AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Review: One of the best gaming processors money can buy

The 3D V-cache as it is called is AMD's namesake technology for the processor, that allows the company to stack extra cache chiplets vertically on the processor.

Traditional "2D" caches are limited by the space of the processor die but 3D printing technology allows AMD to stack two slices of 48MB L3 cache, bringing the total to a generous 96MB of total cache, much higher than what traditional CPUs offer.

The extra memory offers greatly improved bandwidth for games, and AMD says that it overall 15 percent faster than the Ryzen 9 5900 series. AMD also pulled this off without making any architectural changes, and using the same 7nm process and Zen 3 design, to reap more performance.

Okay. So how is the performance? 

Utilizing the same base frequency as the Ryzen 9 5950 (3.4 GHz) and the same TDP of 105W, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and its eight cores, powers its way through games without any problems.

The only drawback to this is the limited overclocking support - there is none. You can overclock the memory but not the cores. This shouldn't disappoint too many people but tinkers who like to squeeze every bit of performance out of a processor, will be disappointed.

Nevertheless, this is still an impressive mantle piece for AMD, and one that puts the crown back on the red team's head.

Testing Rig

CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor @ 3.4 GHz

Motherboard - Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero X570

Cooler - Asus TUF Gaming LC 240 RGB

Hard Drive - Western Digital WD Black SN 770 1TB NVMe SSD

GPU - AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

Memory - Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz 

Power - XPG CORE Reactor 850G power supply (850 Watts) 

In the 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics test, our 5800X3D system managed an impressive score 20798, and in Fire Strike the processor scored 29970. For the DX 12 based Time Spy, the 5800X3D managed 12598.

In the CineBench R20 single threaded performance test, the 5800X3D scored a decent 592. In the multi-threaded test, the processor fared a little better scoring 5874.

The processor performed much better in PCMark10 scoring 10132. We then ran it through through 7-zip's compression test, that checks how fast a CPU processes compression and decompression algorithms. The 5800X3D scores a respectable 93580.

Overall, in terms of productivity benchmarks, the 5800 X3D presents a mixed bag, offering no real advantage over the Ryzen 7 5800X or the Ryzen 9 5900X in synthetic benchmarks.

Now, on to the gaming benchmarks. We started with Battlefield 5 testing it at 1080p, 1440p and 2160p with settings at Ultra. We saw an impressive average of 187 fps at 1080p. This dropped to 155fps when we bumped the resolution up to 1440p, and 83fps when we took it all the way to 2160p.

In Assassins Creed Valhalla we saw an average of 93fps on 1080p ultra settings, and 80fps at 1440p. At 2160p, the combined duo of 5800X3D and 6700XT managed an average of 45fps.

Call of Duty Warzone ran at an average of 166fps at 1080p and highest settings. It managed 133fps average at 1440p, and 73fps at 2160p.

Cyberpunk 2077 proved to be a little tougher to chew on with 80fps average at 1080p ultra settings with Fidelity CAS turned on. This fell to 63fps at 1440p, and 39fps at 2160p.

In Grand Theft Auto V, we saw an average of 103fps at 1080p ultra settings, 94fps average at 1440p, and 82fps at 2160p. Another Rockstar game, Red Dead Redemption 2 recorded 79fps at 1080p ultra settings, 56fps at 1440p and 40fps at 2160p.

Overall, even with a Radeon 6700 XT, the 5800X3D manages to put up some impressive gaming numbers but not all games seem to like the extra cache.

Awesome. So should I buy it? 

Here is where it gets a little tricky. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has been priced at Rs 41,599 in India. You will also see it online routinely priced above Rs 50,000 or more.

There is a problem with this, it's called the Ryzen 9 5900X, that you can buy for Rs 35,499. Similarly, you will routinely find AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X retail between Rs 33,000 and Rs 34,000.

Not only does the Ryzen 9 5900X have four more cores, it also has a higher base frequency at 3.7 GHz. It also doesn't offer that much of a performance boost in productivity. The sole reason you will buy this is for the gaming performance, which is admittedly excellent. Is it worth splurging an extra Rs 10,000 for a few more frames? That is for you to decide.