AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Review: AMD’s Answer to Gaming

With the debut of its big brother, the 7950X3D about a month ago, the 7800X3D is finally born. Perhaps the most anticipated CPU from AMD, mainly because its predecessor the 5800X3D was such a hit, the 7800X3D is expected to be just as effective in disrupting the gaming CPU market. Unlike the 7950X3D we reviewed here, the 7800X3D features a single CCX. That comes with some benefits, but also one downside. For starters, the single CCX is a better design for this type of architecture, as AMD went to great lengths to get the games to use the single CCX with the 3D V-Cache instead of the other CCX, so they parked it, but that requires drivers and the game to be recognized as a game by Windows XBOX Game Bar. Having a single CCX with 3D V-Cache is a lot simpler. However, the 3D V-Cache is very sensitive and AMD restricts power and thermals on the CCX that has it, so on the 7950X3D it was the non-3D V-Cache die that had the fastest cores. That means that the max boost clock on the 7800X3D will be 5GHz. However, there are boosting algorithms that can let it go over that if thermals and luck of the draw are both on your side.

Test Setup:

All tests on all CPUs ran with XMP enabled 6000MHz and virtualized based security (VBS) disabled through the UEFI. Windows 11 22H2.

CPU: 7950X3D, 7950X, 7900X, 13900K, 13600K, 7800X3D, 7700X

Memory: 32 GB (16GBx2) G.Skill Trident Z5 6000MHz

GPU: AMD Radeon 7900XT

Motherboard: MSI MEG X670E ACE and GIGABYTE Z790 AERO

Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB

CPU Performance Benchmarks:

Here we see the performance hit that we expected because of the lower frequency of the CCX with 3D V-Cache, but that isn’t to say the performance hit is that much or would be noticable.

Performance is about the same as the 7700X, which is pretty much what the 7800X3D is based on.

CPU frequency does make a difference, especially within the same architecture family.

AMD doing well here as well, Intel can’t seem to keep up.

7700X has the crown, for now…

Pretty much the same.

Latency is a bit higher, we believe the 3D V-Cache adds 4 cycles of latency.

As expected the difference in single core boost does have an impact.

The same behaviour we see here we also saw with the 7950X and 7950X3D.

Synthetic 3D Benchmarks:

Synthetic benchmarks don’t really show the whole picture with the 3D V-Cache CPUs.

The 7700X and 7800X3D are very close.

Once again, the 7700X and 7800X3D are very close.

CPU Gaming Benchmarks:

Boom! Like a precision weapon, the 7800X3D starts showing off, even sending the 7950X3D running a bit.

Again! The CPU really takes it to the next level.

Intel is very strong in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, but not today. The 7800X3D is having none of it.

Excellent performance, but as you can see, when you increase the resolution the performance gap starts to level off.

GTA:V is kind of on its last legs when it comes to this, Intel is doing slightly better, but they are all being GPU bottlenecked.

Conclusion:

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is currently the best gaming CPU on the market. Everything we saw in the first 75% of the review showed it barely keeping up with the 7700X. However, as soon as we hit actual games, the CPU went from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan that won everything. It is almost like a weapon designed to excel at one thing; gaming. Since gaming is one of the only growing segments in PC world, we are not surprised to see so much effort being put forth towards engineering this masterpiece. We should also mention that the CPU is very power efficient. While it has a higher rated TDP than the 7700X (120W vs 105W), it actually pulls 20-50W less power depending on your application. That’s mostly because of power limitations set forth on the 7800X3D, which also means AMD has locked overclocking on it. However, Curve Optimizer and Precision Boost Overdrive are present, and if you can keep the CPU nice and cool and your silicon likes lower voltages, then you could see slight performance bumps. The price of the 7800X3D is also admirable, at just $50 more than the 7700X, the CPU is a steal if all you do is game. If you are a power user and only game occasionally, then the 7800X3D isn’t for you. If you are a power user who mostly games, then the 7800X3D is the CPU you want. That is a pretty bold statement, but why we are awarding the 7800X3D the Editor’s Choice.