AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT and Ryzen 7 3800XT: performance analysis

As regular readers will know, we use a selection of new and old games to test processor performance. While recently-released titles are obviously of interest to us and generally provide the greatest challenge to a given processor, driver optimisations and game updates can mean these results can also go out of date more quickly. Therefore, we've chosen a mix of titles here across different game engines and APIs that should provide a better idea of broader performance trends which you can apply to other currently available games (plus - with a pinch of salt! - unreleased titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassin's Creed Valhalla).

When testing new games, we often keep an eye out for particular scenes that prove particularly tough on CPU, GPU or both, so that we can incorporate them into our benchmark suite later. For example, Alex Battaglia's playthrough of Metro Exodus revealed that the opening of the Volga level was both easy to access and incredibly taxing on the high-end hardware he was using, which is why we've used it for testing both processors and graphics cards in the months that followed. By selecting scenes that show the game at its most challenging, we can ensure that performance shouldn't get significantly worse that what our results show - and make the differences from processor to processor easier to separate from random noise.

We'll begin with three relatively recent releases, running three different engines: Assassin's Creed Odyssey, running on the popular AnvilNext engine, Battlefield 5 on EA's favourite engine, Frostbite, plus Far Cry 5, on the Dunia engine - an offshoot of the CryEngine initially developed by Ubisoft Montreal for Far Cry 2 twelve years ago.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Assassin's Creed Odyssey uses a relatively modern engine that takes advantage of the extra threads found in Ryzen processors, but Intel's IPC advantage means that you'll generally see much better performance on an Intel-based system. The XT models unfortunately don't do much to shift the status quo, with 1080p results that are only around one per cent faster on the 3900XT and 3800XT than on the 3900X and 3700X, respectively. AMD has still yet to broach the 80fps barrier in this test, something that is managed by even the Core i5 9600K. Meanwhile, the flagship 9900K and 10900K processors sit closer to 90fps.

It's a similar trend at 1440p, where our AMD processors are universally below 70fps on average, while the Intel processors all manage at least 75fps. The 3900XT does manage slightly better lowest one per cent times than the 3900X, but again it's a minor improvement at best. At 4K, the gap tightens enough to be more or less irrelevant - expect Intel chips at around 52fps and AMD around 50fps.

Battlefield 5

Battlefield 5 is best known for its multiplayer, but it also includes several short (and excellent!) single-player campaigns as well. It's from one of these, Tirailleur, that our next test scene comes. Like our later Metro Exodus test, this one begins as an in-engine cutscene and transitions into full gameplay, with CPU load rising and falling throughout the 54-second scene. Like our earlier Battlefield 1 benchmark, live gameplay does mean random elements creep in, so try to ignore any momentary frame-time spikes, as these are mostly down to random explosions as we lurch unerringly forward towards an enemy toting MG42 machine guns and Panzerschrecks.

The 3900XT and 3800XT are again very similar to their 'X' counterparts here, with the 3800XT even recording a slightly lower average frame-rate in our run compared to the 3700X - a result within the margin of error, but still an oddity. Perhaps that speaks to how little of a difference it makes to be using AMD's latest in this particular test, with both processors nearly inseparable from their counterparts. The 3900X and 3900XT perform the best, with averages around 155fps, with even the slowest Intel processors normally hitting the high 160s. Comparing each firm's best performers, Intel holds around a nine per cent lead at 1080p and 1440p, falling to five per cent at 4K.

Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 is a unique game in our benchmarking suite, having the greatest reliance on single-threaded performance. This allows Intel processors to open up a strong lead against even the best Ryzen has to offer, but it also means that the XT models we're testing have a great chance to make a case for themselves. The 3800XT and 3900XT do just that, managing average frame-rates around 136fps - a new AMD high. Unfortunately, there's still a sizeable 25 per cent advantage for Intel's 10900K in this test. That suggests Team Red still have some way to go to equalling Intel's gaming performance - despite what the Cinebench single-thread results suggested earlier. If you're gaming at a higher resolution though, the performance differential is much smaller, closing to 10 per cent at 1440p and three per cent at 4K.

AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT and Ryzen 7 3800XT analysis

• Introduction, hardware breakdown, test system
• Gaming benchmarks: Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Battlefield 5, Far Cry 5 [This Page]
• Gaming benchmarks: Crysis 3, Metro Exodus, Kingdom Come Deliverance, The Witcher 3
• Gaming benchmarks: Memory bandwidth analysis
• AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT: the Digital Foundry verdict