AMD quickly followed up the Ryzen 9 7950X with the 7950X3D with fewer than 6 months between them. The latter is the first asymmetrical Zen chip featuring a 3D V-Cache and a vanilla Zen 4 die. In addition to the L3 cache, the two differ in core frequencies and power consumption. The V-Cache die has a lower boost clock (~5GHz to 5.2GHz) and, therefore, a lower power consumption. Its counterpart, however, boosts as high as 5.75GHz, drawing the same amount of power as the 7950X CCD.
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D | Intel Core i9-13900K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CCDs | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Cores/Threads | 16/32 | 16/32 | 8/16 | 24/32 |
| Base Clock | 4.2GHz | 4.7GHz | 4.2GHz | 3.0GHz |
| Boost Clock | 5.7GHz | 5.7GHz | 5.0GHz | 5.8GHz |
| L3 Cache | 32MB+32MB+64MB | 32MB+32MB | 32MB+64MB | 36MB |
| Power | 120 watts | 170 watts | 120 watts | 253 watts |
| Socket | AM5 | AM5 | AM5 | LGA1700 |
| Price | $662 | $549 | $369 | $543 |
Test Bench
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus Master X670E
- Memory: DDR5 16GB x2 @6,000MT/s CL36 (EXPO)
- Heatsink: Noctua NH-D15
- GPU: GeForce RTX 4090 FE
- PSU: Corsair HX1000i Platinum
Ryzen 9 7950X3D vs Ryzen 9 7950X Gaming Benchmarks
In traditional rasterized games, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D quickly distinguishes itself, beating the 7950X in every test by a sizable margin. Right off the boot, it is 22% faster than the latter in Assassins’ Creed Valhalla at 720p and 1080p. Cyberpunk 2077 is more GPU bottlenecked, and the two chips perform roughly the same.
Dying Light 2 favors the 7950X3D even more. The 3D V-Cache part is nearly 50% faster than the 7950X in this game at the ultra preset at 720p. Hitman 3 is a more moderate affair with a single-digit delta between the two CPUs.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we see a massive 32% difference in the frame rates of the two CPUs. The deltas shrink to 14% in Callisto Protocol, while Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands exhibits similar numbers.
Ryzen 9 7950X3D vs Ryzen 9 7950X Ray Tracing Benchmarks
The deltas are notably smaller in ray-traced titles, as the GPU does much of the heavy lifting. The two chips are equally fast in Crysis Remastered, while Cyberpunk 2077 sees the 7950X3D take an 11% lead over the 7950X at 720p.
In Dying Light 2, the Ryzen 9 79509X3D is 20% faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X at 720p. At 1080p, the two CPUs are limited by the GPU, offering the same frame rates. F1 2022 and Hitman 3 see a minimal delta of 5-10% between the processors, as does Metro Exodus.
Benchmarks continue on the next page…
