The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Review: AMD's Fastest Gaming Processor
by Gavin Bonshor on February 27, 2023 9:00 AM ESTGaming Performance: 720p And Lower
The reason we test games in CPU reviews at lower resolutions such as 720p and below is simple; titles are more likely to be CPU bound than they are GPU bound at lower resolutions. This means there are more frames for the processor to process as opposed to the graphics card doing the majority of the heavy lifting.
There are some variances where some games will still use graphical power, but not as much CPU grunt at these smaller resolutions, and this is where we can show where CPU limitations lie in terms of gaming.
We are using DDR5 memory on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and the other Ryzen 7000 series we've tested. This also includes Intel's 13th and 12th Gen processors. We tested the aforementioned platforms with the following settings:
- DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 13th Gen
- DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
- DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen
All other CPUs such as Ryzen 5000 and 3000 were tested at the relevant JEDEC settings as per the processor's individual memory support with DDR4.
Civilization VI
World of Tanks
Borderlands 3
Grand Theft Auto V
Red Dead Redemption 2
F1 2022
Hitman 3
Total War: Warhammer 3
At lower resolutions, much of the slack and grunt work is done by the cores, and as we can see, the Ryzen 9 7950X does shine through here a little more in some titles with faster cores and more power available to them to deliver better low-resolution gaming performance.
The Ryzen 9 7950X3D does still do well, and where V-Cache can be helpful, titles such as Borderlands 3, Hitman, and F1 2022 do leverage the additional L3 cache to their advantage.
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Gastec - Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - link
ROFL! You start with about $420-450 worth of a system and end up paying THOUSANDS of dollars on video cards upgrades over 6-7 years. All that during the crypto craze, the scalpers paradise and the pandemic nuttery.Kangal - Friday, March 3, 2023 - link
What are you even on about?It's perfectly common for someone to start with a midrange system, and make upgrades down the path. Sometimes it's a shortage, or pricing, or budgetary restrictions, or even lack of knowledge.
The initial PC may have only been an entry level USD $600 build. Each CPU upgrade would've costed $200 and $400, and the old ones possibly bringing $50 and $100 back (total $450). Each GPU upgrade would've costed $200, $400, $350, and $500. The old cards would've sold for $50, $100, $150, $250 back (total $900).
Which means a savvy shopper would've spent around $1,300 on upgrades in that +5 Year period. Total coming in at USD $2,000. Which is pretty good value for money.
Someone stupid, as you implied, would blow that budget on a single upgrade. Because they're buying from scalpers and not being responsible with their budget. During the past 3 years, it was very difficult to get decent parts AND cheaply, but it wasn't impossible.
flydian - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
Agreedshinsobeam - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
The 7600x and i13600k are just such good value this generation it's hard to recommend anything else.Targon - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
Having only six cores is going to be limiting in a number of games going forward, so I'd say going to an eight core CPU is a safer bet for those who only game, or be prepared to replace your CPU with an eight core or better CPU in the next few years.That ability to replace the CPU with a newer generation is going to remain an advantage for AMD, since with Intel, you can count on any motherboard only being good for 1-2 generations.
Gastec - Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - link
Give us MOAR CORZ!escksu - Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - link
I just want to say that you are really cost-contrained, you might not even want to get Ryzen 7000 series... The older 5000 series is still selling very well...The performance gap between 7000 and 5000 series are evident only if you have a graphics card capable enough to produce that difference. If you are using cards like 3060, the difference becomes extremely tiny since GPU is the bottleneck.
For gamers on a budget, its better to scale back on the CPU and use that difference for a faster GPU. Eg, 5600 + 3070 cost around the same as 7600x + 3060 (might be more expensive after factoring in board and RAM). However 5600 + 3070 is clearly faster in gaming.
Hulk - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
AMD has been on such a roll lately. This seems to be quite an underperformer. It's slower and more expensive than the 7950X in anything application related and trades blows in games. I don't think a few extra frames at 1080p in some titles is a when frame rates are already 150+ is going to matter. Seems like a lot of intellectual and manufacturing effort for very little return. I had thought the faster memory subsystem and larger cache of Zen 4 would make less of a difference than with Zen 3. This review seems to corroborate that opinion.Dante Verizon - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
In many games where the high refresh rate matters the difference is double digits as high as 62%, so what the hell are you talking about? lolHifihedgehog - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
Hulk smash... -ed his brain.