A closer look at AMD Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs for gaming

AMD launched its 5th gen Ryzen 7000-series CPUs last September to critical acclaim, with hugely improved performance over their predecessors. Later on, AMD expanded the range with three special 3D models.

The three new CPUs, the 7950X3D, 7900X3D and 7800X3D, share the same Zen 4 architecture as the other Ryzen 7000s. This means they benefit from all the same goodies including DDR5 and PCIe 5, they even work in the same AM5 motherboards after a BIOS update.

What is different, and this should be apparent from the extra 3D on the end of the name is the addition of 3D V-Cache memory. This is essentially a huge extra helping of SRAM that acts as an extension of the on-die Level 3 cache. For instance, the flagship 7950X3D has a whopping 128MB of Level 3 cache, versus just 64MB for the standard 7950X.

Cache memory plays an incredibly important role in CPU performance, as it is much, much faster than system memory and is used to temporary store frequently used data. There’s a downside however, in that cache memory is expensive to produce and takes up a lot of space on the CPU die, so as much as we’d all like them to, CPU designers aren’t at liberty to throw on hundreds of megabytes of cache memory. AMD’s clever solution to this problem is 3D V-Cache, whereby the extra SRAM is mounted on a separate die, stacked on top of the top of the CPU die above where the existing Level 3 cache is located and connected via a bi-directional ringbus.

This isn’t the first time that AMD has added 3D V-Cache to a range of existing CPUs to increase performance, first out the gates were some truly incredible EPYC CPUs last year plus the plucky little Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the latter proving much faster in games than standard Ryzen 5000s. However, all these previous CPUs had a drawback in that their base and turbo clocks were a fair bit lower than standard CPUs, limiting their performance in some software.

This time round, AMD has given this aspect of 3D V-Cache processor design some much needed TLC and as a result the clock speeds are much improved. This has been achieved in the 7950X3D and 7900X3D by using an asymmetric chiplet design featuring a standard CCX and a special second CCX with the 3D V-Cache. This enables the standard CCX to run at higher clock speeds, improving performance in lightly-threaded software.

While the base clocks are still a bit lower than the standard CPUs, you’re now looking at a 200MHz deficit on most X3D CPUs versus 400MHz on the 5800X3D. Meanwhile the boost clocks are exactly the same. This bodes very well for the new X3D processors so without further ado let’s see how these CPUs perform in games.

How we tested

We benchmarked the AMD Ryzen 7000X3Ds up against existing Ryzen 7000s plus equivalently positioned Intel 13th gen Core CPUs. To make the comparison as fair as possible all the CPUs were tested in a very similar configuration, with the same cooler, graphics card and same amount of RAM. All the testing was conducted in Windows 11 Home with the latest drivers and BIOSes.

Game benchmarks

Analysis and Conclusion

The last few years have seen fierce competition between AMD and Intel as they both strive to outdo each other with new and improved CPUs for gamers. AMD’s trio of new Ryzen 7000 X3Ds, enhanced with 3D V-Cache, more or less triples the size of the Level 3 cache.

In the three games we tested there was a very welcome performance difference between the three X3D models and the standard Ryzen 7000s. This was particularly the case when gaming at 1080p, so for gamers an X3D CPU is definitely the way to go.

Follow the links in the spec table below to head over to the Scan website to pick your Ryzen 7000X3D CPU.