AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D assessment: cache cash

The $449/£429 Ryzen 7 5800X3D is one thing just a little other from AMD, a processor that exists to exhibit the ability of the company’s three-D V-Cache design for its upcoming Ryzen CPUs and battle off Intel’s 12900KS for the identify of ‘quickest gaming processor’. It’s additionally one thing of a final hurrah for the unusually long-lived AM4 platform, which debuted again in 2017 and outlasted part a dozen Intel generations as Ryzen CPUs advanced in leaps and boundaries.

So what precisely is a three-D V-Cache anyway? Let’s get started with the fundamentals. You can bring to mind a processor’s cache as a spot to retailer information it is recently operating on – just a little like RAM, however as a result of it is within the CPU it’s an order of magnitude sooner to get right of entry to and an order of magnitude smaller when it comes to the volume of information it might retailer. Modern processors in most cases use 3 ranges of cache – L1, L2, L3 – with L1 cache being the quickest to get right of entry to however the smallest, L2 being slower however higher, and L3 being slower and bigger once more. It’s this 3rd degree of cache that AMD has modified, transferring from a standard 2D design to a three-D design, a stack of cache that takes up extra vertical house. This lets in for far more information to be saved within the CPU immediately, thus expanding the possibilities that the information wanted is already within and rushing up any next processing.

AMD is slated to make use of this era for its long term Zen 4 processors, however within the right here and now it is simply this one particular 5800X3D, an upgraded model of the Ryzen 7 5800X that introduced again in 2020. Compared to the 5800X, the 5800X3D trades just a little of frequency and a few overclocking controls for a considerably higher 96MB L3 cache – triple the dimensions of the 5800X’s.

Before we get into the primary check effects, let’s in short quilt the rig we are the usage of. For the AMD facet, we are the usage of an Asus ROG Crosshair 8 Hero, whilst Eleventh-gen Intel will get an Asus ROG Maximus Z590 Hero and Twelfth-gen will get the Asus ROG Z690 Maximus Hero – all high-end forums for his or her respective platforms. DDR4 motherboards used G.Skill 3600MT/s CL16 reminiscence, whilst Twelfth-gen Intel were given the advantage of sooner however higher-latency Corsair 5200MT/s CL38 RAM.

The AMD and Eleventh-gen Intel CPUs have been cooled with an Eisbaer Aurora 240mm AiO, whilst the Twelfth-gen checking out used to be carried out with an Asus ROG Ryujin 2 360mm AiO. (And to respond to the most obvious query: 240mm and 360mm AiOs generally tend to supply similar efficiency according to our checking out – particularly for an outside check bench in cool (21C) ambient prerequisites. The handiest distinction has a tendency to be fan pace, which is larger at the 240mm than the 360mm.) Our rig used to be finished with a 1000W Corsair RM1000x energy provide from Infinite Computing.

In order to scale back run-to-run variance and make sure we are CPU-limited up to conceivable, we are the usage of the Asus ROG Strix 3090 OC Edition. This is a large three-slot, triple-fan design that assists in keeping the cardboard unusually cool and quiet.

One of the largest questions over the 5800X3D is precisely the place that upgraded cache will turn out to be useful – as a result of if a sport or different utility does not are compatible a selected efficiency profile, it will see no efficiency merit in any respect working at the 5800X3D – and certainly, it will even run worse because of the clock pace that AMD has sacrificed to make the design paintings.

To to find out, we have now examined the 5800X3D in a spread of content material introduction and gaming eventualities – towards the unique 5800X and quite a lot of different contemporary AMD and Intel processors. We’re hoping to peer some large efficiency will increase, particularly in video video games, however we will get started with a few fast content material introduction benchmarks: a Cinebench R20 three-D render and a Handbrake video transcode.

Neither content material introduction result’s specifically spectacular for the 5800X3D, which outperforms the 5600X and Intel 12400F however falls in the back of its erstwhile competition just like the 12900K, 12700K and 5800X (the latter by way of between two to 6 p.c). This is not a large wonder – neither activity would logically get pleasure from having higher cache, so that you handiest see the impact of the brand new CPU’s diminished core clocks in comparison to the usual 5800X. However, the consequences are not disastrous both; that is nonetheless a superbly succesful CPU for those duties that handily outperforms prior generations, simply now not a class-leading one.

With the ones out of the best way, let’s transfer onto the joys stuff: testing how the 5800X3D plays in a spread of video games. Click the fast hyperlinks beneath to transport onto the titles you might be maximum fascinated with, or hit the ‘subsequent web page’ button to take all of it in!

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D research