is as close to a pure gaming CPU as possible, and a very efficient one at that. [During my testing period, the package's peak power measured by HWInfo was 81W, allowing the 7800X3D to deliver gaming performance at twice the efficiency of the previous generation of 3D V-Cache chips and virtually twice that of the Core i9 13900K. Its power savings make it remarkably cool, with a maximum temperature of 80°C under load. This is with full multithreading, and in an actual game of "Metro Exodus" looped three times, the temperature was roughly half that.

If you want a cool, quiet gaming PC capable of the fastest game frame rates, get the 7800X3D.

So why the caveat? Because processors are not all about gaming performance. We are running at 1080p to highlight relative performance differences between CPU architectures. These differences may disappear the higher you go in the resolution stack, where graphics card choice has a much greater impact on frame rates.

And at $450, the price is much higher than the Intel Core i5 13600K (open in new tab)/F. That's a ~$300 chip with 14 cores and 20 threads of compute power, going past 5 GHz and overclockable.

Indeed, the Intel i5 is slightly slower in game frame rates at 1080p, but at 1440p and 4K the difference is almost negligible. Also, in terms of productivity, you get a more rounded processor, and if you are purely doing non-gaming things on your PC, you get a processor that can handle multi-threaded workloads.

Plus, if you are thinking of building a new machine from scratch, you have $150 more to spend on a graphics card. Although, I admit that in these times, that does not necessarily equal a higher-end GPU...

. If you want the best possible frame rate, an additional cache aura in this Zen 4 chiplet will do the trick.

It is also the most energy-efficient gaming CPU: building a system with the 7800X3D can make you look environmentally conscious; it consumes significantly less power than Intel's Core i5 13400F, and its frames per watt efficiency is very impressive.

My only disappointment is that AMD is unlikely to release a Ryzen 5 with 3D V-Cache. A Ryzen 5 7600X3D with such gaming performance would stop many gamers from spending on Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 CPUs.