AMD Ryzen 7950X3D Gaming-focused Review and Benchmarks!

hey AMD what do you do if intel has a faster gaming CPU than you do well that's easy just throw cash at the problem okay the time has come again my friends when one of the two main desktop CPU manufacturers clears their throat and says excuse me now we have the fastest gaming CPU ever it's amd's turn this time so to celebrate the launch of their new fastest CPU for gaming ever the ryzen 9 7950x3d the 3D stands for 3D V cash I present to you a three-point Mini review that I'm gonna get out of the way right here in the intro first yes it is the fastest gaming CPU now so suck it Intel's 13900k second if I haven't said it enough it is a very good thing that Intel and AMD are trading blows with their CPU launches and leapfrogging each other in terms of performance pc Gamers could do with more of that on the GPU side of things too and third while you might be seeing many videos like mine today talking about how nice the 7950x3d is for gaming remember that there's always a catch and this time around it's the other 7000 X 3D CPU waiting in the wings which might perform just as well as this one for 2 250 dollars less but that one the 7800 X 3D doesn't launch until April 6th foreign today's video is brought to you by the Corsair Xenia on Flex OLED gaming monitor which can bend from completely flat up to 800 R curvature but there's a lot more to this display which features an ultra wide 45 inch 3440x1440 panel with a 240 hertz refresh rate and .03 millisecond grade degree response time the spec list also includes Nvidia g-sync compatibility AMD freesync premium certification Auto HDR with up to 1000 nit brightness 99 DCI P3 color gamut coverage a sophisticated burning prevention system and an integrated stand with a range of connectivity click the sponsor Link in the video description for more on the Corsair Xenia on Plex so whenever a big CPU or GPU launch happens and I get to take an early look there's a logistical algorithm that my brain attempts to process to determine what level of coverage I can provide in the time I have available since amd's x3d CPUs are primarily focused on gaming performance gains this time around I decided to dispense with the bulk of my compute benchmarks so we could laser focus on comparative gaming results with 9 titles plus 3D Mark tested I also asked myself which other CPUs I would like to see compared and if this is to be the fastest gaming CPU I should test it against the other fastest CPUs for gaming those are amd's current Flagship 7950x on the am5 platform amd's only other 3D V cache enabled CPU the 5800x 3D still maintaining some very compelling price to perform its stats on the last gen am4 platform and Intel's also current Flagship the 13900k because I don't have a 3900ks which runs 100 to 200 megahertz faster than the 3900k but also costs about 150 bucks more I I also opted to test at 1080P and 4K 1080 because lower resolutions are typically more CPU bound and will demonstrate performance differences between the CPUs more clearly and because High refresh rate 1080 gaming is definitely a thing too and 4K because it's a more likely resolution for a high-end gaming PC monitor that would be paired with a system built around something like the 7950x 3D and even though 4K tests are more GPU bound I wanted to provide Gamers who are already running some of these bleeding edge Hardware configurations an idea of what the performance uplift would actually be if they upgraded before we dive into the benchmarks I will quickly cover a few important notes about the CPU itself and my test setup AMD has already proven that increasing the cache size a CPU has available is generally a good thing for gaming the success of the 5800x 3D that launched in April 2022 is ongoing particularly since that processor uses the am4 platform where Builders can take advantage of lower prices on slightly older motherboards and ddr4 memory it stands to reason then that they could do the same thing with the ryzen 7000 series CPUs by adding cash directly on top of the CPU die to achieve a similar lift versus the non-x3d variants if there is a key detail to be brought to light regarding how they've implemented this technology for the 7000 series it is this the 7900x and 7950x CPUs use two CCX units or core complexes each with six or eight cores enabled but for the x3d variants only one of those two CCX units has 3D vcash stacked on top so AMD had reviewers enable and double check several Windows optimizations to make sure the hardware was being utilized as they intended the performance Optimizer driver is supposed to determine in real time if 3D V cache is better for performance and schedule workloads to the 3D V cache enabled CCX or if higher frequencies are better in which case it would schedule on the non-3dv cache die which can hit higher clock speeds there's also a PPM provisioning file driver which restricts gaming workloads to one CCX or the other although AMD says it's almost always the 3D V cache die that's preferred for better gaming performance setup wise this only involved checking a bios setting installing a driver and updating the Xbox game bar for some reason beyond that my test bed didn't run into any problems but this is only needed for CPUs with more than one die which makes me wonder if this was part of the reason to delay the 7800x 3D which again is supposed to launch April 6th for 450 dollars if most games are only running on the single 3D vcash CCX on the 7950x3d then the 7800x3d might be able to achieve very similar gaming performance for 250 fewer dollars MSRP the other question is why they only sent the 7950x3d out to reviewers and not the 7900x 3D but I don't really have an answer for that so let's move on here are the stats and specs for the four CPUs I'm testing today you're probably familiar with much of this information but do note the L3 cache for the 7950x3d one 128 megabytes versus 64 megabytes on the non-x3d version you might also note that the 7950 X3 has both a lower TDP and the same 5.7 gigahertz turbo clock compared to the 7950x this is because one CCX and the 7950x3d has 3dv cache and therefore won't boost to 5.7 gigahertz whereas the 7950x can hit Peak frequencies on both dies while gaming the 7950x3d was running at around 5.3 to 5.5 gigahertz during my testing also note that the 5800x3d has half the threads of the other CPUs which will be reflected in the compute Focus tests here's a rundown of my test beds comparison hardware and settings the details of my test bed setup can be seen on screen now but I will highlight the important parts for you for the ddr5 platforms I'm using two 32 gigabyte g-skill memory kits a trident Z5 Neo kit with Expo settings for am5 and their closest equivalent XMP settings kit for Intel which is a trident Z5 RGB kit both are rated for ddr5 6000 speeds and cl30 timings for the GPU I've updated to the fastest one available which is the RTX 4090 represented by the founders Edition from Nvidia and for the CPU Cooler we have a 360 millimeter AIO the Corsair h150i Elite LCD the systems are set up in open test beds with radiator fans pushing air across the motherboard CPU socket and vrms for consistency and now let's go over performance here's a quick look at the CPU temperatures for the 7950x3d during a cinebench run you might already know that both families of CPUs from AMD and Intel will push performance until they hit a thermal threshold for the most recent Generations but amd's maximum temperature with a 7950 x3d is a bit lower at 89c versus 95c for the 7950x a short cinebench run quickly ramps temperatures up to 86 to 87 degrees Celsius but across all my game tests the peak temperature was a bit less about 80 degrees Celsius except for Far Cry which got up to 85. my power draw results are not as detailed as I would have liked on 4 fortunately I had a data logging problem that I didn't catch early enough still here is the peak system power draw while gaming which includes the power draw for the RTX 4090 note that the 7950x3d is a bit more efficient for gaming than the 7950x by these numbers as the lower TDP indicated and Intel's 13th gen CPUs still command a bit of a power usage premium which has been established in Prior reviews and now it's time for the benchmarks starting with a quick toe dip into compute performance with cinebench R23 using all cores and threads the 3900k still wins this test coming in about six percent faster than the 7950x well the 7950x3d was four to five percent slower due to lower clock speeds and power draw the 5800x3d is more than 50 behind because it has half the threads versus the other CPUs as well as lower clock speeds and here are the single thread scores an area where Intel maintains a healthy lead the 7950x3d did gain slightly though with a modest bump to 2055 points over the 79 the X non-3d this will conclude the CPU Focus benchmarks for this video because like I said in the intro the real question today is about gaming performance I've tested all the games except 3D Market 1080P and 4K and again our GPU is nvidia's RTX 490 Founders Edition 3dmark time spy extreme is a synthetic Benchmark from 3dmark a DirectX 12 test and here the 4090s graphic score does not fluctuate much at all between the four CPUs the CPU test is a better comparison because it focuses on compute performance which is what the results are sorted by and here the 3900k was 5.7 percent faster than the 7950x while the 7950x3d was about seven percent slower please note that these 3dmark results are not included in my cumulative performance numbers the rest of the games are though starting with Far Cry 6 and at 4K the 7950 xvd appears to be accomplishing its Mission improving upon the 7950x's performance enough to outpace the 13900k it's a slim 4.5 gain though so let's see if there's more of a difference at 1080 and yes there is while the one percent lows aren't as solid as they could be at 188 FPS average is about 10 faster than the 13900k and a 21.6 improvement over the 7950x non-3d perhaps there is something to this be cash thing after all next we have Shadow of the Tomb Raider which is running in DirectX 12 mode and here the 3D V cache enabled CPUs maintain a very slim lead over the 13900k as expected the 4K results are GPU limited so we're not seeing much diversity in the results but once again at 1080 the 7950x3d can stretch its legs and take a substantial lead best in the 3900k by 13 and the 7950x by 22 percent in cyberpunk 2077 at 4K we once again have very similar average frame rates with the 7950x non-3d eking out a narrow win when we switch to 1080 this time though the 13 900k jumps into the lead indicating that more cash is not going to result in a win 100 of the time that said it's a narrow lead of less than one percent but I'm sure Intel will accept it nonetheless Horizon zero Dawn is next using the favorite quality preset and allowing all four of our CPUs to achieve healthy 160 to 170 frames per second results at 4K do note that this game seems to perform better on AMD CPUs though as shown here with the 1080 results Intel pulls in last with the 5800x 3D of 4 the 7950x up 13 and the 7950x3d extending an 18 lead over team blue continuing on to dirt 5 running the ultra high preset at 4K got us 194 FPS out of the RTX 4090 a result that was similar across all four CPUs at 1080 the 7950x manages to jump into the lead managing an 8.4 percent win over the 13900k while the 7950x3d beat the Intel CPU by 7.4 percent next up is Resident Evil village where the 4K theme continues not much of a difference between the four CPUs although the 13900k was two to three percent ahead once again at 1080 though the 7950x3d uses all that cash to pump out 430 34 frames per second on average which puts it 15.4 percent ahead of the 13900k and 13.8 percent in front of the 7950x let's try some non-directex 12 games Doom Eternal is my only Vulcan title and it features lovable squishy demons and extremely high frame rates starting at 4K we have another similar lineup with only about 20 FPS difference between the slowest and fastest options although the 5800x 3D did struggle with one percent lows at 1080 BC the 13900k coming up with its biggest win of the day though hitting 683 FPS which was 8.2 percent ahead of the 7950 x3d and 10.1 percent beyond what the 7950x accomplished lastly we have a couple DirectX 11 titles here is God of War where we once again have comparable performance at 4K although the 5800x 3D and 7950x struggle just a bit versus the other two CPUs at 1080p there was some diversification but not as much as in other titles the 7950x3d was just 6.6 percent faster than the 7950x here and 1.3 percent faster than the 13900k lastly we have Microsoft flight simulator which I know a select few of you are very happy to see included and I'm running in DirectX 11 mode which means that yes switching to DirectX 12 and enabling dlss frame generation could bring even more performance to this notoriously CPU limited game for flight Sim enthusiasts even without that we're hitting 88.6 FPS with the 7950x 3D a decent 13.5 bump over the 7950x at 1080p we have another clear win for the 7950x3d which hit 108.4 FPS that's 43.7 percent faster than the 7950x and 24.4 percent faster than the 3900k not bad at all and now for the best part of my Benchmark Review videos where I reduce days of work down to a few summary comparisons but you can only watch if you didn't skip ahead to this part Scout's Honor I don't know how to do Scout is it two or three for Scouts Honor anyway here are my gaming results across all tests except 3dmark though sorted by the 1080p comparisons with the 7950x used as the zero point we have a 13.3 percent improvement over the non-3d enabled CPU at 1080 and even a 3.1 percent bump at 4K it was also a 9.1 percent faster than the 13900k on average that's not too bad and it also aligns quite well with amd's estimated performance improvements from their preview announcements so I'm glad they weren't just making all that stuff up or anything but let's also add the prices because it's nice to see everything on one page I'm using the current retail prices for existing CPUs not MSRP and do note that I'm not including raw compute performance here because if that's what you're into then you should definitely get the 7950x or the 13900k over the 7950x3d I think that was safe to assume even before this launch happened but what can I say to wrap up I'm very glad that AMD and Intel are leapfrogging each other with their launches in the past year or two in terms of peak gaming CPU performance because competition is our best bet to keep prices from running away like they have in the GPU space practically speaking though the 7950x3d is a bit of a niche product at 700 you need to be in a position to make use of the cores and threads available but also really seeking out good gaming performance at the same time for it to make sense budget-minded gaming focused Builders will probably be more comfortable sticking to the 5800x 3D or waiting five to six weeks for the 7800x3d to launch which I'm anticipating will have very similar gaming performance to this one while costing a lot less there's the 7900x3d2 but AMD said they didn't send any samples out for that one so we'll have to wait and see and of course anyone who just needs compute power but is less concerned about gaming would be better off with the 3900k or the 7950x non-3d but of course for those Halo tier Builders who want the best no matter what this is currently the CPU to beat AMD wins again for now okay that's all I have to say on the 7950x3d for now I hope you enjoyed this video a few closing notes hit the thumbs up button on your way out if you enjoyed this video check out my store at paulsharbor.net for shirts and other cool stuff you can buy subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't already and stay tuned for lots more content coming at you real soon thanks again for watching guys and we'll see you in the next video [Music] foreign

Channel: Paul's Hardware

Views: 82,541

Keywords: computer, PC, PC gaming, personal computer, computer hardware, paulshardware, 7950X3D, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 7950X3D vs 7950X, 7950X3D vs 13900K, 7950X3D vs 5800X3D, gaming benchmarks, gaming, benchmarks, test, rtx 4090, nvidia, gpu, graphics card, launch, 1920x1080, 4K, 3840x2160, Far Cry 6, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn, Dirt 5, Resident Evil Village, Doom Eternal, vulkan, dx11, dx12, God of War, Flight Simulator, MSFS, 3DMark Time Spy Extreme

Id: ky5sw0wkQ-I

Length: 16min 9sec (969 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2023