AMD’s Ryzen 7 5700X3D has just arrived on the market, and yes, this is a blast from the past – as a CPU from the last generation of Ryzen desktop chips – but it makes a good case for itself.
Announced last month at CES 2024, the Ryzen 5700X3D is a cut-down spin on the well-liked 5800X3D, the latter of which is still a popular choice with PC gamers – and we’ve just caught a glimpse of how the new CPU performs.
Before we consider that evidence, though, here’s the lowdown on the 5700X3D. The new 3D V-Cache CPU comes in at a lower price point of $249 in the US (about £195, AU$380), compared to the 5800X3D which, if we go by current pricing at US retailer Newegg, is 26% more costly.
The trade-off is that the clock speeds of the 5700X3D are 400MHz slower (for base clock, and boost), so that’s where some performance is lost – though naturally there will always be a compromise with a cheaper chip.
Onto the performance details, which as Tom’s Hardware reported were provided by a Chinese reviewer on Bilibili, who pitted the 5700X3D not against another AMD processor, but a direct rival on the Intel side – the Core i5-13600KF. This is a last-gen and similarly mid-range processor from Team Blue (and it’s the same as the 13600K, just a bit cheaper due to the lack of integrated graphics, which is what the ‘F’ part of the suffix refers to).
Price-wise the 13600KF is 15% more expensive than the 5700X3D (again at Newegg currently), yet rather impressively, the cheaper AMD CPU outperforms its Intel rival in some games.
For example, the 13600KF is 25% slower than the Ryzen 7 5700X3D in CS:GO 2, and Intel’s processor is 22% slower in PUBG. There’s give and take here, though, as the Intel CPU wins in Eternal Calamity by 5.6% and Cyberpunk 2077 by 4.8%, and it’s a dead heat in Forza Horizon 5.
Analysis: Put on your skeptical specs now
Broadly, the AMD processor has somewhat more favorable results here and looks pretty competitive with the 13600KF – assuming said benchmarks can be taken at face value, and we must be cautious with this source, naturally. Clearly, we’ll need to see more benchmarks before being able to judge the strength of the 5700X3D properly, and the games chosen are rather odd ones in some cases (bigger in the Asian market than over here, no doubt).
So, heap on the salt, but even through the skeptical lens required to view these results, the 5700X3D looks like a pretty compelling prospect for those hunting for a new gaming CPU who don’t want to spend too much.
We should note that the X3D chips are built for gaming, with the notable caveat being that their big selling point – that 3D V-Cache – has varying effects depending on the exact title you’re playing.
It certainly looks like the new Ryzen 7 5700X3D will deliver as the great-value gaming CPU we hoped for, though, especially for those with a last-gen PC looking to upgrade. (Gamers with an AM4 motherboard that can’t take one of AMD’s new Ryzen 7000 models).
It’s also true that when comparing the 5700X3D to Intel’s 13600KF here, we’re missing the productivity side of the equation – which strongly favors the latter – but those looking at the lower end of the X3D market are gamers on a budget who likely don’t care too much about app performance outside of PC gaming. Besides, it’s not like the 5700X3D can’t cope with everyday computing tasks, it will, of course, be fine for the average user’s needs.
