MD has already closed the Intel gaming gap with its AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D. Now it is ready to take things one step further. After the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which dominated gaming CPUs for many years, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the chip that everyone has been eagerly awaiting the benchmarks. Although the 7800X3D arrived more than a month later than the 7950X3D I can confidently state that it was worth the wait.
The new Ryzen 7 7800X3D costs $449 and features eight cores, 16 threads, a boost clock of up to 5GHz, and eight cores. It is priced at $449 and comes in competition with Intel’s Core (around $589), AMD’s flagship Ryzen9 7950X3D (699), and Intel’s $699 Core I9-13900KS processor, which runs at 6GHz right out of the box.
The 7800X3D from AMD has impressed me greatly. It costs $449 and offers the best PC gaming performance available right now. However, it consumes much less power than Intel’s counterparts. It is so powerful that it should be the next gaming CPU for most people.8Verge Score
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
AMD’s 7800X3D was tested with MSI’s Meg X670E A Ace motherboard, 32GB G.Skill DDR5 6000 Ram, and Nvidia’s RTX4090. This motherboard is the most recent AM5 and has one PCIe 2.0 M.2 slot, three PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots, for lots of storage options.
We don’t currently have a 5800X3D at our labs. However, I’ve tried a range of workloads and synthetic benchmarks on the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 7950X3D and Intel Core i9-13900K. All tests were performed on Windows 11 2022 Update. VBS security was disabled on all systems. To avoid potential GPU bottlenecks, the tests were performed at 1080p resolution. This allows for analysis of raw CPU performance.
AMD Test Machine:
- CPU cooler: Corsair H150 Elite LCD
- Motherboard: MSI Meg Ace Ace
- RAM: 32GB G.Skill DDR5 6000
- GPU: Nvidia’s RTX 4090 Founders edition
- Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
- Case: Corsair Crystal 570X
- PSU: Corsair HX1000W
AMD’s Ryzen 7 7800X3D beats Intel’s Core i9-13900K for all seven games I tested. This was at 1080p, max or ultra settings. F122 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider run more than 15% faster on the 7800X3D.
Surprised to see Nvidia’s RTX4090 pushing 366fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the7800X3D. This is a far superior performance than I saw on the 7950X3D. Metro Exodus sees solid performance gains with the 7800X3D compared to the 13900K or 7950X3D.
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D performance (1080p)
These results are amazing for AMD at 1080p. However, since I usually run a smaller number of games for our CPU testing, I wanted to also test some of my games that I use for GPU reviews. This CPU impressed me so much, that I plan to use it as my primary rig for testing the future GPUs.
In an extended gaming test at 1080p, I wanted to compare the 7800X3D with Intel’s Core i9-13900KS. The 13900KS is an upgraded version of the 13900K with a 6GHz top speed boost speed and tweaked baseclocks that are intended to improve PC gaming performance. This is the most powerful Intel processor available for PC gaming, and it costs $699 less than the $449 price of the 7800X3D.
AMD 7800X3D vs. Intel13900KS (1080p).
The 7800X3D won 10 of the 16 games at 1080p. The losses are almost all close except for CS:GO, where the Intel 13900KS beats the 7800X3D by just over 8 percent. The 7800X3D is losing less than 3 percent of the time. The 1440p test results show a similar story. In most cases, the 7800X3D beats the 13900KS or loses by a small margin.
The productivity side is where AMD fails to win. Here, the 7800X3D is well behind Intel. Both AMD’s top X3D chip loses to Intel in the PugetBench Photoshop test, Geekbench 5 and Cinebench R23. The 7800X3D wasn’t designed for productivity tasks so it’s not surprising that the 7950X3D was not recommended.
If gaming is your only concern, the 7800X3D will be the right choice. It offers a combination of power consumption, performance, and price. It is truly amazing how efficient AMD’s 7800X3D processor is. The 7800X3D ran Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K. With maxed-out Ray-tracing settings, the CPU package power reached a peak of just 67 watts. The Intel 13900KS was able to deliver a maximum power of 275 watts in the same task.
The Cinebench test also showed that the 13900KS clocked 329 watts, while the 7800X3D clocked in at 86 watts. The 13900KS provides far better Cinebench performance, and small increases in frame rates in games such as Cyberpunk 20,77, butit delivers better performance in most other games without any extra power draw.
The Cinebench test showed that the 7800X3D reached 84°C, while the 13900KS was at 101°C. The 7800X3D is similar to the 7950X3D and has a TDP 120 watts. This is down from the 170-watt TDP on the original Zen 4 7950 chips. The Core i9-13900K has a base power of 125 watts, while the 13900KS has a 150 watt TDP. Both of Intel’s new chips can reach 250 watts at maximum turbo power. If a motherboard permits, they can go higher.
Intel test machine
- CPU cooler: Corsair H150 Elite LCD
- Motherboard: MSI Mag Z690 Carbon Wi Fi
- RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 6600
- GPU: Nvidia’s RTX 4090 Founders edition
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB SN850
- Case: Corsair Crystal 570X
- PSU: Corsair HX1000W
AMD’s latest X3D chips are extremely efficient thanks to their Zen 4 architecture and a combination 3D V-Cache technology. 3D V-Cache is a great choice for games as they don’t require a lot of CPU cores or power. They prefer CPUs that are able to process large amounts of data quickly. We don’t get the same performance gains for productivity apps that use large amounts of cache.
Like the 7950X3D and 7800X3D models, the 7800X3D requires a new motherboard AM5. These boards support DDR5 memory as well as up to 24 PCIe-5.0 lanes. While the first PCIe 5.0 consumer SSDs will soon be available, most people will continue to use PCIe 4.0 SSDs. PCIe5.0 support on AM5 boards can be great for futureproofing but it won’t be needed for GPUs anytime soon. Nvidia’s RTX 40-series cards do not support this standard. We haven’t reached the PCIe 4.0 limit for GPUs yet.
Existing AM4 coolers will also work with AM5 boards. Corsair’s H150 Elite LCD has worked flawlessly with my 7800X3D and 7950X3D. No modifications were required for the regular 7950. However, it is worth checking with the cooler manufacturer to ensure that your existing AM4 models are compatible with these new AM5 motherboards.
To ensure that boot times are acceptable, you’ll need to configure a new BIOS option. During my Ryzen9 7900X review I found some issues with DDR5 memory training. This led to an additional boot time around 30 seconds. To reduce boot times, AM5 motherboards come with a “memory contextual restore” BIOS option.
Initial issues with system stability were caused by this setting on MSI’s Meg X670EA Ace motherboard. MSI provided an updated BIOS after I reported the problems to AMD and MSI. This fixed the Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD, that I observed.
The AMD 7800X3D gaming CPU is truly remarkable. AMD has now closed the gap by releasing the 7950X3D. It’s also improving its efficiency. The 7800X3D would be my choice if I was building a gaming computer right now.
The 7950X3D is the better choice if you are using your computer for both productivity apps such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro or similar. Both top AMD options offer great PC gaming performance and are less expensive to run. This is important for those who want their PC gaming to have a less negative impact on the environment, or in markets where rising energy costs are still a problem.
The 5800X3D was a popular choice for PC gamers. I believe the 7800X3D will be a great option for those who want to play on the computer in 2023 and beyond.
