The launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D is imminent. Chips are out in the wild, and early reviews and benchmarks are popping up online. Given that AMD has proclaimed the 5800X3D’s gaming capabilities, we’ve been waiting to see if that claim holds true. And it seems it does.
The Peruvian hardware site Xanxo Gaming (via 3DCenter) managed to grab a retailer of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and put it through a comprehensive suite of benchmarks, comparing it to the Intel Core i9 12900KF. As the site was not sampled by AMD, it is not subject to an embargo.
The reviewer compared 11 games running at 720p and 1080p. In games that are less sensitive to the amount of cache, the CPUs are mostly neck and neck. However, there are several games that show significant increases. In games like The Witcher 3 and Final Fantasy XV, the AMD Ryzen 5800X3D had a lead of 22% and 29% respectively. There are many cases of 1% lows that also greatly favor the 5800X3D.
The 720p results are not as relevant to real-world utility cases, and they show even greater gains. But again, the differences between the two systems are insignificant in many cases.
While this is only one set of results, early indicators suggest that AMD’s claim that the 5800X3D is a game-oriented processor seems to be true. Productivity benchmarks show little or no gain, and some will actually go back due to the slightly lowered clock speeds. But it’s fine, AMD has not made any claims to the contrary.
It is worth noting that the two test systems use DDR4-3200 memory. 12900KF supports DDR5, which means it will achieve some performance when paired with high-speed memory. But quality DDR5 costs money and that is another advantage of 5800X3D. You can update your BIOS and drop it into an older AM4 system without spending big bucks on a new motherboard and memory.
However, the whole thing is not rosy for the 5800X3D. It does not support overclocking and it will have a price premium compared to the already very good 5800X. So unless you’re a hardcore gamer with a top-end GPU chasing every frame you can get, or have an older generation processor, the early indicators are that you should not feel an urgent need to upgrade from a 5000- series processor. This also applies to players using Intel systems.
What this early taste does is make us excited about what AMD can do with 3D V-Cache in the future. Boost in gaming performance, higher clocks and higher IPC for Zen 4 processors could bode very well for AMD. Intel and AMD are ready to fight for it later this year and we can not wait.
PC Gamers Ryzen 7 5800X3D notification is displayed after the embargo is removed. Keep an eye on our comprehensive analysis!