AMD’s Ryzen 7000X3D gaming-focused processors finally have a release date – or rather, two release dates. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D and 7950X3D will debut on February 28th, with the 7800X3D arriving on April 6th.
AMD announced prices for its new CPUs too, with the eight-core 7800X3D at $449, the 12-core 7900X3D at $599 and the 16-core 7950X3D at $699. For context, the original eight, 12 and 16-core Ryzen 7000 models have MSRPs of $399, $549 and $699, respectively, so this is at most a $50 premium in terms of MSRP – although of course retail prices have dropped significantly since the original Ryzen 7000 models debuted in September last year.
All three X3D CPUs have been hotly anticipated since they were announced just after the new year, as they combine the new features of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series – an efficient 5nm process, more powerful socket and generally excellent performance – with the 3D V-Cache design that made the rather ordinary 5800X into the ridiculously powerful Ryzen 5800X3D. By tripling the chip’s L3 cache, the 5800X3D was able to compete with Ryzen 7000 and Intel’s 12th and 13th-gen designs in many games – despite being bound to older DDR4 memory and the venerable AM4 socket. That makes an X3D version of Ryzen 7000 quite a tantalising prospect for extreme gaming performance.
With AMD’s 65W non-X CPUs having arrived in early January, their Ryzen 7000 lineup has expanded rapidly – which should ensure that there’s a good pick available for most people. The 65W CPUs essentially offer nigh-identical performance at a lower price, based on our testing of the Ryzen 5 7600, so they’re the best choice for budget-oriented builds. Meanwhile, these new X3D options should offer the best gaming performance from the lineup. That leaves the original launch models in a more diminished role, basically offering slightly better performance at a higher power target than the non-X versions, but they might still be a good fit for content creation workloads – especially as some X models have dropped lower in price than their non-X counterparts as retailers seek to clear out older stock.