AMD Ryzen 7950x3D Review

INTRODUCTION

With AMDs latest addition to their Ryzen 7000 lineup, they are trying to provide their chips with additional gaming performance by utilizing their 3D V-Cache technology. The new 7950x3D however, turned out to be a real hybrid. Great gaming performance with only minimal negative impact on real-world 'work'-related tasks. Thanks to the 2x CCD design with only one being equipped with the latest Cache Stacking technique, AMD created a chip that can run faster on one half of itself, while the other half takes care of gaming!

RYZEN 7000 X3D LINEUP AND PRICING

The original AMD Ryzen 7000 lineup was launched back in September 2022. At that time, 4x different CPUs were announced: 

• Ryzen 9 7950X
• Ryzen 9 7900x
• Ryzen 7 7700X
• Ryzen 7600X

As part of this release, it was also the official announcement of AMDs new AM5 Socket found on motherboards featuring the new X670E, X670, B670E and B670 chipset.

Slightly beforehand, even before the release of Ryzen 7000, AMD released a special CPU specifically tailored with gaming in mind. Under the name 5800x3D, AMD introduced their 3d V-Cache technology. By stacking multiple layers on top of each other, AMD managed to greatly increase the amount of L3 cache present on the chip. A benefit that was mostly noticeable in gaming-like tasks.

Fast forward to mid- 2023 and AMD was finally ready to release a new set of Ryzen 7000 chips combining both technologies mentioned above:

• Ryzen 7800x3D
• Ryzen 7900x3D
• Ryzen 7950x3D

With the superior performance provided by Zen 4 and the added 3D V-Cache, AMD released a set of CPUs that are supposed to compete with other high-end chips in work-related tasks while utilizing the superior size of their L3 cache to enhance gaming performance greatly.

Down below you will find a list of the recently released Ryzen 7000 3D chips and their on-release MSRP.

AM5 SOCKET

Compared to all previous Ryzen generations, the Ryzen 7000 lineup introduced the new AM5 Socket, an LGA- type. Therefore, the user has no other possibility than to exchange his motherboard once he wants to perform the upgrade.

As part of this upgrade, the user has 4 types of Chipsets to choose from: X670E, X670, B670E, and B670. 

Although a completely new platform will already increase the initial upgrade cost, there's another aspect that needs to be taken into consideration. As AM5 is a DDR5-only platform, there is no way around replacing the Ram too.

ZEN 4

Zen 4 is the architecture powering AMD's new Ryzen 7000 Lineup. Similarly to Zen 3, the new iteration still features up to 2 CCDs, however, this year it is built on TSMC's 5nm process.

Hidden under the generational number increase is also a doubling of L2 Cache, Up-to 15% IPC increase, DDR 5 support, PCIe Gen. 5 Support, and 5Ghz boost by default.

On the higher end, Zen 4 is limited by a maximum of 24 cores, a version that may come out at a later date.

A useful addition to Zen 4's capabilities compared to previous versions is the mandatory addition of AMD's RDNA 2 graphical unit. Although it has been emphasized multiple times by AMD, and we would confirm it, it is NOT a Game-ready GPU. Featuring only 2 cores at 2200Mhz, this miniature of a GPU is meant to be used solely to run a monitor.
Thanks to the addition of an iGPU, debugging a system has been made much easier.

3D V-CACHE

Originally released with their 5800x3D, AMDs 3D V-Cahe is a technology that allows to stack multiple layers of cache on top of a CPU.

Although this technology is only applied to the "slowest" type of Cache, L3, the gains provided by the massive size increase are especially noticeable in gaming scenarios.

However, there are new limits created by adding this technology to an existing chip.

Due to a variety of reasons, chips using the new increased L3 cache will not be able to operate at speeds as high as non-3D counterparts. This downside may not affect everybody to the same degree. Even if the chips will be running slower by default, there are workloads that are actually benefitting more from the larger L3 cache, than they are affected by the lowered clock speed.

To not restrict the 3D V-Cache technology to a very specific type of use-case, AMD had another genius idea whilst implementing the 3D V-Cache into the higher core-count chips. Whilst the Ryzen 7800x uses only a single CCD design, it was inevitable to provide all of the one existing chiplet with their new type of cache.

For the higher core count chips like the 7900x and 7950x, AMD decided to implement the 3D V-Cache on only one of the two existing CCDs. This decision allows the CPU to perform very well in a variety of tasks. While one half of the chip will deliver superior performance in gaming-related tasks thanks to the additional L3 cache, while taking the hit of a lower core speed, the other half is a carbon copy of the non-3D version with similar performance as the regular chip. With half of the cores running at higher speeds, AMD was able to create a true hybrid CPU competing on the highest level for every type of workload.

BENCHMARK

TESTING EQUIPMENT

The machine used to benchmark all of the available Ryzen 7000 chips consists of the following components:

• AORUS Master X670E Bios v.F5
• 2x G-Skill Trident Z5 Neo 6000MHz CL30 16Gb
• Samsung 980 Pro
• Zotac RTX 4090 
• be quiet! Dark Power 1200W

Upon each benchmark run, the bios was reset to default whilst only enabling EXPO. 

POWER USAGE AND TEMPERATURE

Whilst running a Cinebench Multi-Thread run, the 7950x3D never used more than 143 Watts. Compared to the initially released 7950x without the additional stack of cache, that's a 83 watts that are not clocking up the cooler.

Although 83 Watts might not seem like a lot for a total system, it is by a single watt the amount of power a full blown 7800x3D consumes on it's own. 

This huge reduction in power usage results in much lower cooling needs. Compared to the regular 7950x there are a lot more coolers available if the user requires the chip to run below it's maximal temperature threshold of 89°C.

SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS

Cinebench R23 Single Thread

Using only a single core, the 7950x3d actually managed to outperform the 7950x by 2%, something that should not actually happen. 

However, as it turns out, by defaulting the bios on our exact benchmark machine, the 7950x3D manages to boost slightly higher than the 7950x. 

Cinebench R23 Multi Thread

In Cinebench Multi Core, the results were as expected, with 36191 points, the 7950x3D landed slightly behind the regular 7950x.

Handbrake H264 -> H265

Encoding a 5 minute long H264 video into H256, the 7950x3D needed a total of 349 seconds, almost 20 seconds longer than the non-3D version.

Time Spy

Timespy being a mix of Gaming and Working performance resulted in the 7950x3D being an inch in front of the regular 7950x.

Corona Render

Rendering an image using the Corona 10 benchmarks resulted in the 7950x3D producing slightly less rays than the 7950x.

Blender

Blender rendered three different scenes to benchmark a CPU. In each of them, the 7950x3D was 2% behind the 7950x. The only exception would be the Classroom scene in which the difference doubled to 4%.

Passmark

In Passmark, the 7950x3D scored 64892 points, another benchmark that favored the 3D cache for an increase of 2%.

CPU-Z Single

Using only a single core in CPU-Z resulted in a surprise. Unlike Cinebench, the 7950x3D "only" managed to score 733 points, a 3% decrease compared to the 7950x.

CPU-Z Multi

Using all available cores generated the exact same result with the 7950x being slightly in front of the 7950x3D.

3DMark CPU Profile

As the last synthetic benchmark, we used 3DMark's CPU Profile test to benchmark the CPU by doubling the number of used threads on each run.

Running this benchmark perfectly showcases AMD only using the 3D V-Cache on a single CCD.

While using 1 or 2 threads, the results were almost identical. From 4 to 8 threads, the results were similar with a slight edge towards the 7950x. However, as soon as the second CCD started being used, the benefit of having a faster clock speed started to show. Starting off at +8% and ending at +9%, the regular 7950x is definitely the faster CPU once everything is being used.

GAMING BENCHMARKS

All of the game benchmarks were run on 1080p and the highest available settings (Anti-Aliasing excluded).

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Similar to what we saw when the 7800x3D first hit the benchmark machine, the 7950x3D can score many points as soon as games are involved. Averaging 406FPS, there is very little that can compete with the 7950x3D.

Far Cry 6

In Far Cry 6, we saw similar results with the 7950x3D averaging 220FPS while the lowest possible counter never went below 100FPS.

Dota 2

In Dota 2 we saw huge gains compared to the 7950x, at +42% average FPS, it was one of the biggest average gains on a similar platform we have ever seen.

Rainbow Six Siege

While benchmarking Rainbow Six Siege the gains were slightly smaller with +5% average and +25% 1% low FPS. A smaller, but still significant increase in performance.

CS:GO

CS:GO still not enjoying additional L3 cache saw the most negative results. While most of the results were lower compared to the 7950X, the 7950x3D was able to score higher 1% and .1% results.

RYZEN 7950X3D VS 7950X

There are several interesting direct comparisons to the 7950x3D. One of which is the original non-3D V-Cache 7950x.

Similar to our comparison between a 7800x3D and 7700x3D, the 7950x3D is definitely the much more capable gaming CPU while the regular 7950x is still the better workhorse. However, unlike the 7800x3D the comparison is not as simple.

Thanks to AMD only implementing their 3D V-Cache on a single CCD, there is still one CCD left at the original speed inside the 7950x3D. This leads to the interesting result that the performance downfall from utilizing a 7950x3D is not quite as severe as on the Ryzen 7 chips.

On average, we saw a decline of only 2% in work-related tasks. A difference small enough to be attributed to a margin of error. 

For gaming, on the other hand, we saw a 13% upgrade. This might not be as big as the 16% jump we saw on the 7800x3d, but putting the numbers side-by-side, a 7950x3D would result in 13% uplift in gaming for a mere 2% cost in working performance.

Additionally to that, similarly to the 7800x3D, the 7950x3D has the huge benefit of utilizing a lot less power hence requiring less cooling than a 7950x3D.

Ryzen 7800x3d VS 7950x3d

Another interesting comparison for the 7950x3D would be the 7800x3D.

Obviously, thanks to the higher core count and speed, the 7950x3D completely dominates the 7800x3D in every non-gaming-related task. The resulting +57% average performance gain was nothing surprising.

The important comparison however would be gaming. Directly comparing the 7950x3D to the 7800x3D in 5 different games painted a very surprising picture. The 7950x3D is not actually better. In fact, on average using the higher core count chip would result in a 2% downfall (.1% lows excluded). An unexpected result for us.

SUMMARY

If it weren't for AMD implementing their 3D V-Cache technology on only a single of the used CCDs, the summary of the 7950x3D would look identical to the 7800x3D. If you want to game on the chip, go 3D, if not, don't.

However, as our direct comparisons above showed, there is more to this story.

As only a single CCD is running slower, but the chip still having the same core count and single-core performance, it created a very interesting spot for the 7950x3D.

First off, if the only use case for the CPU is gaming, there is no point in choosing a 7950x3D over the 7800x3D. It will cost more, consume more, and produce more heat while delivering no performance benefit.

If the only goal of the chip is working, like Editing, CAD,..., there is no point in using a 3D V-Cache chip to begin with as these types of tasks gain no benefit from the additional cache. Hence the 7950x is the better choice thanks to its slightly better performance.

However, if the chips are meant to be used for both, working and gaming (hopefully not simultaneously, but hey, we don't judge), the 7950x3D is the perfect chip. It has only a very minimally less powerful package compared to the 7950x, but it comes with the same gaming performance upgrade as the 7800x3D did.  

Therefore, the 7950x3D seems to be the perfect hybrid CPU of AMDs Ryzen 7000 Lineup. If both types of work are required of the chip, it can deliver both. The powerful CCD will take care of power-hungry tasks, while the L3-upgraded CCD will provide you with additional FPS during gaming sessions.