7MMO
Moderator
Ryzen 7 7800X3D | 8-core: was $449 now $299
This chip has maintained its spot as one of the best CPUs for gaming for quite some time now. That's thanks primarily to its heaps of L3 cache, which is stacked on top of the chip. Games love to chomp through cache, making this processor ideal for gaming. DEAL GOES LIVE AT 9AM PT NOVEMBER 9
Key specs: 8 cores | 16 threads | 5 GHz max boost | 96 MB L3 cache | 120 W TDP
Price check: Amazon $348 | Best Buy $360View Deal
One good thing about November is we start to see some early bird deals in the lead-up to Black Friday. In particular, I've been keeping my eye on Newegg's Doorbuster deals, daily unlocks on discounts with countdowns. This one in particular caught my eye, and it's live today, November 9 at 9am PT: an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D for just $300.
This is cheaper than I've ever seen it going for, and it's still a fantastic chip if you have the socket AM5 motherboard for it. Those are still pretty cheap too. For instance, you can currently pick up a B650M for just $110 at Newegg, which comes with plenty of M.2 sockets and supports fast DDR5 memory (if you can get your hands on that, these days).
The 7800X3D is a pretty powerful CPU in general, with a max boost clock of 5 GHz and eight cores, but the main allure for gaming is the 96 MB of L3 cache. That's a lot of cache, and AMD manages to cram it all in by stacking it on top of the chip.
Cache is essentially the CPU's easily accessible short-term memory, which can be accessed much quicker than RAM. The more L3 (outer-layer) cache there is, the more relevant CPU instructions and so on that can be stored for easy, repeated use, which ultimately makes for smoother frame rates.
That's all great on paper, but the selling point is that it actually works. X3D chips such as this one perform better in many games than similar non-X3D ones with less cache.
Comparing the 7800X3D to other CPUs for gaming
This chart compares average and 1% low frame rates for different games at 1080p resolution.
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra + DLSS Balanced)Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra)Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Ed. (1080p High)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p High)
Avg FPS
1% Low FPS
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
120
88
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
112
76
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
107
79
Intel Core i5 14600K
116
87
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
103
76
037.575112.5150
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D | 120 Avg FPS, 88 1% Low FPS |
| AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 112 Avg FPS, 76 1% Low FPS |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 107 Avg FPS, 79 1% Low FPS |
| Intel Core i5 14600K | 116 Avg FPS, 87 1% Low FPS |
| Intel Core Ultra 9 285K | 103 Avg FPS, 76 1% Low FPS |
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra + DLSS Balanced) Data
The 7800X3D and 9800X3D perform noticeably better than non-X3D chips in some CPU-intensive games.
As you can see from the chart above, having 3D V-Cache doesn't improve your frame rate significantly in all games. However, it does improve it in some, more CPU-intensive ones.
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a better chip—the best on the market, in fact—but the 7800X3D is still ahead of other non-X3D chips. I have the latter in my daily driver and it hasn't disappointed me at all.
One thing to note is that I've noticed it can get a little toasty, probably thanks to the cache sitting on top of the chip meaning the cooling solution has to pull heat through that cache rather than directly from the top of the processor. So, you should make sure you have a good cooler for it, and also expect the fans to spin up a storm sometimes. It's all worth it for those frames, though, and at this price it's definitely a steal.
Check out all Newegg's Doorbuster deals
Continue reading...
