AMD Announces Ryzen 7 5800X3D, New Zen CPUs Arriving in April

AMD has announced the launch date for its upcoming Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU as well as a half-dozen new CPUs. The top-end chip is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This is the first commercial CPU with a vertically mounted L3 cache, and it’s expected to add up to 15 percent to Zen 3’s gaming performance compared to the mainstream Ryzen 7 5800X.

According to AMD, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D will be available on April 20, at an initial price of $449. That’s significantly above the Ryzen 7 5800X, which currently appears to retail for ~$349, but it matches the Ryzen 7 5800X’s debut price. It isn’t unusual for high-end consumer parts to carry a price premium and the 5800X3D is probably more expensive than most CPUs to build. Integrating 64MB of vertically-mounted cache is no small feat. It’s possible AMD limited itself to a single SKU to make certain it could build enough chips in a challenging macroeconomic environment.

Enthusiasts should be aware of rumors that the 5800X3D may not support overclocking. Historically, CPUs with larger caches have sometimes been worse overclockers than their counterparts, and the L3’s vertical mounting could make thermal dissipation harder, even though AMD did not position the cache above any die hotspots. It is not clear if these rumors are true, yet, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they are.

New Zen 2, Zen 3 CPUs

In addition to the 5800X3D, AMD is announcing six new chips in total — three based on Zen 2 and three based on Zen 3. We’ve rounded the new chips up in a chart below, as compared to the company’s current product line. The list below shows AMD’s current Ryzen product lineup (or at least much of it). Some older CPUs are included to illustrate how the new chips compare.

These new chips collectively fill in some longstanding gaps in AMD’s Zen 3 product line. AMD hasn’t had a refreshed $200 CPU in quite some time (the nearly three-year-old Ryzen 5 3600X has been anchoring AMD’s $200 price point).

In a few spots, these new chips are nice upgrades. The OEM-only Ryzen 5 3500 was a 6C/6T CPU, while the Ryzen 5 4500 bumps that to a 6C/12T core. Updates like the Ryzen 3 4100, on the other hand, are only a very small stat bump on the Ryzen 3 3100. The price is right at $100, but AMD is holding the value proposition steady on this chip.

The bottom six CPUs — everything but the Ryzen 7 5800X3D — should be available on April 4. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D will ship on April 20.

Is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D Likely to Be Worth It?

Without putting hands on the CPU we can’t say for sure, but here’s our best pre-review guess. AMD is emphasizing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D as a gaming CPU and we expect to see the bulk of its improvements there. With that said, there is the chance that some specific workloads will pick up more than 15 percent improvement from the additional cache.

In some cases, a cache size jump can improve performance by a larger than expected amount because the application’s working data set (however large it happens to be) is now held entirely within the cache. It’s difficult to predict which applications might benefit, however.

The 5800X3D is an enthusiast part for gamers who want to maximize AM4 for gaming. With AM5 coming this year, gamers who aren’t feeling a $449 CPU purchase right now may have more attractive options by the time snow threatens. AMD’s overall performance currently lags behind Intel and the company has lost a few points of market share in recent months. These new chips and price point refreshes are at least partly an effort to respond to increased competitiveness from Chipzilla.

Continue reading

Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs Reportedly Arriving In May-ish

It's been a long and winding road, but Intel's Arc GPUs are reportedly almost at the finish line.

AMD Officially Announces Zen 4 CPUs Arriving Sept. 27

AMD has finally unveiled the first four Zen 4 CPUs on the AM5 platform, with availability starting Sept. 27.

Microsoft’s Next-Generation Xbox ‘Scarlett’ Reportedly Arriving in 2020

The next-generation Xbox is coming in 2020 according to various sources, setting up the stage for the next major generation in the console wars.

Report: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, GTX 1650 Arriving Later This Spring

Nvidia is reportedly prepping new GPUs to launch in the lower price bands — and directly in the markets where AMD still competes well.