Andrew Cunningham AMD’s AM4 slot has had a long and successful desktop operation, introducing the Ryzen series of processors and helping AMD compete with and surpass Intel chips for the first time since the mid-2000s. The outdated time is nearing the end of this year, when the Ryzen 7000 series chips are released, but AMD is shipping it with one latest high-performance processor: the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which launches on April 20 for $ 449. AMD uses a unique packaging technology called “3D V-Cache” to triple the amount of L3 cache in the processor, from 32 MB for the standard Ryzen 5800X to a whopping 96 MB. This new technology looks like an experiment in a way. Unlike other Ryzen processors, the 5800X3D does not offer overclocking or power consumption control and its clock speeds are slightly lower than the standard 5800X. But AMD says the extra cache allows the 5800X3D to outperform Intel’s faster CPUs when it comes to gaming. We performed some tests on the 5800X3D to find its strengths and weaknesses and to understand when you will notice the impact of the additional cache. This is undoubtedly an interesting processor, but the pricing and extremely specific performance benefits will limit it to one place.

3D V-Cache, in short

Enlarge / Visualize AMD 3D V-Cache. AMD Architecturally, nothing about the Zen 3 cores that power the 5800X3D has changed compared to the vanilla 5800X. We are still talking about a composite mold of 8 cores, 16 threads, based on the 7 nm process of TSMC, with intact cache L3 32 MB. Just as Apple integrated interface support into the M1 Max to support the M1 Ultra, AMD created the Zen 3 to support 3D V-Cache technology whenever it was ready to ship. Advertising
The main change is that AMD and TSMC have reduced the physical height of the CCD mold so that a CPU package with 3D V-Cache does not have to be physically taller than a CPU package without it. This customization is compatible with existing CPU chillers. The 64 MB of additional L3 cache, also built into the TSMC 7 nm process, is naturally stacked on the Zen 3 CCD and connected by direct copper-to-copper connection. The result is what the system sees as a large pool of L3 cache that can all be handled the same way — 64MB of stacked cache is not L4 cache and 32MB of L3 cache built into the CCD is not. no performance advantage compared to the cache stacked on top. Magnification / The copper-to-copper connection is used to fuse the CCD and the additional cache. AMD A side effect of this packaging technology is that the 5800X3D operates at a significantly slower clock speed than the 5800X and AMD does not officially allow overclocking or power adjustments when using the 5800X3D. AMD is promoting the 5800X3D primarily as a game processor, and this is because games are more consistently benefiting from having a larger gaming cache. For workloads that care less about cache and more about clock speed — as we’ll see when we start benchmarking — the 5800X3D may be slower than the regular 5800X, which AMD freely admits. AMD Zen 3 8-core processors Price Road Clocks (Base / Boost) L3 cache TDP PCIe support Ryzen 7 5700G 280-300 $ 3.8 / 4.6 16MB 65W 3.0 Ryzen 7 5700X 299 $ 6W3.400X 3,400 $ 3,400 $ 3,400 $ 3. 4.7 32MB 105W 4.0 Ryzen 7 5800X3D 449 $ 3.4 / 4.5 96MB 105W 4.0 AMD disapproved of whether we could expect future Zen 3 processors with 3D V-Cache enabled, but reading between the lines seems unlikely. 3D V-Cache will be one of the tools in AMD’s toolbox for boosting performance for Zen 4 platforms and the first Socket AM5 platforms — along with a 5nm TSMC process, DDR5 support, and other architectural enhancements — but I have not understand the feeling that the 5800X3D will be followed by an expanded range of X3D chips based on Zen 3. AMD says motherboards will need a BIOS update to see and use the extra 64 MB of cache — look for AGESA version 1.2.0.6b or later in the release notes. Motherboards that support other Ryzen 5000 processors will work with the 5800X3D, but will not be able to access the extra cache, eliminating the need to spend more money on the CPU from the start.