AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU Review & Benchmarks: $700 Gaming Flagship

NKD said:
AT 4k its going to be more of GPU thing. So even if you get 5FPS its impressive for CPU alone lol.
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Yeah, at 4k in most titles, even with my 4090, I am not going to be CPU limited.

And I have a Zen2 based Threadripper...

I don't even need a 5xxx series Ryzen to make the most out of 4k
 
Mega6 said:
Using a small room - I just don't want the AC to have to run 24/7/365 either. GPUs are bad enough. Thank god TF2 barely understands what a GPU is. It's all CPU.
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In the winter its kind of nice. The PC is quiet due to low ambients, and it helps keep the room warm for those late night cold new england winter gaming sessions :p In the summer - however - its quite brutal.

Last summer was an "above my ideal temperature" experience, and that was with my RX 6900xt. (Granted it was the XFX EKWB version and I was running it at ~430W)

I can only imagine that the 4090 will be similar.

That said, I own a house without central air, and my office is in the finished basement, without any way to install a window AC unit.

I've been saving up to install a multi-zone ductless mini-split system though. Hopefully I'll be able to make that happen in the spring.
 
..And you should get better
Zarathustra[H] said:
In the winter its kind of nice. The PC is quiet due to low ambients, and it helps keep the room warm for those late night cold new england winter gaming sessions :p In the summer - however - its quite brutal.

Last summer was an "above my ideal temperature" experience, and that was with my RX 6900xt. (Granted it was the XFX EKWB version and I was running it at ~430W)

I can only imagine that the 4090 will be similar.

That said, I own a house without central air, and my office is in the finished basement, without any way to install a window AC unit.

I've been saving up to install a multi-zone ductless mini-split system though. Hopefully I'll be able to make that happen in the spring.
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Being down south, I can always layer up when cold. When it gets hot - you can only strip down so far. :LOL:

But yeah I get it - the heat in the winter is comforting, barely need to turn on the heat.

EDIT - Energy costs nowadays are insane, you have to do what you can.
 
One issue for the poor tester is which ram kit do you use, Anantech for example:
  • DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 13th Gen
  • DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
  • DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

TPU use 6000mhz for both intel-amd, I imagine hardware unboxed will do a break down, on the highest end I could imagine people curious how does it do with the high end memory options, just saw that they did, I think that the way to go.

Early look at the reviews, seem one windows fix about which cores to use in games away to be an homerun.
 
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LukeTbk said:
One issue for the poor tester is which ram kit do you use, Anantech for example:
  • DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 13th Gen
  • DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
  • DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

TPU use 6000mhz for both intel-amd, I imagine hardware unboxed will do a break down, on the highest end I could imagine people curious how does it do with the high end memory options
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Yeah I don't read Anandtech anymore since Anand left. They just dont live up to the standards like they used too.

Stick with Techpowerup, The Fps Review, Gamers Nexus, Hardware Unboxed. All are top notch review sites.
 
LukeTbk said:
One issue for the poor tester is which ram kit do you use, Anantech for example:
  • DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 13th Gen
  • DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
  • DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

TPU use 6000mhz for both intel-amd, I imagine hardware unboxed will do a break down, on the highest end I could imagine people curious how does it do with the high end memory options
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Odd choice of ram for the Ryzen seeing as how widespread the c36/6000 stuff is now, what with MC giving the stuff away and all.
 
For those who switch from 7950X to 7950X3D, what do you think the used 7950X's will be listed for?

LukeTbk said:
One issue for the poor tester is which ram kit do you use, Anantech for example:
  • DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 13th Gen
  • DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
  • DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

TPU use 6000mhz for both intel-amd, I imagine hardware unboxed will do a break down, on the highest end I could imagine people curious how does it do with the high end memory options, just saw that they did, I think that the way to go.

Early look at the reviews, seem one windows fix about which cores to use in games away to be an homerun.
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It has been repeatedly and conclusively demonstrated that Ryzen's "sweet spot" for RAM as originally called during the AM4 launch is DDR5-6,000. Anything slower than that is leaving a significant amount of performance untapped since the infinity fabric is almost certainly not running at 2,000 whereas anything faster than 6,000 likely means having to stop using a 1:1 ratio and thus forfeiting more performance that outweighs the gains from running at 6,200 or 6,400.

Even with the 13th gen Intel chips, those work best with as fast and low latency RAM as the CPU's memory controller can handle. Again, anything slower or with unoptimized sub-sub-timings is leaving potential performance untapped.
 
Its too bad the low power usage from AMD, doesn't also translate to easier cooling. Hopefully they can fix that with the next CPUs.
 
NightReaver said:
Odd choice of ram for the Ryzen seeing as how widespread the c36/6000 stuff is now, what with MC giving the stuff away and all.
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Anandtech uses the stock configuration non-overclocked memory speeds which is where they get the speeds and cl ratings from. (jedec)

The intel chips really shine with fast memory but you have to spend out the ass for a 2 dimm board to really be able to use them.
 
D-EJ915 said:
Anandtech uses the stock configuration non-overclocked memory speeds which is where they get the speeds and cl ratings from. (jedec)

The intel chips really shine with fast memory but you have to spend out the ass for a 2 dimm board to really be able to use them.
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From what I have seen, going past 6400 is heavily diminishing returns.
 
Ranulfo said:
I've cared ever since people started making a big deal about it say back in the Sandy/Ivy Bridge era vs Bulldozer/FX chips. 84w vs 125w was a big thing. Let alone the dramas over GPU power usage. These days with electricity prices being that much worse it probably matters more than it ever did back then.
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It seems like a small thing but I unfortunately bought one of those bulldozer chips. People don't realize that 50w is enough to change your cooler and if you were going SFF that too. So new case / cooler just for a 50 - 100w difference plus electric. In this instance it's 200w for Raptor Lake.

From the bulldozer /SB 2500 days for reference:
power.jpg
 
Furious_Styles said:
Gonna be lower clock speeds though, how much is TBD I guess.
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To be expected since the 7800X3D is one CCD with 3D cache.
Lakados said:
Yeah I want to see a test where they have the game going but on a second screen I want to see Discord running and Chrome with at least a half dozen tabs open.

Pure benchmarks are great but I need some real use case scenarios.
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I must be old school in that I close everything else when I game.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
The power usage on this thing is pretty impressive.
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It is but at the same time if you parked half your cores, you kinda expect half the power usage. i be more impress if i kept all my cores running with that power usage, but that is what the 7950X non 3D is for.
 
Armenius said:
I must be old school in that I close everything else when I game.
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You and me both. I know that is not how many kids play games these days. They have discord and and OBS and other shit going in the background while they play.

Back in the single core days - however - you needed every ounce of performance out of that one core, so you closed down everything that was running in the background. Old habits die hard.

An interesting discovery I have made lately is that running multiple things while gaming breaks VRR for me now. I used to run with Rivatuner Stats engine running on one of my side screens, and the Aquacomputer Aquasuite running on the other to keep track of things, but ever since I installed my 4090, I have found this breaks the proper functioning of VRR in my setup.

That said, I ma running a non-certified FreeSync2 screen in G-Sync compatible mode, and maybe this is why. Back on my Pascal Titan X - however - this same screen worked just fine with the same stuff open on the side screens.
 
Chimpee said:
It is but at the same time if you parked half your cores, you kinda expect half the power usage. i be more impress if i kept all my cores running with that power usage, but that is what the 7950X non 3D is for.
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The important bit is it's competing with the 13900k gaming performance while burning a lot less juice. That's the key takeaway. This really isn't supposed to be an all core task crushing machine because, well, the 7950x already exists.
 
Will be interesting with how much cheaper ram does it keep up with the 13900k, 13900k sell around $580 (560 with a 20$ promo on newegg) right now.

At the much higher price tag at first does not seem that interesting over a 13900k, but if cooling it and the ram is much cheaper maybe it end up has a package more interesting, even before talking about the platform expected higher lifetime.
 
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NightReaver said:
The important bit is it's competing with the 13900k gaming performance while burning a lot less juice. That's the key takeaway. This really isn't supposed to be an all core task crushing machine because, well, the 7950x already exists.
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True, power consumption vs 13900k in gaming, the 790X3D comes out way ahead of the competition. I just think if Intel decides to parks its e-cores, lower the frequency a bit and capping it temperature in gaming benchmark, I imagine I see something similar in power reduction. That being said, I do hope to see a variant of the 3D cache in mobile computing where I see a much bigger benefit than its desktop counterpart.
 
D-EJ915 said:
lowering timings only goes so far it seems so cranking frequency makes up the difference to get low latency
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HU reviewed the 13900KS with 6200 and 7200.

Chimpee said:
It is but at the same time if you parked half your cores, you kinda expect half the power usage. i be more impress if i kept all my cores running with that power usage, but that is what the 7950X non 3D is for.
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Not really. Normally, a game wouldn't load up all the cores, anyway. The cores being parked, isn't why is more power efficient in gaming (The cores are parked, so that the cores are flagged as off limits by the thread scheduler).
The lower power consumption is because of the lower TDP. Much of which is due to the lower voltage required by the cache. They may also have binned the chips a little better, to keep the clockspeed as high as possible on the CCX with cache. It would seem that way, since the 7800X3D has significantly lower clocks.

Zarathustra[H] said:
You and me both. I know that is not how many kids play games these days. They have discord and and OBS and other shit going in the background while they play.

Back in the single core days - however - you needed every ounce of performance out of that one core, so you closed down everything that was running in the background. Old habits die hard.

An interesting discovery I have made lately is that running multiple things while gaming breaks VRR for me now. I used to run with Rivatuner Stats engine running on one of my side screens, and the Aquacomputer Aquasuite running on the other to keep track of things, but ever since I installed my 4090, I have found this breaks the proper functioning of VRR in my setup.

That said, I ma running a non-certified FreeSync2 screen in G-Sync compatible mode, and maybe this is why. Back on my Pascal Titan X - however - this same screen worked just fine with the same stuff open on the side screens.
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Do you have G-sync set to work with windowed applications?
 
Chimpee said:
True, power consumption vs 13900k in gaming, the 790X3D comes out way ahead of the competition. I just think if Intel decides to parks its e-cores, lower the frequency a bit and capping it temperature in gaming benchmark, I imagine I see something similar in power reduction. That being said, I do hope to see a variant of the 3D cache in mobile computing where I see a much bigger benefit than its desktop counterpart.
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Raptor Lake responds really well to undervolting ;)

You can also turn off the E-cores ;) ;)
 
StryderxX said:
What I'm noticing with these benchmark reviews is how good the 5800X3D still is. Pure gamers shouldn't even consider the 7950X3D. Stay with the 5800X3D or wait for the 7800X3D.
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but what about people that don't have the 5800X3D?...I have the 5800X...I'm guessing the better upgrade would be to the 5800X3D over the newer 3D cache CPU's

the new 3D cache CPU's seem extremely convoluted as far as usage and making sure you have your games setup properly to take advantage of the new features
 
polonyc2 said:
but what about people that don't have the 5800X3D?...I have the 5800X...I'm guessing the better upgrade would be to the 5800X3D over the newer 3D cache CPU's

the new 3D cache CPU's seem extremely convoluted as far as usage and making sure you have your games setup properly to take advantage of the new features
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Averaged out, the 5800X3D gets you 12900k/13600k/7600 non-x performance (in gaming), without needing a new motheboard or RAM. However, specific games could be a lot better or a bit worse. And all other apps will be worse.
 
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Did the 7800X3D also drop?

I wonder how much you give up by going with that SKU. I recall the 7700X doing wuite well in many gaming benchmarks.

For gaming I bet you won't really notice that there are only half the cores, but with one CCD less, there will be a little less cache too. That and the base clock is the same, but the max boost clock is "only" 5.0 compared to 5.7. I wonder how noticeable this will be. I have no idea how much time these CPU's are actually able to spend at max boost.
 
I think I will wait for the 7800X3D and then make my decision on that vs. the 13900k. By then, the 13900k may drop in price a bit more. It's already down to $529. Then it will be a price/speed/power consumption decision. If the 7800X3D "simulated" benchmarks hold true, I think that'll be my choice.
 
so AMD is no longer trying to undercut Intel on pricing and is now going crazy with their high end CPU pricing
 
polonyc2 said:
so AMD is no longer trying to undercut Intel on pricing and is now going crazy with their high end CPU pricing
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Yeah, $700 is pretty nuts. $530 for a 13900K. Although it is $700 for a 13900KS...

I've been nabbing 7900X CPUs left and right due to the crazy deals. $300 used, $420 with 32GB DDR5-6000 CL36, and $600 with that mem plus a B650E-F board. Happy with that decision now that reviews are out - and I can upgrade to 7800X3D when ready.
 
chameleoneel said:
Raptor Lake responds really well to undervolting ;)

You can also turn off the E-cores ;) ;)
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Sir, I need to inform you that this type of reasoning is not allowed around these parts. Got to make sure Intel is always seen in a less than ideal light vs the champion of the little guy. :cautious:

In all seriously, I want to see how both fair when manually tuned. I have a creeping suspicion that it'll be just like the 5800X3D all over again where the cache helps in some titles and does bupkis in others. Which is all seriousness is a wash in gaming.
 
polonyc2 said:
so AMD is no longer trying to undercut Intel on pricing and is now going crazy with their high end CPU pricing
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Some of us were out here reminding people AMD was just like any other corporation, so why this would be surprising to anyone is a mystery.
sk3tch said:
Yeah, $700 is pretty nuts. $530 for a 13900K. Although it is $700 for a 13900KS...

I've been nabbing 7900X CPUs left and right due to the crazy deals. $300 used, $420 with 32GB DDR5-6000 CL36, and $600 with that mem plus a B650E-F board. Happy with that decision now that reviews are out - and I can upgrade to 7800X3D when ready.
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$300 used is a banger of a deal and $420 is 32GB of DDR5 is fantastic; but those boards are still insanely priced in my humble opinion.
 
ZeroBarrier said:
Some of us were out here reminding people AMD was just like any other corporation, so why this would be surprising to anyone is a mystery.

$300 used is a banger of a deal and $420 is 32GB of DDR5 is fantastic; but those boards are still insanely priced in my humble opinion.
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Maybe but it’s the same as Intels pricing. Though $600 for a 7900X, mem, and board is unbeatable
 
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