AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D review: faster than 13900K and 7950X3D for gaming?

With all things said and done, the $449 7800X3D shines brightly. Based on our testing, it handily outperforms the 13900K in the majority of the games in our benchmark suite, sometimes by huge margins, and it comes rather close to the lights-out performance of the 7950X3D in many games while costing $250 less. In fact, the 7800X3D even eclipses the 7950X3D in some games, and its simpler single-chiplet design means that it performs much more predictably too. When it comes to high-end gaming performance, nothing in the current generation can touch the 7800X3D from a value perspective.

The 7800X3D also deserves praise for its efficient operation, as our HEVC transcode test revealed only ~11 percent less performance than the higher-clocked 7700X while drawing ~28 percent less power - it's impressive stuff. There are better content creation CPUs out there, of course, but with eight cores and sixteen threads you've still got a capable performer for video production workloads that is more than powerful enough for most use cases.

By contrast, the $699 Ryzen 9 7950X3D is more of a generalist, a premium CPU that makes a case for itself as the ultimate do-anything model. It's got top-tier gaming performance and commendable content creation performance while continuing the trend of excellent efficiency, with the only real downside being its high asking price - which is brought into sharp relief by the release of the 7800X3D - and the core scheduling complexities that caused poor performance in our Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition testing.

Meanwhile, Intel's $589 Core i9 13900K remains a truly powerful competitor, in every sense of the word. Its gaming prowess can't quite compare to AMD's two best X3D CPUs, but it's still one of the fastest options in the world. Its content creation chops are right up there with the 7950X too, outperforming both X3D chips, and therefore might be a good choice for content creators that game more occasionally.

However, you will have to factor in the increased power draw and heat generation of this thirsty CPU. The 13900K does at least allow for more flexibility in the motherboard and RAM sections of your build, as cheaper DDR4 RAM and matching motherboards still provide solid performance - especially given how quickly these last-gen RAM kits are dropping in price.

Ultimately, all three CPUs are strong options, but the Ryzen 7 7800X3D gets our highest recommendation. A reasonable price, sterling performance and excellent efficiency make it a no-brainer for anyone building a mid-range to high-end gaming PC on AMD's AM5 platform.

As usual, we encourage you to read multiple reviews and benchmark results when it comes to CPU coverage, as each reviewer's time is limited and even different levels in the same game can have radically different CPU demands. Only by reading a plurality of reviews can you get a true lay of the land, and it'll be fascinating to see what results other outlets have published.

From our point of view though, the 7800X3D does everything that was promised and more. It provides the vast majority of the chart-topping 7950X3D's performance in a cheaper package - and it gets bonus points for not falling foul of the Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition frame-time issues that afflicted the 7950X3D and 13900K, seemingly due to their asymmetric designs. The 7800X3D is just a powerful, fuss-free performer - and that makes it a brilliant follow-up to the much-loved 5800X3D.

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D analysis

• Introduction, test rig and content creation benchmarks
• Gaming benchmarks: Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3, Ashes of the Singularity
• Gaming benchmarks: Counter-Strike: GO, Metro Exodus EE, Black Ops Cold War
• Gaming benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, Crysis 3 Remastered
• AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D: the Digital Foundry verdict [this page]