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. Right off the bat with our cost per frame graphs, we have to highlight the fact that we're not including the more affordable but just as effective non-X Ryzen processors. There are a few reasons for this: first, adding another three processors to the testing would have required time we simply didn't have to publish this on a timely basis, and on top of that, we would have had to add Intel's non-K CPUs as well to make it fair, and before you know it the total number of CPUs tested would have doubled.

Calling these test scores for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D uninspiring for the money wouldn’t be too far off of the mark. We don’t say such things lightly, but all of the processors we just named cost less—some, like the Ryzen 5 7600 and the Core i5-12600K, by hundreds of dollars. Regardless, the Core i5-12600K had as much as a 12% performance advantage in select tests, and the two chips effectively tied in the best test-case scenario for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. The cheaper Ryzen 7 7700X was also faster than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D by as much as 24%. Gaming TestsAnd we now know that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D will arrive on April 6. That’s after the arrival of the two Ryzen 9 chips, the 7950X3D, and the 7900X3D. Simply put, AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D fails to fill much of a niche. If you are after a fast processor in terms of pure CPU grunt, you’d be better off with almost any other chip shown in the charts above. Almost all of them are faster, and many of them are cheaper, too. Naturally, this means the Ryzen 7 7800X3D also doesn’t make sense as a budget option.

For this review we've had to update all of our already very fresh data. This is because Nvidia recently changed the way their GeForce drivers behave by disabling Resizable BAR in games such as Horizon Zero Dawn and we believe Spider Man-Remastered as well, resulting in performance gains in those games. There were also a few smaller performance changes so we simply decided to re-test everything, including AM4 and AM5 processors. 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.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

Like all AMD Zen 4 chips, though, this one will require you to upgrade to the AM5 platform, so you'll need a new motherboard if you don't already have a Zen 4 Ryzen 7000-series setup. You'll also need new DDR5 RAM, so this could be a more expensive upgrade than just the chip itself. That said, the same is pretty much true about Intel Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, so if you're upgrading from an 11000-series Intel chip or older, you're going to be paying a lot of money to make the upgrade either way. AMD reworked the CCX on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D somewhat to improve its energy efficiency compared with other Ryzen 7000-series processors that don’t have the 3D V-Cache. This was necessary to help accommodate the added heat and power demands of the 3D V-Cache, and it results in the Ryzen 7 7800X3D being one of the more energy-efficient options we’ve tested. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D has impressed us with its performance, but we're not blown away by the FPS figures. What has blown us away is the power efficiency, but how much gamers care about that is hard to say. Shopping Shortcuts: 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.

All That Cache Burning a Hole in Your Pocket

As with all Ryzen 7000 chips, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D's RDNA 2 integrated GPU has two compute units, 4 ACE, and 1 HWS. This unit doesn't have the necessary horsepower to benefit from faster CPU cores — it is entirely GPU compute-bound. The iGPU also doesn't benefit from the 3D V-Cache tech because it resides on the I/O die and can't access the L3 cache, so performance is the same as the regular Ryzen 7000 processors (see more in our X3D iGPU testing). Having extra cache certainly can improve performance, though. One of the most commonly known things about computers is that more RAM can help your PC work faster, and cache is in many ways no different from RAM. Though both are essential, and having more is often beneficial, having too much of either can be detrimental, or at least accrue no additional benefit. Higher-capacity RAM kits often run at slower speeds, and the overabundance of cache on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D forces it to run at slower speeds, too. Yet despite what we just saw, in Photoshop 2022 the 7800X3D performs quite well, matching the 7950X3D with a score of 1481 pts, though that meant it was still 5% slower than the 7700X.

Along with updating the RTX 4090 with the latest GeForce drivers, we've also updated all the motherboards BIOS revisions and we've moved the LGA1700 test system over to the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX using DDR5-7200 CL34 memory. As for the AM5 test system, that's still using the Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master with DDR5-6000 CL30 memory, as that's the fastest memory speed that will work with all Zen 4 processors. Operating Behavior The 7800X3D is impressive when it comes to power consumption. For example, the 13600K was 11% faster here, but for that extra performance we saw a whopping 52% increase in total system power consumption. These are the systems I used to test desktop CPU performance for both AMD and Intel chips in this review: 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.

Verdict: Simply Too Much Cash for This Much Cache

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. Then when running the single core test, we saw a sustained frequency of 5 GHz, so just a 200 MHz increase over the all core. The peak operating temperature also dropped to 66c. Benchmarks