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Don’t buy the Ryzen 7 7800X3D right now. Here’s what to get instead

A hand holding AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
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Amazon Prime Day 2024 deals are out in full swing, so if you’re in the market for a gaming CPU, you might gravitate toward the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. While it’s true that it’s discounted right now, it’s not the only CPU to get a deep price cut for Prime Day — and you could get a potentially better CPU for less. Similarly, these deals are making one thing clear — there’s no need to wait for Zen 5.

AMD’s 3D V-Cache CPUs are known for their gaming prowess, and while they’ve received multiple price cuts since launch, you’d be hard-pressed to find them cheaper than this. Let’s take a closer look at the deals:

  • AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D is now
  • AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D is now
  • AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is now
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Seeing as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the fastest gaming CPU, and it’s a little cheaper right now, there’s no harm in buying it. But don’t overlook the sweet discount on the Ryzen 9 7900X3D, which comes with some improvements over the 7800X3D, and is a whopping $60 cheaper. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D features 12 cores and 24 threads — a clear improvement from the eight cores and 16 threads on the 7800X3D. It also has a higher clock speed reaching up to 5.6GHz, whereas the 7800X3D maxes out at 5GHz. Moreover, it sports a total of 140MB cache, which is 36MB more than the 7800X3D.

You might be wondering why the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is both pricier and faster in gaming scenarios than the 7900X3D, given that the specs imply otherwise. The reason lies in the chip’s architecture. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D only has six cores that benefit from the 3D V-Cache, so while it’s better for productivity, it’s a little bit slower in gaming. I talked about this more in this post.

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D sitting on a motherboard.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

As a result, I’d normally tell you to get the Ryzen 7 7800X3D while it’s cheaper, but the price difference changes that argument. Considering that the 7900X3D is only marginally slower — you’re unlikely to notice a difference — in gaming scenarios, but better in productivity and it’s also $60 cheaper, it’s an easy choice. I’d while these deals last.

However, let’s not overlook the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D. While it’s $465 right now, that’s still a huge discount, and it’s a powerful CPU for both work and gaming. AMD’s next-gen Ryzen 9000 CPUs are right around the corner, but even AMD itself admits that the 7800X3D will still be faster in gaming than its new processors — and the 7950X3D is comparable in gaming while being a whole lot faster in multitasking workloads. In addition, Zen 5 is said to be cheaper at launch than Zen 4 was, but it’ll still likely be a lot more expensive than the current price of the 7950X3D. We’ve seen the Ryzen 9 9950X listed in Europe for $708.

With the 7950X3D being this cheap, waiting for Zen 5 is unnecessary right now. If you want an upgrade, go ahead and .

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
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