Zoom / Ryzen 7 5800X3D to AMD.
Andrew Cunningham
AMD’s AM4 socket has a long and successful use of desktops, introducing the Ryzen range of processors and helping AMD compete and outperform Intel chips for the first time since the mid-2000s.
The aging of the socket ended later this year, when the Ryzen 7000 series chips were launched, but AMD shipped 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 on the processor, from 32MB for the standard Ryzen 5800X to an incredible 96MB. This new technology seems like an experiment in some ways. Unlike other Ryzen processors, the 5800X3D does not offer overclocking or power consumption controls, and its clock speeds are slightly lower than the standard 5800X. But AMD says the additional cache allows the 5800X3D to outpace Intel’s fastest processors when it comes to gaming.
We’ve run some tests on the 5800X3D to find out its strengths and weaknesses and find out when you’ll notice the impact of the extra cache. This is undoubtedly an interesting processor, but its price and extremely specific performance advantages will limit it to a niche niche.
3D V-Cache, in short
Enlarge / Preview AMD’s 3D V-Cache.
AMD
Architecturally, nothing has changed for the Zen 3 cores that power the 5800X3D compared to the 5800X vanilla. We are still talking about an 8-core, 16-strand complex crystal (CCD), built on a 7 nm TSMC process, with intact 32MB L3 cache. Just as Apple built interconnect support into the M1 Max to support the M1 Ultra, AMD created Zen 3 to support 3D V-Cache technology when it was ready for delivery.
Advertising
The main change is that AMD and TSMC have reduced the physical height of the CCD, so a CPU package with 3D V-Cache will not need to be physically taller than a CPU package without it. This setting retains compatibility with existing CPU coolers.
The 64MB additional L3 cache, also built on a 7 nm TSMC process, is physically arranged on a Zen 3 CCD and is connected to a direct copper-to-copper connection. The result is what the system sees as one large pool of L3 cache, which can all be treated equally – 64MB ordered cache is not L4 cache, and 32MB L3 cache built into CCD has no performance advantage over cache. arranged on top.
Enlarge / The honey-copper bond is used to merge the CCD and the additional cache.
AMD
One side effect of this packaging technology is that the 5800X3D runs at a noticeably lower clock speed than the 5800X, and AMD does not officially allow overclocking or power adjustments when using the 5800X3D. AMD is pushing the 5800X3D primarily as a gaming processor, and that’s because gaming benefits more consistently from having a larger set of cache to play with. For workloads that are less interested in cache and more in clock speed – as we’ll see when we start comparing – the 5800X3D may be slower than the regular 5800X, which AMD freely admits.
8-core Zen 3 Zen 3 processors Street Price (base / gain) L3 cache TDP PCIe support $ 280-300 3.8 / 4.6 16MB 65W 3.0 Ryzen 7 5700X $ 299 3.32 / 40 MB. 4.7 32MB 105W 4.0 Ryzen 7 5800X3D $ 449 3.4 / 4.5 96MB 105W 4.0
AMD has smiled if we can expect future Zen 3 processors with 3D V-Cache activated, but reading between the lines seems unlikely. 3D V-Cache will be one of the tools in AMD’s toolkit when it comes to increasing productivity for Zen 4 and the first Socket AM5 platforms – along with 5nm TSMC process, DDR5 support and other architectural enhancements – but I don’t get the feeling The 5800X3D will be followed by an expanded range of Zen 3 X3D chips.
AMD says the motherboards will need a BIOS update to see and use the additional 64MB cache – look for AGESA version 1.2.0.6b or later in the release notes. Motherboards that support other Ryzen 5000 processors will run on the 5800X3D, but will not have access to additional cache, beating the goal of spending more money on the processor in the first place.
Add Comment