AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU Review Ft. MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk – The Most Efficient High-End CPU
A new era is upon us, an era that involves a reenvisioned focus on performance and efficiency leadership in the CPU landscape. There are two companies that are battling hard to hold the throne of this segment but given the incremental (and sometimes revolutionary) changes that each chipmaker is bringing to the field in a span of a few quarters, there's no decisive victor. In return, the consumers keep on reaping the benefits of this heated battle between red and blue which is the most intense it's ever been.
While Intel may have managed to take the performance and value throne from AMD with its 13th-Gen Raptor Lake & 12th-Gen Alder Lake lineup, AMD wasn't going to sit silent. The red team has been offering some great discounts across its entire Ryzen 7000 CPUs and even offered more value in the form of the Non-X Ryzen 7000 series. But today, we get a taste of their X3D parts, featuring for the first time, the Ryzen 9 SKUs for enthusiast gamers out there.
In the five years of Zen, the company went from performance leadership to core leadership, efficiency leadership, and gaming leadership. And today, the red team even manages to secure the clock speed leadership, something that we thought was impossible against a rival such as Intel.
Intel 13th Gen vs AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU Lineup (2023):
| Intel CPU | Cores / Threads | Clocks (Max) | Price (MSRP) | Prices (Newegg) - 03/03/2023 | Prices (Newegg) - 03/03/2023 | Price (MSRP) | Clocks (Max) | Cores / Threads | AMD CPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i9-13900KS | 24/32 | 6.0 GHz (253W) | $699 US | $699 US | $699 US | $699 US | 5.7 GHz (120W) | 16/32 | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D |
| Intel Core i9-13900K | 24/32 | 5.8 GHz (253W) | $599 US (K) $574 US (KF) |
$579 US (K) $554 US (KF) |
$599 (X) $599 (X3D) |
$599 (X) $599 (X3D) |
5.7 GHz (170W) 5.6 GHz (120W) |
16/32 12/24 |
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D |
| Intel Core i7-13700K | 16/24 | 5.4 GHz (253W) | $419 US (K) $394 US (KF) |
$417 US (K) $398 US (KF) |
$449 US (X) $449 US (X3D) |
$449 US (X) $449 US (X3D) |
5.6 GHz (170W) 5.0 GHz (120W) |
12/24 8/16 |
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D |
| Intel Core i5-12600K | 14/20 | 5.1 GHz (181W) | $329 US (K) $304 US (KF) |
$289 US (K) $264 US (KF) |
$349 US (X) $249 US (X) |
$349 US (X) $249 US (X) |
5.4 GHz (105W) 5.3 GHz (105W) |
8/16 6/12 |
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AMD Ryzen 5 7600X |
While the initial Ryzen 7000 focused on a brand new platform with great gen-over-gen uplifts, the Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs aim to drive the gaming performance to the next level. This week, AMD is introducing two flagships, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, and Ryzen 9 7900X3D which aim at the high-end enthusiast market.
The main features of AMD's Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs include:
- Up To 16 Zen 4 Cores and 32 Threads
- +29% Performance Uplift In Single-Threaded Apps
- Brand New Zen 4 CPU Cores (IPC / Architectural Improvements)
- Brand New TSMC 5nm process node with 6nm IOD
- 25% Performance Per Watt Improvement Vs Zen 3
- >35% Overall Performance Improvement Vs Zen 3
- ~13% Instructions Per Clock (IPC) Improvement Vs Zen 3
- Support on AM5 Platform With LGA1718 Socket
- New X670E, X670, B650E, B650 Motherboards
- Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support
- Up To DDR5-5600 Native (JEDEC) Speeds
- 28 PCIe Lanes (CPU Exclusive)
- 105-120W TDPs (Upper Bound Range ~170W)
So for today's review, we will be taking a look at the flagship AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU on MSI's brand new MAG X670E Tomahawk motherboard and see how it performs.
Last year, AMD introduced the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, a CPU that was designed to offer the best value and performance to gamers by leveraging 3D V-Cache technology which allows AMD to stack large pools of cache on top of Zen chiplets, driving up performance in bandwidth starved games & applications. The benefit was clear right from the beginning with reviews showing a huge gaming performance boost that matched and even exceeded Intel's fastest CPU, the Core i9-12900K, at the time.
With the Ryzen 7000 X3D parts, AMD plans to repeat that and give gamers another boost that could potentially make AM5 the fastest platform to game on.
AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D 'Zen 4' 3D V-Cache Desktop CPUs Features:
- Minor optimization on TSMC's 5nm process node
- Up to 64 MB of Stacked cache per CCD (96 MB L3 per CCD)
- Increase In Gaming Performance (Avg & Mins)
- Compatible With AM5 Platforms
AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D Desktop CPU (Without IHS):
AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D CPU Lineup & Specifications
The AMD Ryzen 7000 3D V-Cache CPUs are the 2nd generation consumer V-Cache parts featuring stacked cache. While the Zen 3 lineup featured just one 3D V-Cache SKU, the Zen 4 lineup is getting three SKUs at vastly different prices.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D - 16 Cores With 144 MB Cache
Starting at the top, we have the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D which will be the flagship and the first 16-core CPU to feature 3D V-Cache technology. The chip will incorporate a total of 32 threads, a total of 144 MB cache (64 MB CCD, 64 MB V-Cache + 16 MB L2), and a TDP of 120W. As for the clocks, the chip is rated at a base clock of 4.2 GHz which is 300 MHz slower than the standard 7950X but boost clocks are rated at the same 5.7 GHz. This should give us a hint at why the TDP is 50W lower versus the Non-3D part.
The way AMD is arranging the 3D V-Cache structuring on the Ryzen 9 X3D parts is by putting the SRAM cache on a single CCD instead of both CCDs. This way, AMD can maximize the performance in gaming through a single CCD while retaining the secondary die to benefit from the higher clock speeds (1T). This means that there should be a balance of single-threaded gaming performance & multi-threaded applications without sacrificing overall clock speeds like the previous gen.
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D - 12 Cores With 140 MB Cache
The second chip is the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D which will feature 12 cores and 24 threads. This is also a 2 CCD configuration with one CCD configured with the V-Cache and the second without it. The chip features a total of 140 MB cache (64 MB CCD, 64 MB V-Cache + 12 MB L2). The clocks are rated at a 4.4 GHz base which is 200 MHz slower than the Non-3D SKU & the boost clock remains the same at 5.6 GHz. The CPU is also rated at a TDP of 120W.
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D - Replacing The 5800X3D As The New Gaming Champ!
Lastly, we have the successor to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. This CPU is going to be the ideal choice for gamers with 8 cores, 16 threads, and the same 104 MB of cache (32 MB CCD, 64 MB V-Cache + 8 MB L2). The CPU comes with a base clock of around 4 GHz which could end up at least 500 MHz slower than the Ryzen 7 7700X and a boost clock of 5.0 GHz which is 400 MHz slower than the Ryzen 7 7700X.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Raphael Desktop CPU Specs:
| CPU Name | Architecture | Process Node | Cores / Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock (SC Max) | Cache | TDP | Prices (MSRP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D | Zen 4 3D V-Cache | 5nm | 16/32 | 4.2 GHz | 5.7 GHz | 144 MB (64+64+16) | 120W | $699 US |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | Zen 4 | 5nm | 16/32 | 4.5 GHz | 5.7 GHz | 80 MB (64+16) | 170W | $599 US |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D | Zen 4 3D V-Cache | 5nm | 12/24 | 4.4 GHz | 5.6 GHz | 144 MB (64+64+12) | 120W | $599 US |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900X | Zen 4 | 5nm | 12/24 | 4.7 GHz | 5.6 GHz | 76 MB (64+12) | 170W | $449 US |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900 | Zen 4 | 5nm | 12/24 | 3.6 GHz | 5.4 GHz | 76 MB (64+12) | 65W | $429 US |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D | Zen 4 3D V-Cache | 5nm | 8/16 | 4.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 104 MB (32+64+8) | 120W | $449 US |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | Zen 4 | 5nm | 8/16 | 4.5 GHz | 5.4 GHz | 40 MB (32+8) | 105W | $349 US |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700 | Zen 4 | 5nm | 8/16 | 3.6 GHz | 5.3 GHz | 40 MB (32+8) | 65W | $329 US |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | Zen 4 | 5nm | 6/12 | 4.7 GHz | 5.3 GHz | 38 MB (32+6) | 105W | $249 US |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600 | Zen 4 | 5nm | 6/12 | 3.8 GHz | 5.1 GHz | 38 MB (32+6) | 65W | $229 US |
AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D CPU Performance
In terms of performance, AMD hasn't shared a whole lot of data which is fair since they want the independent tech industry to test these chips out later this month and showcase their own data rather than relying on official figures. We did get to see performance numbers for the two Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
AMD compared the Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU to Intel's top Core i9-13900K across several gaming and workload apps. The results show that the 3D V-Cache chip can offer up to 24% faster performance in gaming at 1080p with high image quality. Following are the game tests and the respective gains over the 13900K CPU:
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Gaming Performance Test (via AMD):
- Watch Dogs Legion (1080p) - Up To 9% Faster
- DOTA (1080p) - Up To 11% Faster
- Rainbow Six Siege (1080p) - Up To 13% Faster
- Horizon Zero Dawn (1080p) - Up To 24% Faster
As we mentioned above, the 7950X3D chips have a different CCD configuration with one running at higher clocks and the other with conservative limits set in place due to the 3D V-Cache stacking. But that doesn't change the overall performance a lot even in workload apps as the chip can outclass a Core i9-13900K CPU in various tests as shown below:
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Workload Performance Test (via AMD):
- File Encryption (VeraCrypt AES) - Up To 4% Faster
- 3D Graphics (PassMark 10) - Up To 11% Faster
- Adobe Premiere Pro (Playback) - Up To 17% Faster
- DaVinci Resolve (Extended Score) - Up To 24% Faster
- File Compression (7-Zip) - Up To 52% Faster
Lastly, we have the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D which has been compared against the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and the results are even more impressive. Using the same 1080p resolution and high-quality preset across various games, the CPU scored a gaming performance lead of up to 30% versus the first-gen X3D CPU. The gains can be seen below:
- Rainbow Six Siege (1080p) - Up To 21% Faster
- Warhammer Dawn of War III (1080p) - Up To 22% Faster
- CS:GO (1080p) - Up To 23% Faster
- Dota 2 (1080p) - Up To 30% Faster
These are definitely big gains for gamers and the addition of the Ryzen 9 parts means that users will not only have the fastest gaming performance around but also the fastest content creation perf.
For this particular review, we used MSI's MAG X670E Tomahawk motherboard which has the latest BIOS that allows for out of box compatibility with the AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs. The motherboard was sent to us by MSI just a few days ahead of the launch so we thought it would be wise to use it as our test platform for the new X3D parts.
The MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk motherboard comes in the standard cardboard package. The front is themed in silver and grey. The motherboard is part of the MAG or Massive Arsenal Gaming line & offers all the basic features plus a bit more at a handsome price point.
The backside of the package lists the specifications and special features of the motherboard such as the 14 Phase DUET VRM Solution, Lightning 20G USB ports, WiFi 6E support, Lightning Gen5 slots and M.2 Shield Frozr heatsinks.
Inside the package is another box that contains the accessories at the bottom. It is very easy to access although the accessories and each of them are nicely packed in three compartments. The following is the full list of accessories in the package.
- Quick Installation Guide / EU Regulatory Notice
- 2 x SATA Cables
- 3 x M.2 Clip
- M.2 Plate Screw
- Cable Stickers
- 1 x Antenna (WiFi)
The motherboard is housed above the accessories and has anti-static wrapping to protect it from any built-up electrical resistance that can affect the board.
The MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk comes with a discrete look that includes no RGB implementation, making it perfect for RGB heartens. The whole black design looks absolutely great and reminds me of the MSI Unify series.
The MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk motherboard comes with brushed and metallic black color choices. It comes in the standard ATX form factor and has a pricing close to $300 US making it one of the most affordable X670E-class motherboard options out there.
The board uses the LGA 1718 socket to support AMD Ryzen 7000 processors. The socket is compatible only with Ryzen 7000 CPUs for now but will also support future iterations on the AM5 platform.
Next to the socket are four DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 128 GB of dual-channel memory. These slots are rated to support EXPO profiles up to 6600 MHz (OC Plus). The DIMM slots feature metallic shielding around them for extra durability. Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation. DDR5 memory comes with a different latch position so forcing a DDR4 module into a DDR5 slot will cause permanent damage.
The MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk motherboard features a 14+2+1 Phase VRM (VCore / VccGT / VccAUX) phase digital power delivery.
As you can see, the VRMs are getting ample cooling from the Shield Frozr heatsinks that have an extended design underneath the I/O cover. The motherboard isn't specifically tagged as an OC design but there's a lot of headroom that should be provided by the VRM solution.
The CPU is supplied power through an 8+8 pin power connector configuration. This will feed the CPU with up to 300 Watts of power. The Intel 12th Gen Unlocked CPUs are very power-hungry with the maximum package power rating of 230W & more if you are planning to overclock these chips.
Getting a closer look at the VRM heatsinks reveals an aluminum fin design on both heatsinks. Each heatsink has thermal pads located underneath for efficient transfer of heat.
Expansion slots include three PCI Express x16 (1 x Gen 5.0 x16 / 2 x Gen 4.0 x4 / 1x Gen 4.0 x 2), a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, and four M.2 slots (1x Gen 5 / 3x Gen 4).
AORUS is using a metallic cover on the sides of the expansion slots which provides protection to some extent. It adds more retention and shearing resistance by reinforcing the slots with metal plates. Aside from adding more protection, they do look really sweet.
All five M.2 slots are cooled off by the thermal pad and aluminum baseplate cooling. This will ensure stable operation for M.2 storage devices. The thermal adhesive has a plastic cover over them which needs to be removed before being used with the storage devices.
The topmost M.2 slot that will house the primary M.2 is based on the new Thermal Guard III heatsink design that offers even more cooling performance through a larger heat sink. Following is the M.2 config on the motherboard:
CPU:
- PCI_E1 Gen PCIe 5.0 supports up to x16 (From CPU)
- PCI_E3 Gen PCIe 4.0 supports up to x4 (From CPU)
- M.2_1 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4, supports 22110/2280 devices
Chipset:
- PCI_E2 Gen PCIe 3.0 supports up to x1 (From Chipset)
- PCI_E4 Gen PCIe 4.0 supports up to x2 (From Chipset)
- M.2_2 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4, supports 2280/2260 devices
- M.2_3 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4, supports 2280/2260 devices
- M.2_4 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4, supports 2280/2260 devices
The X670 dual PCHs are housed beneath a large heatsink with the Tomahawk logo etched over it that looks great.
Storage options include four SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support 4 different storage devices at once. There is also one USB 3.2 Gen 2 and 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Front headers.
MSI is using the latest combination of hardware, and software audio solutions. 7.1 CH HD audio with the latest Realtek ALC1200 audio codec. There are no buttons on the motherboard but it does feature a EZDebug LED which provides users with several LEDs that can be used for diagnostics.
The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.
- 1x Power Connector(ATX_PWR)
- 2x Power Connector(CPU_PWR)
- 1x CPU Fan
- 1x Pump Fan
- 6x System Fan
- 2x Front Panel (JFP)
- 1x Chassis Intrusion (JCI)
- 1x Front Audio (JAUD)
- 1x Tuning Controller connector(JDASH)
- 2x Addressable V2 RGB LED connector (JARGB_V2)
- 2x RGB LED connector(JRGB)
- 1x TPM pin header(Support TPM 2.0)
- 4x USB 2.0 ports
- 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type A ports
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type C ports
MSI is using Intel's WiFi 6E 802.11 AX210 WiFi Module to power wireless connectivity such as 802.11ax WiFi (2.4/5/6 GHz WiFi) and Bluetooth 5.2. In terms of Ethernet, there is also a single 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet LAN port which is powered by Realtek's RTL8125BG controller chip.
The motherboard comes with the following I/O connectors:
- DisplayPort
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps (Type-A)
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 5Gbps (Type-A)
- 2.5G LAN
- Wi-Fi / Bluetooth
- Audio Connectors
- Flash BIOS Button
- HDMI
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps (Type-C Display port)
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps (Type-C)
- S/PDIF-Out
For testing, I used the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D with the MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk motherboard.
1547-Intel-12th-Gen-Alder-Lake-CPU-Test-Platform-2023-03-03.csv
| Processors | Intel Core i9-13900K Intel Core i5-13600K Intel Core i9-12900K Intel Core i5-12600K AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D AMD Ryzen 9 7950X AMD Ryzen 9 7900X AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AMD Ryzen 5 7600X AMD Ryzen 9 5950X AMD Ryzen 9 5900X AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D AMD Ryzen 7 5800X |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk (Ryzen 7000 X3D) MSI MEG Z790 ACE (Intel 13th Gen) X670E AORUS Xtreme (Ryzen 7000) Z690 AORUS Master (Intel 12th Gen) ASRock X570S PG Riptide (Ryzen 5000 / X3D) |
| Power Supply | ASUS ROG THOR 1200W |
| Solid State Drive | Samsung SSD 980 PRO M.2 (1 TB) |
| Memory | G.SKILL Trident Z5 32 GB (2 x 16GB) CL36 7200 Mbps (DDR5 Platforms) G.SKILL Trident Z5 32 GB (2 x 16GB) CL36 6000 Mbps (DDR5 Platforms) G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16 GB (2 x 8GB) CL17 4000 Mbps (DDR4 Platforms) |
| Video Cards | MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X |
| Cooling Solutions | Corsair H115i (With LGA 1700 Mounting Kit) |
| OS | Windows 11 64-bit |
Our test rig includes the Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB SSD that boots up our main OS while a 2 TB Seagate HDD is used for the storage of games and applications. In addition to these, we are running an MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X graphics card, and an ASUS ROG Thor 1200W power supply. For this specific review, we used G.Skill's latest Trident Z5 NEO DDR5-6000 memory kit running at CL30 timings. We also got an AM5 mounting kit for the Corsair H115i to use as a cooling solution for our test setup.
3DMark Time Spy CPU Performance
3DMark Time Spy is a widely popular video card benchmark test for Windows that is designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance. While the overall benchmark is great, the utility also provides a good indication of the CPU performance.
3DMark TimeSpy CPU (Higher is Better)
Blender
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Blender 2.8 (Lower is Better)
Cinebench R20
Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user.
Cinebench R20 (Higher is Better)
Cinebench R23
Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user.
Cinebench R23 (Higher is Better)
CPU-Z
CPUz is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system such as the Processor name and number, codename, process, package, cache levels, Mainboard, and chipset, Memory type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD), and Real-time measurement of each core's internal frequency, memory frequency.
CPU-z (Higher is Better)
Geekbench 5
Geekbench 5, the latest major upgrade to Primate Labs’ easy-to-use cross-platform benchmark, is now available for download. Geekbench 5 allows you to measure your system’s power more accurately than ever before.
Geekbench 5 (Higher is Better)
HandBrake
HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.
Handbrake (Higher is Better)
PCMark 10
PCMark 10 is a complete PC benchmarking solution for Windows 10. It includes several tests that combine individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing, and gaming. Specifically designed for the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 10 offers complete Windows PC performance testing for home and business use.
PCMark 10 (Higher is Better)
POV-Ray
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POV-Ray 3.7 (Higher is Better)
SuperPI
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SuperPi (Lower is Better)
WinRAR
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Winrar 5.8 (Higher is Better)
X264 HD Encode Benchmark
This benchmark measures the encoding performance of the processor. It offers a standardized benchmark for the clip, as well as the encoder used, is uniform.
X264 HD Encode Benchmark (Higher is Better)
Battlefield V
Battlefield V brings back the action of the World War 2 shooter genre. Using the latest Frostbite tech, the game does a good job of looking gorgeous in all ways possible. From the open-world environments to the intense and gun-blazing action, this multiplayer and single-player FPS title is one of the best-looking Battlefields to date. The game was tested at max settings at 1440p.
Battlefield V
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is an action role-playing video game developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt. The story takes place in Night City, an open world set in the Cyberpunk universe. Players assume the first-person perspective of a customizable mercenary known as V, who can acquire skills in hacking and machinery with options for melee and ranged combat. The game uses CD Projekt Red's in-house Red Engine which is one of the most visually breathtaking and also one of the most graphics-intensive engines designed to date.
Cyberpunk 2077
DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal brings hell to earth with the Vulkan-powered idTech 7. We test this game using the Ultra Nightmare Preset and follow our in-game benchmarking to stay as consistent as possible.
DOOM Eternal
Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series. The latest DX12-powered entry is beautifully crafted, amazingly well executed, and a great showcase of DX12 games. We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.
Forza Horizon 5
GTA V
GTA V is one handsomely optimized title for the PC audience. It's scalable across various PC configurations and delivers an impressive frame rate. Rockstar did an amazing job with the PC build of GTA V and it comes with a large array of settings that can be configured by PC gamers. We tested the title at 1440P with everything set to Ultra and 4x MSAA.
GTA V
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus continues the journey of Artyom through the nuclear wasteland of Russia and its surroundings. This time, you are set over the Metro, going through various regions and different environments. The game is one of the premier titles to feature NVIDIA’s RTX technology and does well in showcasing the ray-tracing effects in all corners. The game was tested at Ultra setting with RTX settings turned off at 1440p.
Metro Exodus
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
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Shadow of The Tomb Raider
Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Civilization VI is the pinnacle of the series. It features huge, sweeping changes, and nothing was left out. Everything has found a purpose, they all work together in tandem but also have a reason to stand alone. It uses a more fleshed-out engine that now supports DirectX 12 capabilities. We tested the game with every setting maxed out (4x MSAA, 4096x4096 shadow textures) at 1440P in DirectX 12.
Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Watch Dogs Legion
Watch Dogs: Legion is a 2020 action-adventure game published by Ubisoft and developed by its Toronto studio. It is the third installment in the Watch Dogs series and the sequel to 2016's Watch Dogs 2. Set within a fictionalized representation of a futuristic, dystopian London, the game's story follows the hacker syndicate DedSec as they seek to clear their names after being framed for a series of terrorist bombings
Watch Dogs Legion
CS:GO
Even after several years, Counter Strike Global Offensive remains one of the top online FPS and eSports title in the gaming industry while utilizing a modern version of Valve's Source engine.
Ashes of The Singularity
AMD's Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs utilize a brand new Zen 4 core architecture that is built on the 5nm process node as such, these chips are designed to be extremely efficient.
Power Consumption (Stock) Stress Test
Power Consumption (Stock) Gaming Test
The AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs either have two or three chiplets, one or two of which are the aforementioned AMD Zen 4 CCDs fabricated on the 5nm process node, and then we have the larger die around the center which is the IOD and that is based on a 6nm process node. The AMD Ryzen 7000 CCD measures at a die size of 70mm2 compared to 83mm2 for Zen 3 and feature a total of 6.57 Billion transistors, a 58% increase over the Zen 3 CCD with 4.15 Billion transistors,
Scattered around the package are several SMDs (capacitors/resistors) that usually sit under the package substrate if we consider Intel's CPUs. AMD is instead featuring them on the top layer and as such, they had to design a new kind of IHS which is internally referred to as the Octopus. We've already seen the delidded IHS before but now we get to see a final production chip with no lid on it to cover those gold Zen 4 nuggets!
With that said, the IHS is an interesting component of the AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs. The one picture shows the arrangement of the 8 arms which Robert Hallock 'Director of Technical Marketing at AMD' refers to as the 'Octopus'. Each arm has a small application of TIM beneath it which is used to solder the IHS to the interposer. Now delidding the chip is going to be really hard since each arm is right next to the massive array of capacitors. Each Arm is also slightly raised to make room for the SMDs and users shouldn't worry about heat getting trapped beneath.
The most interesting area of the AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPU IHS, besides the arms, is the gold-plated IHS which is used to increase thermal dissipation off of the CPU/IO dies and directly to the IHS. The two 5nm Zen 4 CCD's and singular 6nm IO die have liquid-metal TIM or Thermal interface material for better heat conductivity and the aforementioned gold plating does help a lot with heat dissipation. What remains to be seen is whether the capacitors will feature silicone coating or not but from the previous package shot, it kind of looks like they do.
The thermal testing was carried out with the Corsair H1150i AIO liquid cooler:
Temperatures (Stock)
The 2nd generation of AMD Ryzen 3D V-Cache CPUs is here and this time, the red team is offering a choice of high-end and mainstream solutions. Kicking things off in the high-end range first, we have the Ryzen 9 7950X3D which sits on top of the Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" throne but whether it's worth the price, or will it be better to wait for the lower cost 7800X3D?
3D V-Cache Chiplet or Frequency-Optimized Chiplet?
The AMD Ryzen 9 7000 3D V-Cache CPUs come in an interesting chiplet design with one offering the stacked cache and the other being a standard chiplet. The 3D V-Cache chiplet is optimized for gaming and the other chiplet is optimized for frequency-focused workloads. Users can disable or enable the chiplet they want to use based on their preferences but AMD is working with Microsoft to ensure that the proper chiplet gets utilized during a specific type of workload.
This implementation has a certain tradeoff. For example, the 3D V-Cache chiplet has power and thermal constraints due to which it cannot sustain the same frequencies that the other chiplet is able to sustain. Vice-versa, the 3D V-Cache chiplet benefits from the extra cache, and games that utilize that specific chiplet would either park the rest of the 8 cores / 16 threads or utilize them & result in slightly abnormal operation. As was the case with Intel's hybrid architecture approach we saw with the Thread Director implementation, the AMD 3D V-Cache CPUs will be a work in progress and that's shown by the two distinct chipset drivers that were released close to launch.
But that doesn't mean the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D is any slouch. The chip performs well within our expectations and delivers around 95% of 7950X's performance. The best part is that it does so at a much lower power consumption. So you still retain the high-end multi-threaded performance in a chip that performs exceptionally well at gaming.
Gaming Performance Is Incredible
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D is designed to offer the best of both worlds and as much as capable it is in application workloads, it's even better than a gaming chip. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU is able to outperform the Intel Core i9-13900K in the vast majority of titles and even the DDR5-7200 setup of the 13900K wasn't able to keep up with the highs that the 7950X3D produced. Surely, gaming performance mainly depends on the title being tested but the chip paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivered some incredible results.
Our performance results focused mostly on 1440p and 2160p performance since this is what the majority of high-end gamers play on. Surely, we will be able to see some bigger gains at 1080p but you aren't buying a $1000 US+ graphics card and a $500 US+ CPU to game at that resolution. With that said, one area where we saw an even bigger gain was the 0.1% lows (soon to be added to this review). Here, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D absolutely crushed the Core i9-13900K and delivered a vastly smoother playing experience at higher resolutions.
Power Efficiency Keeps on RYZENING!
Coming To power consumption, this is another key aspect where AMD shows the strengths of its Zen 4 core architecture and simply blows the competition away.
The CPU consumes almost 30-50 percent lower power than the competition at stock and in gaming, the CPU is on a whole different level. Even at stock, the CPUs consume as much as 50-60W lower power than the competition in gaming power consumption and that's taken to the next level with the 65W ECO mode which pushes the power down to sub-100W levels while retaining the same performance in gaming. Sometimes, the CPU was sipping around 50-60W of power while gaming which shows AMD's strength in the efficiency segment.
But if you plan on using the ECO mode in multi-threaded workloads, then you should expect performance drops compared to stock since the Zen 4 CPU cores require that extra juice deliver the 40-50% performance boost over their predecessors. Despite that, the CPUs still end up being the most efficient processors on the market. The good thing is that gaming won't see as much of a drop when running the 65W ECO mode since one chiplet will be parked, leaving just the 3D V-Cache chiplet to run.
Now compared to the previous generation CPUs, the maximum power targets have been raised and the CPU package size and IHS have gotten smaller. As such, the higher transistor density and smaller thermal density mean that the chip is bound to get hot and so it does. The CPU is able to hit its 89C thermal limit with ease unless you are really using the best of the best liquid cooling setup.
Who's The Ryzen 9 7950X3D For?
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D is a powerful chip, it has strong multi-threaded performance and even better gaming performance. The CPU is crazy efficient and it rips through all games even when just sipping close to 100W of power, that's half of what the competition has to pull to offer pretty much the same performance (in some cases, the competition even loses while sipping double the power).
With all of that considered, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D is a great flagship CPU but the $699 US price is slightly on the high-end side. Considering that the main benefits of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D over the 7950X include faster gaming performance and higher efficiency, that's not enough to warrant a 100 US+ price charge. The 7950X still leads the multi-threaded benchmarks versus the 7950X3D and the gaming performance isn't that big of a leap in some titles. The Core i9-13900K is even better with a $150 US price difference and great multi-threaded and gaming performance. If you aren't going the efficiency route, then that might as well be your best bet.
Final Verdict - The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D is an efficiency king which is quite surprising for a high-end CPU of this class to be. Offering stunning gaming/application performance while consuming half of what the competition does, it is a spectacular chip but the pricing may put off some gamers and customers to grab a 13900K or 7950X instead. With that said, the 7950X3D has made me even more excited for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D which is definitely going to disrupt the sub-$500 US gaming segment when it launches in April.
The post AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU Review Ft. MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk – The Most Efficient High-End CPU by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.
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