AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Review: Core i7 has a new Challenger



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The AMZ Ryzen 3000 series has landed with Intel in its high-stakes game for the dominance of the desktop market with a full range of new chips that push mainstream platforms to a larger number of cores and compute more raw than ever. As a result, Intel's imposing presence in the amateur space has been threatened in a way that has not been seen in a decade.

We started by taking a look at the Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 7 3700X last week and left impressed, but our review left us feeling that something was missing.

This something is the Ryzen 7 3800X. AMD launches the TDP dial up to 105W on this 16-core, 8-core chip, making it the high-performance counterpart of the 65W Ryzen 7 3700X, which is basically the same 7nm chip built with Zen 2 microarchitecture , but with a TDP ranking. This chip from our first look at the Ryzen 3000 series had been awarded an Editor's Choice Award, going hand in hand with Intel's Core i7-9700K. It is therefore fair to say that we have high hopes for a more efficient model. AMD still did not test the chip to the press, we bought a retail to put it under the microscope.

The Ryzen 7 3800X is located beneath the Ryzen 9 3900X, which comes with two 7nm compute chips connected together to a 12nm input / output chip for a 12-wire 12-wire part. AMD has done wonders to reduce the impact of this kind of multi-chip arrangement, but it's fair to assume that the Ryzen 7 3800X's single-calculator design, coupled with a higher TDP rating, facilitates more aggressive boost clocks. , could compete with the 3900X in some applications – games included.

SEP (USD)
Nuclei / Nets
TDP (Watts)
Base frequency / boost (GHz)
L3 Cache (MB)
PCIe 4.0 channels
Ryzen 9 3950X $ 749 16/32 105W 3.5 / 4.7 64 24
Ryzen 9 3900X $ 499 12/24 105W 3.8 / 4.6 64 24
Ryzen 7 3800X
$ 399
8/16
105W
3.9 / 4.5
32
24
Ryzen 7 3700X $ 329 8/16 65W 3.6 / 4.4 32 24
Ryzen 5 3600X $ 249 6/12 95W 3.8 / 4.4 32 24
Ryzen 5 3600 $ 199 6/12 65W 3.6 / 4.2 32 24

And that's exactly what we found. The Ryzen 7 3800X incorporates the basic ingredients of the Zen 2 microarchitecture, which offers an average of 15% more instruction through cycle (CIP) flow, as well as a 7nm process and integrates them into an impressive high-performance chip for our entire test suite. Especially competitive prices, the PCIe 4.0 interface, backward compatibility with most AM4 socket motherboards, unlocked overclocking features, and built-in cooler are especially important.

However, we also found that after a simple overclocking with the help of a push button, the Ryzen 7 3700X delivers performance similar to that of the 3800X, even when it is also overclocked. But for $ 70 less. The Ryzen 7 3800X is an impressive chip and offers a better mix of performance than the Intel Core i7-9700K, without a doubt, but in this case, the value researchers could opt for his less expensive brother.

Ryzen 7 3800X

We've covered the design details of the Ryzen 3000 chip in our AMD Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 7 3700X reviews, so check out the architecture of the 3800X, which is identical to the Ryzen 7 3700X.

The 3900X Ryzen 7 at 399 USD lands in the price differential between the Core i9-9900K at 488 USD and the Core i7-9700K at 374 USD. Of course, the -9700K is the natural competitor of the 3800X and, although it matches the AMD part with eight physical cores, Intel's cutting of the Hyper-Threading feature leaves it with eight lower 3800X threads.

Process SEP / RCP (USD) Nuclei / Nets TDP (Watts) Basic frequency (GHz) Total cache (MB) PCIe channels iGPU Price per wire
Core i9-9900K 14nm $ 488 8/16 95w 3.6 / 5.0 16 16 Gen3 Yes $ 30.05
Ryzen 7 3800X
7 nm $ 399
8/16
105W
3.9 / 4.5
32
24 Gen4
No $ 24.94
Core i9-9700K 14nm $ 374 8/8 95W 3.6 / 4.9 12 16 Gen3 Yes $ 46.75
Ryzen 7 2700X 12nm $ 329 8/16 105W 3.7 / 4.3 16 20 Gen3 No $ 20.56
Ryzen 7 3700X
7 nm $ 329
8/16
65W
3.6 / 4.4
32
24 Gen4
No $ 20.56
Core i7-9700 14nm $ 323 8/8 95W 3.6 / 4.9 12 16 Gen3 Yes $ 40.38

The -9700K model has a power rating of 95W, while the 3800X model has a power rating of 105W. Contrary to popular belief, these assessments are not intended to quantify energy consumption. Instead, they measure the amount of heat that the chip dissipates under load, but both companies use different test methodologies. Intel specifies the TDP at the base frequency, thereby ignoring the maximum heat output during boosting activity, while AMD performs the measurement with all cores fully charged. The only way to make real power comparisons is to measure power, which we'll come back to in a few moments. In either case, we expect the AMD 7nm design to continue the trend of increased energy efficiency compared to Intel's 14nm components. The 3800X also comes with a healthy 32MB portion of L3 cache, while the Intel-9700K processor comes with 12MB.

As the most expensive version of the Ryzen 7 3700X, the 3800X has higher base and precision frequencies of 3.9 and 4.5 GHz, respectively. This corresponds to a 300 MHz increase in base frequency and an increase of 100 MHz to improve clocks, but the real benefit should lie in the packet power tracking (PPT) envelope. , which is a measure of the maximum amount of energy supplied to the socket. The 3700X PPT peaks at 88W, while the 3800X can pump up to 142W at peak performance. This opens a much more aggressive boost behavior, both on single and multiple kernels, which could widen the performance gap beyond what we see on the spec sheet.

Credit: AMDCredit: AMDLike the other Ryzen chips 7 and 9, the 3800X comes with the Wraith Prism RGB cooler capable of dissipating up to 124W if you increase the fan power. Considering the 3800X's maximum 142W PPT measurement, this means, at least on paper, that the Wraith Prism could be a little shy to dissipate all the heat released from the 3800X with the original settings.

Due to the dynamic nature of AMD's Precision Boost 2 algorithms, the chip will react according to its environmental conditions, with heat dissipation being a key variable that dictates performance. This means that you will probably get better performance, even at the stock level, with a better cooler. The Wraith will not provide a lot of overclocking margin either. Consider buying a more powerful cooler for overclocking or to take full advantage of Precision Boost Overdrive (AMD's automated overclocking feature). We reported it for additional testing once we received more mature BIOS revisions.

You can associate the Ryzen 3000 chips with the new X570 chipset to release the increased bitrate of PCIe 4.0, a feature that Intel does not offer, or you can drop the processor in most motherboards. the previous generation as an economic alternative, but you're I will lose support for PCIe 4.0.

DIMM Config Memory ranks Official transfer rate supported (MT / s)
2 of 2 Unique DDR4-3200
2 of 4 DDR4-3200
4 out of 4 DDR4-2933
2 of 2 Double DDR4-3200
2 of 4 DDR4-3200
4 out of 4 DDR4-2667

The Ryzen 3000 chips support the dual-channel DDR4-3200, an additional advance over the previous generation support for the DDR4-2966. AMD has significantly improved its memory compatibility and overclocking capabilities, but you must always follow the rules that dictate the maximum supported frequency based on DIMM type and number of slots.

If you do not like these rules, you can simply increase the voltage and you try overclocking or buy a more powerful kit with an A-XMP profile in one click. As we know, Zen microarchitecture benefits greatly from improved memory performance. Therefore, more expensive kits are a good investment that pays dividends, especially in games.

Credit: AMDCredit: AMD

AMD has significantly improved memory overclocking, especially due to the decoupling of the Infinity Fabric from the memory clock. To avoid the 2,000 MHz maximum frequency of Infinity Fabric, which effectively limits overclocking of memory, AMD allows users to separate dependencies from Infinity Fabric memory and clock. Domains remain linked in a 1: 1 ratio up to DDR4-3600, but operate at a 2: 1 ratio greater than this transfer rate. This setting, which is also user-adjustable in the BIOS, improves the memory bandwidth, but results in a latency penalty (~ 9ns). AMD says the ideal price / quality ratio drops to DDR4-3600. In keeping with its usual policy, AMD supports up to 128 GB of RAM and activates ECC support, but leaves ECC qualification and activation to motherboard publishers.

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