It’s been fairly some time since AMD first launched their new Ryzen 3000 CPUs, however I’ve lastly managed to get my palms on the final remaining member of their new gaming CPU household, the Ryzen 7 3800X. It’s the even nippier large brother of the already glorious AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, however with the much more highly effective Ryzen 9 3900X now sitting above it within the Ryzen household pecking order, this eight-core processor positively has an air of ‘awkward middle child’ about it. Does it nonetheless have what it takes to muscle in on our best gaming CPU materials? Here’s wot I feel.
It’s a little bit of an odd one, actually. Like the cheaper £330 / $330 Ryzen 7 3700X, the 3800X is one other 7nm processor with eight cores and sixteen threads underneath its belt. This one, nevertheless, feels prefer it’s bought much more weight to throw round. It has the next base clock velocity of three.9GHz for starters, placing it 300MHz forward of what you get with the 3700X and, extra importantly, Intel’s Core i7-9700K.
The Core i7-9700Okay nonetheless has the sting on the subject of most enhance clock velocity, reaching a heady 4.9GHz with applicable cooling over the 3800X’s barely extra pedestrian 4.5GHz, however within the context of AMD’s personal CPU household, even the dearer Ryzen 9 3900X can solely hit a excessive of 4.6GHz (and its base clock velocity truly begins a teeny bit decrease at 3.8GHz, too). Yes, the 3900X has the additional benefit of 12 cores and 24 threads, however when it comes to velocity versus value, the £370 / $400 3800X seems to be to be a really tempting prospect certainly for these after top-end speeds with out that top-end £500 / $500+ value.
It does, nevertheless, have a excessive TDP (or thermal design level) of 105W in consequence, although. This means it’s much less vitality environment friendly than each the 3700X, which got here in at a lean 65W TDP, and the Core i7-9700Okay, which is rated just under it at 95W. Indeed, I discovered the 9700Okay wasn’t in a position to attain its prime velocity 4.9GHz with my bathroom commonplace tower cooler after I tried overclocking it, and I didn’t see the 3800X get anyplace close to its prime 4.5GHz after I examined it with its bundled Wraith Prism cooler, both.
Now, I do know there have been some points not too long ago with loads of AMD’s new Ryzen chips not reaching their marketed enhance speeds, however even when I had been to retest it alongside all the opposite Ryzen 3000 CPUs I’ve reviewed after AMD’s newest motherboard BIOS patch, I don’t assume my opinion of it as a straight gaming CPU is more likely to change. Indeed, after I put it by way of the identical gaming benchmark suite as all the opposite CPUs I’ve examined, the 3800X produced nearly nigh-on equivalent outcomes to its cheaper and extra vitality environment friendly sibling, the 3700X.
Now, I ought to level out that getting a really correct image of what your CPU’s doing whereas enjoying games remains to be a fairly troublesome activity. After all, there are a number of different components that may have an effect on your PC’s gaming efficiency, corresponding to your graphics card, the kind of RAM you’ve bought, and even what sort of storage you’ve put in the game on. There’s additionally the extra drawback that loads of PC gaming benchmarks simply don’t take a look at your CPU correctly.
Fortunately, a handful of benchmarks have been getting quite a bit higher at this not too long ago, with the likes of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and extra all offering an in-depth take a look at your CPU’s efficiency in addition to what your graphics card’s doing. As a end result, I’ve executed the very best I can with the gear out there to me, however you could wish to learn round a bit extra to get a greater image of issues. I’ve additionally solely centered primarily on gaming efficiency on this evaluate than I’ve on, say, software efficiency or media creation ins and outs as a result of, properly, I’m not likely inquisitive about that. I’ve included some cursory Cinebench R20 outcomes beneath to present us a tough concept of how every CPU stacks up for single and multicore desktop duties, however actually, my important objective right here is to work out what CPU is the very best for gaming and gaming alone.
And actually, I feel you’d be significantly better off going with the Ryzen 7 3700X on this case. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, for instance, the 3800X produced an equivalent common of 110fps on Ultra at 1920×1080, and solely scooted in entrance by a mean of 2fps after I moved the decision as much as 2560×1440. The Core i7-9700Okay, in the meantime, was even additional forward with a mean of 129fps at 1080p and 108fps at 1440p.
The 3800X managed to lastly pull in entrance of the 3700X in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (albeit by only a single body at each 1080p and 1440p), nevertheless it was the 3700X that had the sting in Total War: Warhammer II at 1080p. Again, these are all fairly miniscule variations within the grand scheme of issues, however when it comes to worth for cash, you’d must have an excellent cause for opting to purchase the 3800X over the equally nippy 3700X.
(As for these somewhat excessive trying Forza Horizon Four scores, I ought to level out that Nvidia have made particular optimisations to this explicit game in current months, which most likely explains why each its 1080p and 1440p outcomes are a lot increased than actually every part else I’ve examined.)
If you employ your PC for extra than simply gaming, in fact, then that excellent cause will most likely already be obvious – though even then I’m nonetheless undecided it’s price the additional expense. Take a take a look at its Cinebench R20 outcomes, for instance, and the 3800X is available in comfortably forward of the 3700X on the subject of multicore duties, which can little doubt be helpful for anybody who makes use of their PC for top depth duties corresponding to photograph and video enhancing and the like.
On the only core entrance, although? Well, irrespective of what number of instances I re-ran Cinebench to double-check this rating, the 3800X repeatedly got here in round 10 factors slower than its 3700X sibling. Yes, you’re most likely not going to note this in on a regular basis use, however certainly that’s the entire level of paying for a extra highly effective processor, proper? To really feel that distinction?
Overall, then, the Ryzen 7 3800X may look good on paper, however in observe it leaves quite a bit to be desired. Even with all that additional energy and velocity at its disposal, it nonetheless can’t match Intel’s Core i7-9700Okay as a pure gaming CPU, and it even struggles to maintain up with its cheaper Ryzen 7 3700X sibling loads of the time, too.
As such, my best gaming CPU suggestions stay unchanged for these with £300-400 / $300-400 to spend on a brand new processor. If you’ve bought the money, then the £375 / $365 Intel Core i7-9700Okay remains to be the processor to beat in the meanwhile, whereas these seeking to maintain prices down a bit additional (and don’t need the additional trouble of discovering a good cooler) ought to persist with the £330 / $330 Ryzen 7 3700X.
