The king is dead, long live the king!
After relentlessly calling out Intel for their continued commercial failures and eroding consumer trust, it’s a solid reminder that no corporation is your friend as AMD have axed two of the best budget CPUs on the market, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and its stablemate, the Ryzen 5 5600X3D.
While Intel surprisingly stagnates in raw gaming performance, AMD’s Zen 5 (Ryzen 9000) series processors didn’t exactly win over the crowd either.
Despite offering a slight performance bump over the Ryzen 7000 series, the Zen 5 release hasn’t changed the fact that for gamers, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains the top pick, while budget-conscious folks were still sticking with the previous-gen Ryzen 5000 series CPUs equipped with 3D V-Cache.
As AMD prepares to unveil its Zen 5-based processors with 3D V-Cache, finally delivering performance boosts over the Ryzen 7000-X3D lineup (currently the fastest gaming processors on the market), they’re also phasing out their older Zen 3 CPUs. Meanwhile, Zen 4 prices have spiked as AMD slows down production to squeeze out extra profits.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has been a major pain in the ass for AMD since the introduction of the AM5 socket and the Ryzen 7000 series. Despite being released in early 2022, it beat Intel’s $600 Core i9-12900K in pure gaming performance for just $450 and holds its own well enough despite being obsolete.
Its secret weapon? The implementation of 3D V-Cache, which stacks additional layers of cache directly on top of the CPU using Through-Silicon Vias (TSVs), providing a high-speed connection between the CPU and cache layers. This clever design has given it a gaming edge that’s hard to ignore, even as AMD pushes newer platforms.
With 3D V-Cache, AMD can stack much more L3 cache onto a single chip than what would be possible with a traditional 2D planar layout. For example, AMD has shown up to 96MB of L3 cache on a single CCD, which is particularly beneficial for memory latency-sensitive applications, like gaming, simulations, and databases.
By increasing the L3 cache size, AMD minimizes the need to access slower main memory, leading to lower latency and improved performance. Games that rely on heavy asset streaming, in particular, benefit from this larger cache, helping to maintain higher frame rates.
Believe it or not, Intel had a similar approach with their 5th Generation Core processors known as Broadwell.
They integrated an eDRAM die that effectively worked as a secret “L4” cache to reduce reliance on system memory and improve both bandwidth and latency. eDRAM has a higher density compared to the SRAM found in AMD’s X3D Ryzen processors, allowing more cache in a smaller space, though it’s slower it still packed quite the punch.
Intel’s Core i7-5775C, for example, featured 128MB of L4 cache, a considerable amount for 2014 engineering.
Unfortunately for consumers, Intel was far ahead of AMD’s underwhelming FX processors, and instead of fully leveraging eDRAM and advancing their advantage, they chose to hinder Broadwell. They gave it minimal marketing and scrapped the eDRAM/L4 cache design due to added cost and complexity, which would have cut into their margins on then $400 quad-core CPUs.
It’s a real pity because if Intel had stuck with and evolved its L4 cache tech through the 6th Generation Skylake processors, AMD’s Ryzen launch would have had far less impact. Intel could possibly have maintained their gaming dominance for years, delaying the kind of disruption that AMD’s X3D V-Cache chips eventually brought to the market.
Over the years, AMD phased out the AM4 socket after supporting it for an impressive five generations, but during that time, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D saw its price drop significantly.
While it’s no longer the fastest gaming processor around, its affordability has made it a go-to choice. Prices have dipped as low as $270 USD, typically hovering around $300, putting it on par with AMD’s newer Ryzen 5 7600X, which only offers 6 cores and 12 threads.
The performance of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, even compared to the newer Ryzen 5 7600X, meant there was little incentive to upgrade to Zen 4 if you already owned this powerhouse.
And if you were coming from an older Ryzen processor, such as a Zen 2-based 3000 series, buying the 5800X3D was a much smarter option for gaming enthusiasts on a budget. AMD’s continued production of these Zen 3 processors made their price-to-performance ratio unbeatable, even against Intel’s 13th and 14th Generation CPUs.
Despite having no obligation to do so, AMD kept supporting the AM4 platform and introduced the Ryzen 5 5600X3D in January 2023, a 6-core version of the 5800X3D, which matched its gaming performance for just $230 USD at launch.
Even though Zen 3 originally launched in late 2020 and was officially replaced by Zen 4 in September 2022, AMD continued to release new Zen 3 variants.
In July 2024, they launched the Ryzen 9 5900XT (a lower-clocked 16-core 5950X for $350 with a confusing name), the 5800XT for $250, and the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, a lower-clocked version of the 5800X3D, also priced at $250 released in January 2024.
These options made little sense when you consider their multithreaded capabilities, which were severely outclassed by the Ryzen 7000 series and Intel’s alternatives. And when it comes to gaming performance, they were left in the dust by the X3D variants, making the non-3D V-Cache chips a tough sell for anyone focused on serious gaming.
Now, it seems AMD has finally halted production of these Zen 3 processors. The immensely popular 5800X3D and 5600X3D have reached end-of-life status, but you can still find other Ryzen 5000 series processors, including the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, which remains the only SKU with 3D V-Cache still available.
The soon-to-be-replaced Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which currently holds the gaming performance crown, has seen prices soar, reaching €433 in the EU, $680 AUD, and 430 USD, just $20 shy of its original MSRP.
This is a sharp contrast to the $350 it was going for late last year, with prices rapidly climbing since August due to limited supply.
The lukewarm response to AMD’s Zen 5 processors, which have been humorously dubbed “Zen 5%” for their marginal performance improvements, highlights the current landscape.
Despite the disappointment, AMD is actually making more profit on Zen 5 compared to Zen 4, even though Zen 5 uses more expensive TSMC N4P silicon. The compact design of Zen 5’s CCD allows for more chiplets to be produced per wafer, maximizing output despite both Zen 4 and Zen 5’s CCDs being roughly 70mm² in size.
AMD seems to be deliberately throttling the production of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D as the company prepares to unveil its replacement. This new chip could easily surpass its predecessor’s $450 USD MSRP, especially with Intel backsliding on gaming performance with their Core Ultra 200 “Arrow Lake” series.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D was famously undercutting AMD’s Zen 4 lineup. Not everyone is rocking an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 to justify dropping cash on AMD’s newer flagship CPUs. For the average gamer, the performance gap between a 5800X3D and a 7800X3D was minimal unless you’re focusing more on multithreaded workloads or multimedia, making the newer platform less enticing.
As a result, the 7800X3D has essentially rendered much of AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series redundant in gaming-focused builds.
Sadly for consumers who are just as cash savvy as they are tech savvy, options are dwindling. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D is now the last affordable AM4 upgrade path, and you’re likely better off scouring AliExpress for deals since it’s significantly cheaper there than at retailers like Amazon, where it’s currently listed at $210.
It’s unfortunate to see AMD pull the plug on the beloved 5800X3D, which gave gamers a solid year and a half of top-tier, affordable performance since its April 2022 launch. Its forced retirement stings, but it seems inevitable with the upcoming Ryzen 9000 X3D processors looming, and AMD looking to bump prices in the process.
The 5800X3D and the 5600X3D will certainly be missed as AMD built a strong reputation with these processors, offering raw gaming performance that outpaced Intel at an unbeatable price. Yet, despite their success and loyal following, AMD has finally decided to stop the internal bleeding and force us all to move on, leaving consumers scrambling for ultra budget alternatives that offer the same if not greater performance.
