AMD’s first Ryzen 7000X3D gaming processors arrive on February 28th

The gaming-focused AMD Ryzen 7000X3D processors finally have a release date – or rather two release dates. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D and 7950X3D will debut on February 28, with the 7800X3D arriving on April 6.

AMD also announced pricing for its new processors, with the eight-core 7800X3D at $449, the 12-core 7900X3D at $599, and the 16-core 7950X3D at $699. For context, the original eight-core, 12-core, and 16-core Ryzen 7000 models have MSRPs of $399, $549, and $699, respectively, so that’s at most a $50 premium in terms of MSRP – although well sure retail prices have come down significantly since the original Ryzen 7000 models debuted in September of last year.

The three X3D processors have been highly anticipated since their announcement just after the new year, as they combine the new features of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series – an efficient 5nm process, a more powerful socket and generally excellent performance – with the 3D V-Cache design that transformed the rather ordinary 5800X into the ridiculously powerful Ryzen 5800X3D. By tripling the chip’s L3 cache, the 5800X3D was able to compete against 12th and 13th Gen Intel’s Ryzen 7000 and Intel designs in many games – albeit tied to older DDR4 memory and the venerable AM4 socket. This makes an X3D version of Ryzen 7000 a pretty enticing prospect for extreme gaming performance.

With the arrival of AMD’s 65W non-X processors in early January, their Ryzen 7000 range has expanded rapidly – which should ensure there’s a good choice available for most people. The 65W CPUs essentially offer almost identical performance at a lower price, based on our testing of the Ryzen 5 7600, so they’re the better choice for budget builds. Meanwhile, these new X3D options should deliver the best gaming performance in the lineup. This leaves the original launch models in a smaller role, essentially offering slightly better performance at a higher power target than the non-X versions, but they could still be a good choice for creation workloads. of content – especially as some X models have dropped lower in price than their non-X counterparts as retailers seek to eliminate older stock.

You can refer to the specs table below to see how the full Ryzen 7000 lineup compares. Note that UK pricing was not included in the press release we received, but we are following AMD on this and will add this information if we get it.

CPU Design Cache Boost Base L3 TDP RRP Ryzen 9 7950X3D Zen 4 16C/32T 5.7GHz 4.2GHz 128MB 120W $699 Ryzen 9 7950X Zen 4 16C/32T 5.7GHz 4.5GHz 64MB 170 W $699/£739 Ryzen 9 7900X2D Zen 2 4GHz 4.4GHz 128MB 120W $599 Ryzen 9 7900X Zen 4 12C/24T 5.6GHz 4.7GHz 64MB 170W $549/£579 Ryzen 9 7900 Zen 4 12C/24T 5.4GHz 3.7GHz 64MB 65W 5.0GHz 4.2GHz 96MB 120W $449 Ryzen 7 7700X Zen 4 8C/16T 5.4GHz 4.5GHz 32MB 105W $399/£419 Ryzen 7 7700 Zen 4 8C/16T 5.3GHz 3.8GHz 32MB 65W $329/£349 12T 5.3GHz 4.7GHz 32MB 105W $299/£319 Ryzen 5 7600 Zen 4 6C/12T 5.1GHz 3.8GHz 32MB 65W $229 / £249 Here’s the full AMD overview.

While performance on the AMD side is excellent this generation, sales would be slow due to the move to the new AM5 socket, which requires both DDR5 RAM and a new X670/670E or B650/650E motherboard. These remain expensive, which makes the latest generation 5800X3D a good value as it can be paired with cheap and readily available DDR4 and AM4 RAM motherboards and offers a significant improvement over earlier Ryzen designs.

Still, the new socket and faster RAM should also push these new X3D chips far beyond what the 5800X3D is capable of, and could even help AMD reclaim the gaming crown from Intel’s 13900K – so it will be fascinating to see how efficient they turn out to be. We will of course endeavor to test these new processors ourselves, so stay tuned for our coverage around launch time!