AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Desk-top Processor (8-core/16-thread, 104MB cache, up to 5.0 GHz max boost)

Product Information

In this review we're testing AMD's new Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which is the company's latest gaming monster based on the 3D Vertical Cache technology. It features an 8-core Zen 4 CCD with high frequencies, and should be able to provide a generational gaming performance uplift, letting AMD surpass even the fastest of Intel's 13th Gen Core Raptor Lake processors at gaming. For the bulk of gamers and e-sports athletes that aren't big on "gaming++" workloads such as streaming, heavy video processing, and live social media; and just need a processor for maxed out AAA gaming at the highest resolutions, with the fastest graphics cards available, the 7800X3D is supposed to be their knight in shining armor. When running the all-core workload in Cinebench R23, the 7800X3D is 8% slower than the 7700X and a massive 21% slower than the 13600K and 37% slower than the 13700K. So in terms of value, this will be a poor offering for productivity and at this price point you'd certainly be better off with the Core i7-13700K. Finally, I took all of the datapoints I'd gathered and compared the average scores of each processor tested for this review against its retail price, current as of this review, to measure how good of a value this processor is or isn't. Of course, what matters most is performance across the board, and we’re as keen as you to get some verified benchmarks to consider. As soon as we do, we’ll give you our expert view on this next step in AMD’s Zen 4 journey.

The one area where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has a hint of success is in the gaming market, but it's walking a thin line there. AMD provided us with data that clearly shows the Ryzen 7 7800X3D can perform better than the Intel Core i9-13900K or the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X when all three are paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090.The Riftbreaker is another game where Zen 4 processors aren't particularly impressive. The 7800X3D manages 225 fps on average, making the 13700K 2% faster which means performance between these two parts is basically identical, but the 13900K is 8% faster.

Both are extremely power hungry for all core productivity workloads though, and need to be power limited, and at that point you are better served by the 7950X or 7950X3D which typically deliver a similar level of performance to that of an unlimited i7 or i9 while reducing total system usage by half, which is a staggering difference.Here's another look at total system power consumption, in Spider-Man the 7800X3D saw total system load hit 339 watts which is a 28% reduction when compared to the 13900K, which is great given the AMD processor was 9% faster. In this game, Intel's Core i9-13900K pushes total system usage just 16% higher than the 7800X3D and while that's a 73w increase in power draw, it's by no means the worst result we've seen.

Once again, if you're interested in productivity performance then the 7800X3D isn't going to be for you, unless your workload benefits from having the 3D V-Cache which isn't the case for Blender. System Power ConsumptionYou can also make your own pricing adjustments, the Ryzen 7700, for example, is 5% slower than the 7700X, so reduce the performance shown here from 199 fps to about 190 fps and then recalculate with your updated pricing. The rest of the test results were mixed, with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D unable to secure any more clear wins. Performance in the rest of these tests were all close together, which does show that, with a card like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, at least with this game subset, you won’t see much in the way of a performance benefit from the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. You will likely need, as AMD advised us, a top-tier card like an RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 to see the 7800X3D pull away. But when you consider that 0.44%—that's less than half of one percent!—of PC gamers are using a GeForce RTX 4080 or 4090 per March 2023's Steam Hardware Survey these days, that's a niche within a niche's niche. Integrated Gaming Tests The 7800X3D's worst performance against the 13900K was Returnal, where it averaged about 12.5% fewer fps, while still managing an impressive score of 224 fps. Meanwhile, the 7800X3D battled the 13900K to a technical decision in Total War: Warhammer III (552 fps for the 7800X3D to the 13900K's 594 fps), while handily beating the more powerful processor in F1 2022 and Tiny Tina's Wonderland. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the 7800X3D, which only has eight V-Cache-accessing cores. This translates into a lower 4.20GHz base frequency, compared to the 4.5GHz of both the 7950X3D and 7700X, and a boost frequncy of just 5.0GHz, compared to 5.7GHz and 5.4GHz for the 7950X3D and 7700X, respectively. This is also slower than the top speed of the Core i7-13700K, which boosts up to 5.40GHz from 3.40GHz base frequency. No real surprise here. For gaming only the 7800x3d is the best choice. That's why I was a little surprised the came out with a 7900 and 7950 variant.