(Most) Gaming-Oriented AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D Processors Coming Feb. 28

Inflated AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop processors with 3D V-Cache will be available for purchase on February 28, the company announced today. It will launch with the 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X3D and 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D, priced at $599 and $699 respectively. A cheaper model, the eight-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D, will be available for $449 but won’t show up until April 6th.

These processors are all successors to the original Ryzen 7 5800X3D and their sales are similar. AMD places 64MB of additional L3 cache on top of regular Ryzen 7000 processors, which can provide a significant performance boost for software (such as games) that is particularly sensitive to cache size and speed.

Those prices aren’t actually much higher than the original Ryzen 7000 starting prices in August – the 7950X3D has the same starting price as the 7950X, while the 7900X3D and 7800X3D are only $50 more expensive than their counterparts. But prices have dropped a lot since then; The 7950X typically costs between $550 and $600, and non-X-series processors like the Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 9 7950 are even cheaper. Prices for X3D chips will also come down over time, but they are still significantly more expensive than versions without additional cache.

Looks like AMD fixed some of the limitations that the original 5800X3D had when it came out. In particular, there are now 12- and 16-core options for people who use their PC for more than just gaming. The X3D series CPUs still run at a lower clock speed than comparable X series CPUs, but the gap is slightly smaller. And the processors support some limited performance tuning with Precision Boost Overdrive and Curve Optimizer features in addition to memory overclocking.

But the X3D chips still don’t support the typical overclocking features available in the rest of the Ryzen processors, nor does it support changing the CPU’s default TDP limits of 120W. This can further limit the performance of 12- and 16-core processors in applications that don’t need cache—the 7900X and 7950X have a default TDP of 170W, allowing them to run faster and last longer. The Ryzen 5800X3D also ran hotter than other Ryzen processors, but the Ryzen 7000’s base temperatures are already quite high, so we need to test them to compare.

AMD says new processors will require an AM5 socket motherboard with updated BIOS and chipset driver, and the company also “recommend[s] using at least a 280mm all-in-one liquid cooler for best performance.”

Image listing from AMD