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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Gavin Bonshor - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
I'm currently in the middle of testing data in all three modes (Auto, Cache, and Frequency mode)Dante Verizon - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
Radeon RX 6950 XT - There will be no significant differences using this GPUMakaveli - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
The GPU is fine the bigger issue for me is those terrible memory speeds being used. Nobody buys jedec memory for their builds unless you are an OEM.Ryan Smith - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
This discussion comes up now and then. But right now our stance remains unchanged: when AMD is willing to warranty memory overclocking, we'll start using it as a base setting.Otherwise, it's disingenuous to test a CPU in a state that's outside its normal operating parameters, and which would result in an RMA being rejected if anything happened to it.
Otritus - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
I think you should put this note inside the review and future reviews because it is a valid reason for why it is being benchmarked as such.lopri - Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - link
Agreed 100%Oxford Guy - Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - link
Has AMD or Intel ever denied a warranty claim because someone used an XMP profile?I'd love to see an article about that!
blkspade - Wednesday, March 22, 2023 - link
Intel RMA survey actually asks if you used XMP as grounds to deny your RMA. They count it as oveclocking. AMD on the other hand doesn't even ask about memory profiles. I've had to do a RMA for both an i7 7700 and a R7 2700.nandnandnand - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
Looks like a messy faceplant with the scheduler issues.RHamel - Monday, February 27, 2023 - link
Yes, the scheduler clearly isn't smart enough to assign threads to the optimal CCD with any consistency. AMD's "best of both worlds" design ends up being the worst of both worlds about half the time.They should have just put the 3D V-Cache on both CCDs and avoided this whole mess; anyone putting this (instead of a 7950X) in a workstation/HEDT obviously is running some kind of cache-limited workload and would prefer extra L3 on all cores to this design even if the scheduler worked perfectly.