AMD Ryzen 7 3800X CPU Review

A couple of months ago saw the launch of the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen processors. We've already reviewed the Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 9 3900X here. We were beyond impressed with the progress AMD made this generation. Lower temperatures, lower power consumptions we're very welcome. However, it was the single and multi-core performance gains that won us over the most; and many of our readers too. While the differences from the Ryzen 7 3700X to the Ryzen 7 3800X we're reviewing today aren't vast, they are there. As you might expect, it costs a little bit more and promises to be just that little bit faster. More for more, can't argue with that logic, so let's take a closer look! AMD Ryzen 7 3800X The new CPU replaces the 2700X, which replaced the 1800X. You still get 8 cores and 16 threads just like the first and second-gen. However, we now get a 3.9 GHz base clock and a 4.5 GHz boost clock. Plus other befits from the progression of AM4 and the respective chipsets. PCIe 4.0 is now supported on all the new CPUs and motherboards, as well as further improvements for support of higher memory speeds, etc. Features and Specifications Cores/Threads - 8/16Base Clock/PB2 Clock - 3.9GHz/4.5GHzTDP - 105WSocket - AM4PCIe Version - 4.0 x16Max Temps - 95cCMOS - TSMC 7nm FinFET For in-depth specifications, please visit the official AMD Ryzen 7 3800X product page here. PCIe 4.0 The new motherboards (X570), as well as the new CPUs unleash PCIe 4.0 to the world. This means support for the latest Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSDs which can operate at up to 5000 MB/s read and write. Now, that's not the only thing, albeit, it is so far. There will no doubt be other innovations in the coming months, and even years, that take advantage of the massively increased bandwidth. No doubt GPUs will adapt to this soon enough too. The CPU Stock Coolers The 3800X came bundled with the latest AMD stock cooler. It's a great looking bit of kit too. It features RGB on the fan and a ring of RGB on the housing. It comes with all the sync cables required to pair the lighting to your motherboard or RGB hub also. How We Test Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Testing Your Own System Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using our benchmarks and settings where possible. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware we tested to give you a ballpark figure of how much an upgrade this will provide you with. Intel Testbenches Z390 Motherboard – Gigabyte AORUS MasterRAM – Crucial DDR4 3000MHz Quad-Channel 32GB + OptaneCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Z370 Motherboard – Gigabyte AORUS Ultra GamingRAM – Crucial DDR4 3000MHz Quad-Channel 32GB + OptaneCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X299 Motherboard – Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 9RAM – Crucial DDR4 3000MHz Quad-Channel 32GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AMD Testbenches X399 (2nd Generation Threadripper) Motherboard – MSI X399 Creation MEGRAM – Crucial 64GB (8x8GB ) 3000 MHzCPU Cooler – Deep Cool FryzenGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X399 (Threadripper) Motherboard – MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon ACRAM – Crucial Ballistix 32GB (4x8GB) 2400MHzCPU Cooler – CM Master Liquid 120mm (will be retested with Noctua D15S with dual fans in coming weeks)Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AMD X570 (Matisse) Motherboard – Gigabyte X570 AORUS MasterRAM – GeIL DDR4 3600MHz Dual Channel 16GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AM4 X470 (Pinnacle Ridge) Motherboard – Gigabyte X470 Gaming 7RAM – GeIL DDR4 3200MHz Dual Channel 16GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AM4 X370 (Raven Ridge) Motherboard – MSI XPower Titanium X370RAM – GeIL DDR4 3200MHz Dual Channel 16GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Games and Settings Used All games are tested on a 60 Hz display with V-Sync off for all tests. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam)DX12 Medium PresetPure Hair OffDeus Ex (Steam)DX12 Medium PresetGhost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay)Medium PresetTurf Effects OffFar Cry Primal (Uplay)Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download)FireStrike (1080p) BenchmarkUnigine Superposition (download)1080p Extreme BenchmarkPCMark 10 Professional (download)Express BenchmarkWPrime (download)32M and 1024MPower usage recorded at 1024M 50% complete, thermals recorded at 75% completeCineBench R15 (download)CPU MultiCPU Single CineBench R20 (download)CPU MultiCPU Single Handbrake (download)Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below)AIDA64 Engineer (download)CPU-Z (download)HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps, and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the “normal” profile. Other Notes A rest period of 2-5 minutes is observed between each piece of software allowing the system to return to its idle power usage and temperatures. Background services like Windows Update are checked to not be running during the testing period by setting WiFi to Metered Connection. Updates All games, graphics card drivers, BIOS, Windows and everything else is always kept up to date with the latest available. Older benchmarks may not be retested until stated otherwise. However, all hardware will be tested with the best and latest firmware and software available to that hardware at the time of review. As of 1st of May 2018, all hardware was retested on their latest drivers. Anything after this date will again be using their most recent versions available to them. Thanks Thank you to Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! Synthetic Benchmarks Well, the performance is right where you would expect it to be. The Ryzen 7 3800X pushes a little ahead of the Ryzen 7 3700X. Of course, we would be upset if that wasn't the case. What is surprising is how close the Ryzen 7 3700X, though. However, there's only £30-40 price difference, so I guess that's pretty much a reflection of this. What is amazing though is just how much it's locking horns with Intel's i9-9900K. At £150 cheaper, AMD's solution is more competitive than ever. If I was watching both CPUs run their benchmarks, I wouldn't be able to tell the two apart until we got to the score screen. Scores 3DMark – 23721Unigine – 5873PCMark 10 – 7069WPrime – 3.079/81.527Cinebench R15 – 209/2196Handbrake – 69 3DMark Firestrike Unigine Superposition PCMark 10 Express WPrime Cinebench R15 Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Gaming Performance Gaming performance is right on the mark here too. The 3800X seems to be the best option for AMD fans when it comes to gaming. The 8-Core setup seems to be the sweet spot right now. The Ryzen 9 is a little more on the workstation side of heavy-duty but may have perks for content creating gamers. The 3800X, however, is a solid all-rounder and is bloody close to the i9-9900K again. A few FPS short of Intel, but again, that's at 1080p, at 4K, it'll be a GPU bound task and make no difference. Scores Rise of the Tomb Raider – 92.9/134Deus Ex – 196.73Ghost Recon – 116/141.64Far Cry – 103/138 Rise of the Tomb Raider Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Ghost Recon Far Cry Settings As with the previous Ryzen 3rd Gen reviews, overclocking was no hugely beneficially. Locking the CPU at just 4.3 GHz does have its pros and cons. You no longer get a single-core boost to 4.5 GHz, which can speed up most regular applications. However, with applications that use all cores, you're going to generate a lot more heat, for a fairly small performance gain. Overclocking is a dying art, as the automatically core handling is bloody fantastic these days. Put your focus into cooling the CPU, and generally, the CPU will get you 99% of the thrills all by its self. As you can see, we did get a small performance boost, but at the cost of heat, noise, and power that just doesn't seem all the necessary to me. 3DMark Firestrike WPrime Cinebench R15 Rise of the Tomb Raider Power Consumption Stock Overclocked Temperatures Stock Overclocked How Much Does it Cost? The AMD Ryzen 7 3800X launched with an MSRP of £399.99. However, it's currently listed at just £368.99/$399.00, which is awesome value. Even more so, the once £329.99 Ryzen 7 3700X is now just £304.09/$329.00. You can check the latest UK price and stock here and US pricing here. For comparison, the Intel Core i9-9900K is down from £525.31 to £400.00. Overview Intel and AMD having a performance and price was is something we can all appreciate. By which I mean consumers, I'm sure either side would like their rivals to drop the ball. Right now, AMD has Intel licked when it comes to core count and raw performance for content creation, and on price too. When it comes to gaming, Intel has a lead. However, it's so freaking small, it's barely worth bragging about. AMD has caught up, and that's the end of it. Performance The 3rd Gen of Ryzen processors obviously brings big performance improvements. Gaming performance is massively improved gen over gen. However, it's the much lower power consumption and temperatures that really take it to the next level. Even the i9-9900K, which may have great performance, runs extremely hot compared to the new 3800X. From a consumer perspective, the cooler, cheaper, and competitive performance of the 3800 is a more tempting option. Should I Buy One It's not all just benchmarks today. AMD does have a trump card that Intel still lacks. I am, of course, talking about PCIe 4.0. For those wanting the bleeding edge of NVMe drives, AMD is where you'll find it. The only real threat to the 3800X right now is the 3700X Both perform pretty close, but if you want to save a few quid, it's a good option. Then again, if you want a little more performance, the 3800X is still a competitively priced solution. AMD Ryzen 7 3800X CPU Review