AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs. Ryzen 7 7800X3D: shocking results

I expected the Ryzen 7 7800X3D to stay relevant in this new era of Zen 5 CPUs. However, I didn’t expect it to be a better choice for those looking for the best gaming processor. Although the Ryzen 9 9950X can top productivity charts, AMD’s last-gen gaming monster remains the performance king when you’re chasing frames.

Specs

You can tell how different the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are from the specs, but they don’t even tell the whole story. Starting at a high level, the Ryzen 9 9950X has a far more incredible array of cores and higher clock speeds. You get 16 cores and 32 threads with a maximum boost clock speed of up to 5.7GHz. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D looks downright puny by comparison, packing eight cores and 16 threads, along with a 5GHz maximum boost clock speed.

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The Ryzen 7 7800X3D flexes its muscles with a cache. It sports AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech, allowing AMD to pack an additional 32MB of L3 cache on the CPU. The Ryzen 9 9950X supports twice as much a faster L2 cache, but based on my gaming results, the L3 cache on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D provides a bigger benefit.

It’s not just the cache, either. In games, the lower core count on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D actually works to its benefit. AMD structures its CPUs into a CCX or a core complex; AMD uses multiple CCX dies on larger CPUs and connects them with Infinity Fabric. In the case of Zen 4 and Zen 5 CPUs, the maximum number of cores that can fit on a single CCX is eight. That means the Ryzen 7 7800X3D uses one CCX, while the Ryzen 9 9950X uses two.

Infinity Fabric is very fast, and the performance penalty of having two dies is greatly outweighed by having additional cores in demanding multi-threaded workloads like video transcoding or rendering. The same isn’t true in games. Games are all about latency, and adding extra cores on a separate die can actually slow down your gaming experience. I’ll show you that later in this article as we dig into the gaming benchmarks.

There are a couple of other aspects of these CPUs to remember—first is architecture. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D uses the older Zen 4 architecture, while the Ryzen 9 9950X uses the newer Zen 5 architecture. Zen 5 isn’t as big of an architectural shift as we’ve come to expect from AMD, but it has some specific advantages. For instance, it supports a 512-bit data path for AVX-512 instructions, which is a big deal for AI workloads and tasks like PlayStation 3 emulation.

The other aspect is the power draw. The Ryzen 9 9950X has a higher TDP on paper, but it sells short of how big of a difference there is between these two CPUs. The Ryzen 9 9950X will hit its 170W TDP if it’s under load, while the Ryzen 7 7800X3D will rarely ever climb up to 120W. I’ve used a Ryzen 7 7800X3D personally for months, and I’ve never seen it crack triple digits.

Pricing

Pricing is an interesting point of contention between the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X. These processors are in two different performance classes, and they both come with a price to match. If you look at list prices, the Ryzen 9 9950X will run you $650, while the Ryzen 7 7800X3D comes in at $450. The Ryzen 7 has been on the market longer, so you can often pick it up for much less than the list price.

When writing, the CPU is $380 at Newegg and $350 at Micro Center. It’s only $310 on Amazon, though only through a dubious third-party seller. Regardless, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is much cheaper than the Ryzen 9 9950X. Given that the Ryzen 9 9950X is newer, you’ll only find it at its price of $650. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is around $300 cheaper.

In addition, a massive backlog of secondhand Ryzen 7 7800X3Ds is available for around $300, making the pricing gap even more significant if you don’t mind picking up a used CPU. Although the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X are in different performance and pricing classes, the fact that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is older is to its benefit. You’ll save a lot of money going with AMD’s last-gen CPU.

Productivity performance

You don’t need me to tell you that the Ryzen 9 9950X wipes the floor with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D when it comes to productivity performance. It’s not even close, so I won’t run through my full list of benchmarks here. They all tell the exact same story. You can see that story above in Cinebench R23. The Ryzen 9 9950X has a slight single-core lead and runs away regarding multi-core performance.

Cinebench is a rendering test, so it’s no surprise that the Ryzen 9 9950X is more than twice as fast—nearly three times as fast—as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in Blender, another rendering app. You’d use your GPU to accelerate rendering in an app like Blender, but if you’re looking for raw CPU performance, the Ryzen 9 9950X is undoubtedly more powerful.

Outside of rendering, the Ryzen 9 9950X still beats the Ryzen 7 7800X3D into the ground. We’re talking about processors in two entirely different leagues regarding productivity performance.

If the point isn’t clear enough, I’ll close out this section with Handbrake. Regarding productivity, the Ryzen 9 9950X competes against processors like the Core i9-14900K. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D has half the cores, lower clock speeds, and an older architecture, so the Ryzen 9 9950X is significantly faster. What the Ryzen 7 7800X3D trades in productivity performance, however, it more than makes up for in gaming grunt.

Gaming performance

If you unthinkingly look at the chart above, it’d be easy to assume that the red line represents the Ryzen 9 9950X. It’s the more expensive processor, and that red line shoots ahead in nearly every game I tested. But no. The red line is the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, a processor that costs almost half of what AMD asks for the Ryzen 9 9950X.

That’s the magic of AMD’s 3D V-Cache. It does wonders in games, even when a CPU with a newer architecture faces down the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, twice the core count and higher clock speeds. There are a couple of games like Ashes of the Singularity and Red Dead Redemption 2, where the two CPUs are competitive games; the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is massive in other games ahead.

In Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail and Far Cry 6, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D allows you to max out a 240Hz gaming monitor. And in F2 2022, it’s in a completely different performance class. The shine on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D can start to wear off at higher resolutions, and there are some games where the 3D V-Cache doesn’t provide an advantage. However, my testing shows that it still destroys the Ryzen 9 9950X in games and can do so at around half the price.

One for the gamers

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains an enigma. There’s no doubt that the Ryzen 9 9950X is a faster CPU when it comes to productivity performance, but the fact that a CPU that’s much cheaper, much less powerful on paper, and sporting an older architecture shows such a commanding lead of gaming performance is a testament to how powerful 3D V-Cache really is.

Suppose you go with the Ryzen 9 9950X. If you need more productivity power, it’s not the best value right now. AMD’s own Ryze7950X3D is much cheaper at around $520 and shockingly close in performance. In addition, Intel’s Core i9-14900K is surprisingly competent in the face of the Ryzen 9 9950X. And if you’re a gamer, the results here really speak for themselves.