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AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Vs Intel Core i9-12900K: Which Should You Buy?

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Today AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) has launched its new Ryzen 7 5800X3D - it's latest mainstream desktop CPU, set to retail for $449, that promises a significant leap in gaming performance compared to the existing Ryzen 7 5800X. In this review of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, we'll be looking at performance numbers for the new CPU in games and content creation to see how it stacks up against Intel's Core i9-12900K and the Ryzen 7 5800X.

Who's it for?

This is first and foremost a CPU for gamers. It's most definitely not for anyone that wants to overclock their CPU either as the CPU doesn't support it. The 3D V-Cache allows for lower latencies and a real lift to performance in situations where the CPU can boost frame rates. This won't be everywhere as it depends on the game itself, the resolution and graphics settings, but even at 1080p with a fairly modest graphics card such as the RTX 3070, you'll see differences between CPUs.

It's key feature is 3D V-Cache - a stacked portion of cache that boosts the amount of cache considerably compared to its sister CPU, the Ryzen 7 5800X. Apart from this, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is largely the same as the standard CPU, except to deal with the large amount of extra cache, AMD has had to reign in the frequencies.

That might sound like a bad idea, but it's banking on the 3D V-Cache more than making up for this in many (but not all) situations. As a result, though, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is actually a touch slower than the Ryzen 7 5800X in terms of frequencies. The latter can hit 4.7GHz peak boost frequency, while the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is 200MHz slower at 4.5GHz.

What motherboards is it compatible with?

You'll need a 400 or 500-series chipset motherboard to take advantage of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D form the outset, but AMD has stated that 300-series chipsets will be receiving BIOS updates to allow them to support the Ryzen 5000-series too. Check with your motherboard web page to confirm compatibility.

What is 3D V-cache?

AMD has utilized what it calls Hybrid Bond 3D interconnects - a two-step bonding between dielectric layers to create stacked layers of components - in this instance, the extra cache directly on top of a Ryzen core complex. This provides three times three time the energy efficiency of standard methods.

The actual interconnects between layers can be over 15 times that of traditional micro bump 3D interconnects and offers even greater density compared to a standard 2D chiplet used to create previous Ryzen CPUs.

It's not just extra cache that can be stacked, but other components too. It should also be noted that Intel has a similar technology, called Foveros.

What are the competing CPUs?

At $449, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is cheaper than Intel's Core i9-12900K, but pricier than the Core i7-12700K. Seeing as AMD has made quite a song and dance about the comparison with the Core i9, that's the CPU I'll be focusing on today, although it should be noted that even the cheapest version of the Core i9 - the 12900KF - still costs around $100 more than the AMD CPU.

Test system and benchmarks


The test system uses the latest drivers and Windows 11 updates that were up to date as of April 12th 2022 and I've re-tested every CPU in the graphs too - I'd check every review out there to make sure they state the same as these things do make a big difference to the results. Default BIOS settings were used, but the correct memory settings applied using XMP profiles. You can see graphs with other CPUs here.

The hardware includes an Nvidia RTX 3070, custom water-cooling system featuring Corsair Hydro X components and a Barrow Ropilema test bench. I've also used 16GB of Corsair 3466MHz Vengeance Pro RGB memory and 32GB Kingston 5,200MHz Fury DDR5 memory along with an RM850x power supply. I used an Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex motherboard to test the 12th Gen Intel CPUs, and a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master motherboard to test the AMD CPUs.

Far Cry 6 has, like its predecessors, favored AMD in games so it was no surprise to see the Ryzen 7 5800X3D top the chart here with some impressive frame rates even compared to the Core i9-12900K and significantly faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X. This is despite using an Nvidia RTX 3070, which is powerful but far from the most potent card out there.

Dirt 5 isn't particularly CPU-bound but there was still small differences, again favoring the new AMD CPU, but it wasn't any faster than the Ryzen 9 5900X.

Above in Watch Dogs: Legion, there was again a slight uptick in frame rates compared to the Ryzen 7 5800X, but this isn't a particularly CPU-bound game,

The combined Lightroom and Photoshop benchmark revealed a significant boost from the 3D V-Cache compared to the Ryzen 5800X, so it's clear that performance hits won't occur everywhere outside of games due to lower frequencies and some tasks actually benefit from the added cache.

Video encoding isn't one of those tasks though and if you do a lot of video encoding, the Ryzen 7 5800X is a better option, but clearly for just $100 or so more, the Core i9-12900K is a significantly better option.

Single-threaded performance takes a hit too, likely down to the lower frequencies so it's clear that either the extra cache plays little to no role in boosting performance here.

Again, in terms of raw multi-threaded performance, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is slower than the Ryzen 7 5800X and the Core i9-12900K is significantly faster, absolutely justifying the extra outlay.

There was also a slight uptick in power consumption at stock speed, adding a touch over 20W under load compared to the Ryzen 7 5800X.

Conclusion

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is both weird and wonderful. It does what AMD said it would do - edge out a lead in many games that even the Core i9-12900K can't match and is definitely the fastest AMD CPU we've seen in several games too. However, the lower frequencies compared to the standard Ryzen 7 5800X mean the latter is noticeably faster in some content creation tasks. This really is a CPU designed for gaming, and that's quite interesting.

One issue that did reveal itself in testing, though, were operating temperatures. The test system used custom water-cooling and the CPU still reported a temperature of between 85-90°C under full load across all eight cores. By comparison, the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5900X struggled to top 60°C in exactly the same system in the same test. It's clear that this is one hot-running CPU and this is likely one reason AMD had to reign in the temperatures, although stepping down to a standard 240mm liquid cooler didn't see these thermals rise much so it's fair to stop short of saying you need monster cooling to tame it. It's likely just a result of the 3D stacking technology.

The gaming prowess won't extend to all titles, settings and resolutions either - as we can see in Watch Dogs it's noticeably quicker than the Ryzen 7 5800X, but the Core i9-12900K was still quicker, at least with this hardware.

It's clear that AMD has provided a handy, affordable stop-gap for gamers, though, and critically, anyone considering jumping ship to a 12th Gen Intel CPU from an AMD motherboard will see this as a very attractive option given you only need to replace the processor and not the motherboard and potentially cooler and memory too.

AMD has thankfully not increased the price compared to the Ryzen 7 5800X, either, so for gamers, it's quite a shrewd move. What isn't great, though, is the content creation performance and heat. Performance in content creation was lower practically across the board than the Ryzen 7 5800X, although the extra cache did seem to help it in Lightroom and Photoshop. Of course Intel's 12th Gen CPUs are utterly dominant here anyway. Even the Core i5-12600K is signficiantly faster in Cinebench R23's multi-threaded test - a CPU that costs nearly $200 less.

However, AMD isn't selling the Ryzen 7 5800X3D as an upgrade in terms of content creation. It has the same underlying Zen 3 architecture as the Ryzen 7 5800X so nothing was going to change much that isn't impacted by the larger cache. What is interesting, though, is what 3D V-Cache would mean for future CPUs. Coupled with its next-gen Zen 4 architecture, which should close help solve the poor performance in content creation and potentially fix thermals too, AMD's next launch could be very interesting indeed.

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