AMD’s last-gen CPU is still the king of gaming

AMD’s new Ryzen 7 9700X is an impressive chip, there’s no doubt about that. It’s among the best processors you can buy, with a massive boost to single-core performance and exceptional efficiency. Up against the undisputed best CPU for gaming, AMD’s legendary Ryzen 7 7800X3D, the latest eight-core chip from AMD struggles to keep up, though.

As you can read in our Ryzen 7 9700X review, AMD’s latest chip is impressive. However, with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D dropping in price, it’s become much more competitive. And when it comes to gaming, AMD is really competing with itself.

Specs

The specs for the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are deceptive. It doesn’t look like there are a ton of differences, and in areas where there are differences, they don’t make as significant of a difference as you might believe. These are two eight-core CPUs based on the AM5 platform, but they couldn’t be more different.

First, the cache situation. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D utilizes AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology, leading to a significant boost in L3 cache. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D has three times as much L3 cache as the Ryzen 7 9700X, and that makes a huge difference in games.

The other interesting point of contention is power. The Ryzen 7 9700X is more efficient, and it’s capped at 65 watts in its default power mode. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D, on the other hand, has a power rating of 120W. In practice, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D rarely gets up to 120W, and it often runs closer to 80W. In addition, the Ryzen 7 9700X has struggled to run at its maximum boost clock of 5.5GHz with the default power settings.

Outside of the raw specs, there’s an architectural difference here. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D uses the Zen 4 architecture, while the Ryzen 7 9700X uses the new Zen 5 architecture. In addition to a smaller manufacturing process, AMD improved single-core performance with Zen 5, as well as implemented a 512-bit data path for AVX-512 instructions. The big hurdle for AMD’s new architecture is multi-core performance. With the same core counts as the previous generation, the multi-core boost isn’t as big as you’d expect out of a typical generation.

A strange pricing situation

The Ryzen 7 9700X is cheaper than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, at least on paper. AMD’s latest comes in at $359, and the first retail listings are holding steady at that price. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D launched at $450, but you won’t find it for that price today. At the time of writing, it’s available for $366, putting it in direct competition with the Ryzen 7 9700X.

Given the popularity of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, its price isn’t exactly stable. In the past few months, we’ve actually seen it selling for more than the 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X3D, which should be more expensive. The price fluctuates, but it currently lands somewhere between $350 and $400. We wouldn’t recommend spending more than $400 for it right now as it sells for less so often.

Although things could change as the Ryzen 7 9700X settles into the market, the two CPUs are around the same price right now. You might spend $10 or $20 more on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but that’s hardly swaying a buying decision when you’re talking about two CPUs north of $300.

Productivity performance

There isn’t much of a contest between the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D when it comes to productivity performance, and you can see that in action right away in Cinebench R23 above. In single-core performance, the Ryzen 7 9700X leads by around 20%, while it shoots ahead by about 11% in multi-core performance. Part of that can be attributed to the new architecture of the Ryzen 7 9700X, as well as the higher clock speeds.

Breaking into real applications, the Ryzen 7 9700X once again claims a lead in Handbrake. It was able to complete the x265 transcode 14% faster than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Once again, higher clock speeds and a new architecture help the Ryzen 7 9700X here. Meanwhile, the extra cache on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn’t doing much in these types of applications.

Rounding out these rendering tests, the Ryzen 7 9700X leads once again in Blender. For these core-crunching workloads, it’s hard to debate that the Ryzen 7 9700X shows a significant edge.

Productivity workloads aren’t always pushing cores to their limit, though, and Photoshop is a good example of that. The Ryzen 7 9700X is ahead, but not by enough for it to make a difference. With these lighter productivity workloads — particularly those that bring in your GPU like Photoshop — the difference between the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D shrinks.

Outside of raw performance, there’s another aspect of productivity performance to consider here — overclocking. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn’t unlocked for manual overclocking, and it doesn’t have much headroom in the first place. The Ryzen 7 9700X, on the other hand, is unlocked and has quite a bit of headroom for overclocking.

Gaming performance

Gaming completely flips the script on the dynamic between the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D. You can see that immediately in my gaming results above. There are a couple of cases where the Ryzen 7 9700X squeezes out a lead, such as in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and Red Dead Redemption 2. But the leads are marginal at best, and they fall completely flat compared to the titles where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D shoots ahead.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a gaming monster. There are some smaller advantages, such as in Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail. But in titles like Hitman 3, Far Cry 6, and F1 2022, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is in a completely different performance class. In games that don’t need the extra cache, the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are on the same level. In games that benefit from the extra cache, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is clearly ahead.

There’s one small exception, and that’s AVX-512 instructions. Leela Chess Zero is an AI chess engine that can leverage AVX-512 instructions, and the Ryzen 7 9700X absolutely dominates with its dedicated 512-bit data path. AVX-512 doesn’t come up a lot, but it can make a world of difference in some applications, such as emulating PlayStation 3 games.

For the gamers

The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D serve very different purposes, but for most people, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the CPU to buy. It trades some productivity performance for a massive boost in gaming performance, and it offers a much better value considering that lead. You’re also much more likely to find the Ryzen 7 7800X3D on sale considering its been on the market for a few years.

That doesn’t mean the Ryzen 7 9700X is bad. It’s a solid performer, and a good option if you’re not concerned with gaming. We would only recommend the Ryzen 7 9700X if you aren’t playing games at all, though. Even if you have a mix of productivity and gaming workloads, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the better choice.