#AMD RYZEN 7 3800X PC#

There's also the additional problem that a lot of PC gaming benchmarks just don’t test your CPU properly.įortunately, a handful of benchmarks have been getting a lot better at this recently, with the likes of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and more all providing an in-depth look at your CPU’s performance as well as what your graphics card’s doing. After all, there are several other factors that can affect your PC's gaming performance, such as your graphics card, the type of RAM you’ve got, and even what type of storage you’ve installed the game on. Now, I should point out that getting a truly accurate picture of what your CPU's doing while playing games is still a pretty difficult task. Indeed, when I put it through the same gaming benchmark suite as all the other CPUs I've tested, the 3800X produced almost nigh-on identical results to its cheaper and more energy efficient sibling, the 3700X. Now, I know there have been some issues recently with a lot of AMD's new Ryzen chips not reaching their advertised boost speeds, but even if I were to retest it alongside all the other Ryzen 3000 CPUs I've reviewed after AMD's latest motherboard BIOS patch, I don't think my opinion of it as a straight gaming CPU is likely to change. Indeed, I found the 9700K wasn't able to reach its top speed 4.9GHz with my bog standard tower cooler when I tried overclocking it, and I didn't see the 3800X get anywhere near its top 4.5GHz when I tested it with its bundled Wraith Prism cooler, either. This means it's less energy efficient than both the 3700X, which came in at a lean 65W TDP, and the Core i7-9700K, which is rated just below it at 95W. It does, however, have a high TDP (or thermal design point) of 105W as a result, though. Motherboard: Asus Crosshair Hero VIII (Wi-Fi) Yes, the 3900X has the extra advantage of 12 cores and 24 threads, but in terms of speed versus price, the £370 / $400 3800X looks to be a very tempting prospect indeed for those after top-end speeds without that top-end £500 / $500+ price. The Core i7-9700K still has the edge when it comes to maximum boost clock speed, reaching a heady 4.9GHz with appropriate cooling over the 3800X's slightly more pedestrian 4.5GHz, but in the context of AMD's own CPU family, even the more expensive Ryzen 9 3900X can only hit a high of 4.6GHz (and its base clock speed actually starts a teeny bit lower at 3.8GHz, too). It has a higher base clock speed of 3.9GHz for starters, putting it 300MHz ahead of what you get with the 3700X and, more importantly, Intel's Core i7-9700K. This one, however, feels like it's got a lot more weight to throw around.

Like the cheaper £330 / $330 Ryzen 7 3700X, the 3800X is another 7nm processor with eight cores and sixteen threads under its belt.

Does it still have what it takes to muscle in on our best gaming CPU list? Here's wot I think.

It's the even nippier big brother of the already excellent AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, but with the even more powerful Ryzen 9 3900X now sitting above it in the Ryzen family pecking order, this eight-core processor definitely has an air of 'awkward middle child' about it. It's been quite a while since AMD first launched their new Ryzen 3000 CPUs, but I've finally managed to get my hands on the last remaining member of their new gaming CPU family, the Ryzen 7 3800X.

Amd ryzen 7 3800x