AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT & Ryzen 9 3900XT Processor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT launched a couple of weeks ago at £399.99, but is already listed for just £379.98, no doubt to just make it a touch more competitive with recent Intel offerings. It works too, that makes the 3800XT one of the best price to performance CPUs out there right now. Then again, the 3900XT is also a touch cheaper, dropping from £499.99 to £489.99, not much, but it’s a discount that’ll afford you a case of beer.

Overview

AMD are on a roll, and while I thought this XT launch was going to be a bit of a wasted effort, I’m actually pretty pleased with the end results. There’s nothing significantly new here though, so I doubt a 3800X owner will be swapping for a 3800XT any time soon. However, if you’ve still got something like the 1800X and you’re looking for your next big upgrade, it’s certainly the way to go and a great pairing with the new B550 or X570 motherboards too.

Cores

This is certainly the strong point for AMD right now. As much as I love the 3800XT, there’s clearly a good market for the 3900XT. It’s like a tiny Threadripper that will work on AM4. It’s not like it’s even an entry-level workstation chip, because it’s a powerful beast in its own right. For video editing, those extra cores are going to fly through the rendering. Of course, the same goes for music creation, game development and more.

Gaming & Beyond

The gaming performance is about on par with what AMD were already delivering. There are some small improvements here, but overall, the more affordable 3600XT and the 3800XT are better suited to gaming. The 3900XT is a little more serious when it comes to core counts, and that’s not always a benefit for gamers, but could offer options for those who need more cores for streaming their games.

Should I Buy One?

There’s quite a lot of options from AMD right now. The non-X and X parts are still around at great prices, and the XT parts are really competitive too. They go head to head with Intel across the range and when it comes to your wallet. Honestly, I think all the new CPUs from AMD are great deals and a worth upgrade for those on the older AM4 platforms.