Tom’s Hardware Verdict
If you’re only interested in gaming, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is the go-to chip for budget gaming builds, particularly for AM4 upgraders. AMD’s potent 3D V-Cache tech is phenomenal in gaming but does result in lower performance in some productivity applications, so be sure you’re aware of the trade-offs.
Leading gaming performance at its price point
Great pricing
Low power consumption, excellent efficiency
Support for AM4 upgrades
Lower performance in productivity applications
No bundled cooler
No direct multiplier-based overclocking
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Moar Cache, Lower Pricing
AMD’s X3D line of processors has taken the gaming world by storm, delivering leading gaming performance at every price point they compete in, and the $229 Ryzen 7 5700X3D steps in to lower the pricing bar for entry. That’s a win for enthusiasts upgrading existing AM4 systems and even for those looking to build a budget gaming rig on the cheap. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D offers the highest gaming performance in its price bracket, even unseating Intel’s more expensive $310 Core i5-14600K in gaming, thus earning it a spot on our list of thebest CPUs for gaming.
As with AMD’s other X3D chips for AM4 motherboards, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is based on the previous-gen Zen 3 architecture, so it isn’t quite as performant in productivity applications and won’t rank as high in ourCPU benchmarkhierarchy — you’ll be better off with theRyzen 5 7600Xif you’re interested in a better all-rounder. However, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D drops into affordable AM4 motherboards and has AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech, delivering more gaming performance than all similarly-priced alternatives.
AMD’s $310Ryzen 7 5800X3Dremains the gold standard of gaming performance for the venerable AM4 platform. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D is basically a down-clocked Ryzen 7 5800X3D, losing 400 MHz off its base and boost frequencies. All other details remain unchanged, including the voluminous 96MB of game-boosting L3 cache.
The Ryzen 7 5700X3D slots in above the Microcenter-exclusive six-core 12-threadRyzen 5 5600X3D, but the exclusive, limited edition 5600X3D is no longer available. In effect, the 5700X3D now offers two more cores than the 5600X3D for the same price.
Intel’s Core i5 lineup has been the go-to range for budget gaming for several years, but AMD’s targeted attack with value-centric X3D gaming chips for previous-gen AM4 platforms and price reductions to the newer AM5 platform and chips like the Ryzen 5 7600X has completely transformed the landscape. Let’s see how the Ryzen 7 5700X3D fares in our gaming and productivity benchmarks.
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D Specifications and Pricing
As noted, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is built upon the same foundation as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. 3D V-Cache leverages a novel new technique that uses hybrid bonding to fuse an additional 64MB of 7nm SRAM cache vertically atop the Ryzen compute chiplet, thus tripling the amount of L3 cache per Ryzen compute die. That gives a total of 96MB of L3 for the Ryzen 7 5700X3D. You canfind an architectural deep-dive on AMD’s transformative 3D V-Cache here.
The Ryzen landscape is divided into two swim lanes: You can choose between newer Zen 4 chips that drop into AM5 motherboards and use DDR5 memory, or a Zen 3 chip that drops into older AM4 motherboards and uses DDR4 memory.
Despite the addition of its newer Zen 4 chips, AMD has continued developing its Zen 3 chips, and the Ryzen 7 5700X3D was released just this year. AMD says it will continue to support AM4 for the foreseeable future as a value-centric platform for the lower end of the market, and that has certainly come to fruition — AM4, which debuted back in 2017, is in its eighth year of service, the longest-supported modern socket that still receives new processor additions.
Adding X3D tech to the platform makes it a compelling upgrade path for existing users and extends its use as a value platform. The 105W Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a strong pairing with a B-series AM4 motherboard, but the upper-tier X-series boards are also very affordable.
The Ryzen 7 5700X3D comes without a cooler, so you’ll have to factor that into your build pricing. However, the chip is fairly easy to cool with value-centric coolers — it beats the 181W Core i5-14600K in gaming, but at a much lower peak power draw. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D also doesn’t have integrated graphics—you’ll need a discrete graphics card for gaming.
The Ryzen 7 5700X3D is essentially a Ryzen 7 5700X with an extra L3 cache chiplet added to boost gaming performance, but AMD has trimmed back the clock rates, with base clocks seeing a 400 MHz reduction while boost clocks have been reduced by 500 GHz. Despite those lower clock speeds, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D has a higher 105W TDP rating than the 5700X’s 65W.
As with all of AMD’s X3D chips with 3D V-Cache tech, AMD doesn’t officially support multiplier-based overclocking, adjusting the 5700X3D’s core voltages, or the auto-overclocking Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) feature. This is due to the voltage and thermal concerns associated with the 3D-stacked L3 cache. However, motherboard makers have incorporated several workarounds, including both BCLK and PBO adjustments, that allow unsanctioned overclocking. All overclocking carries some risk, but that risk is even higher with 3D V-Cache chips, so proceed at your own risk.
The Ryzen 7 5700X3D fully supports overclocking the memory and Infinity Fabric, but as you’ll see in our tests, memory overclocking doesn’t deliver much uplift in gaming. That’s actually a good thing—you can get exceptional gaming performance with a cheap memory kit.
Let’s move on to the gaming and productivity workloads on the following pages.
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Paul Alcorn is the Editor-in-Chief for Tom’s Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.
