Should I buy a 5800x or wait for the 3d cache version? AM4 last hurrah

Burticus

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Microcenter currently has the 5800x for $299. I want one last upgrade for my AM4 system currently rocking a 2700x. Wondering if I should jump now, or wait for the 3d cache revision coming... when? I also wonder if the 5800x will get discounted when that happens, or if it will just vanish into the night.

www.microcenter.com

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Vermeer 3.8GHz 8-Core AM4 Boxed Processor - Heatsink Not Included - Micro Center

Get it now! Get the high-speed gaming performance of the world's best desktop processor. Encode faster. Render faster. Iterate faster. Create more, faster with AMD Ryzen processor.
www.microcenter.com www.microcenter.com
 
I'd say to flip a coin. The 5800X is still very competitive, and while you might consider Alder Lake if you didn't already have a board, the AMD CPU is as cheap as you're going to get a good boost.

Only reason not to jump now would be potential performance for the '3D cache' versions. Personally, I don't expect even more excessive cache to bring the same performance jump seen as AMD has slowly unwound all of the little design hiccups that kept their Zen cores from hitting their full potential. There should be performance improvements and shouldn't be performance regressions - but they'll probably be a bit more uneven with some tasks benefiting greatly from more in-socket cache and some benefiting less.
 
In the past the cache was mostly to offset issues with the design of Zen CPU's which created additional internal latencies with them. While its true that AMD has corrected most of those problems with its Zen3 architecture, it has fallen behind Alder Lake-S and games are one application that benefit from additional L3 cache.

How much that L3 cache benefits games is still anyone's guess.
 
I wouldn't wait. I don't think you will regret it.

Before Alder Lake release, AMD's V-Cache had a lot of buzz. Since the release -- the buzz has died, it's been paired down to just 1 SKU and not even a top-end SKU. It makes me think it will be underwhelming compared to Alder Lake.

I think a good comparison would be looking at the Crystal Well/Iris Pro CPUs back in the day. They had a larger cache, intended for IGP, but the CPU could still access it. It provided some benchmark benefit, but it wasn't earth shattering.
 
I'm thinking that AMD needs to increase clockspeeds if they want to push single-thread performance up, which is typically what pushes game performance forward the most assuming that something else doesn't get broken in the process.

We've already seen with Alder Lake that more cache can help, where higher-end parts have been benchmarked with cores disabled and clockspeeds locked to simulate lower-end parts, but I don't think we have a proper point of comparison for Zen 3 and drawing conclusions between Alder Lake and Zen 3 is like comparing apples to orangutans.
 
The bump from the 2700X to the 5800X is fairly substantial. I'd say go ahead and do it - 5800X's aren't going to go too much lower as I recall the 3700X had a floor in the upper $200's range. If you recall the 3000 series XT chips that were announced, had limited reviews and were impossible to find on the market.... that may end up being how the 3D chips turn out (though, they may actually improve performance). I think both lines will continue to get sold and the consumer's decision will end up being 5800X3D vs 5900X at a given price point, with the 5800X running about where it is today.
 
Yeah, if you are running a 2700X the move to even a current 5800X would be substantial. However, I doubt the jump from a 5800X to one with the extra cache would be all that noticeable.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Not gonna lie. I got a little jealous when I read @Brent_Justice 's comparison review between a 3700X vs 5800X. As I have both a 3700X and a 3090 I was really surprised to see the 5800X pull ahead as far as it did in some gaming benchmarks, and games that I play to boot so it got my attention even more so.

https://www.thefpsreview.com/2021/10/06/amd-ryzen-7-5800x-vs-ryzen-7-3700x-performance-review/

I can only imagine how much better vs a 2700X it would be.
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The bump from the 2000 series to the 3000 series was pretty significant. I tested this back in the 3900X review way back then. The 3000 to the 5000 series is another good bump. That's why I said earlier that the increase from the 2000 to the 5000 series (any of them really) is substantial.
 
Yup just waiting for funds to trickle into my computer slush fund.... and also for the ice to melt. Maybe a trip to Microcenter this weekend. If I can still walk after chainsawing half a tree up that collapsed during the ice storm.

I plan on re-using the Hyper 212 turbo super duper edition push/pull I'm currently using, hopefully it is up to the task for 5800x.
 
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I don't know if its ideal or not but I think it's up to the task so long as you aren't overclocking the crap out of it. It's really the higher core count CPU's that are hard to air cool.
 
Yeah a 212 will work, but it will probably throttle a bit if you try to really push it. Or rather, it just won't boost as hard as it would if you had a beefier cooler.
 
LazyGamer said:
I'd say to flip a coin. The 5800X is still very competitive, and while you might consider Alder Lake if you didn't already have a board, the AMD CPU is as cheap as you're going to get a good boost.

Only reason not to jump now would be potential performance for the '3D cache' versions. Personally, I don't expect even more excessive cache to bring the same performance jump seen as AMD has slowly unwound all of the little design hiccups that kept their Zen cores from hitting their full potential. There should be performance improvements and shouldn't be performance regressions - but they'll probably be a bit more uneven with some tasks benefiting greatly from more in-socket cache and some benefiting less.
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The problem is the "tasks" that Ryzen gets better at with more task is basically games and anything 3D rendering. So it really depends on what you're primarily doing.
 
Burticus said:
Well I jumped the gun and wound up with a 5700x. The 5800x3dcache is probably going to be over $400, too rich for my blood.
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I was tossing a coin for that one - twice the cache, but no IGP. If there were an AM4 ITX board with TB4 and 10Gbit, might've bit, but AM4 looks like slimmer pickings than Z690 DDR4 boards :(.
 
Burticus said:
Well I jumped the gun and wound up with a 5700x. The 5800x3dcache is probably going to be over $400, too rich for my blood.
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Yeah, that price will play a factor in if I follow through with upgrading to it around the holidays.
 
depends on what resolution you want to game at.

@4K the difference should be virtually non existant.
 
Pulled the trigger on a $394 5900X. That'll be my last AM4 purchase for a while until the AM5 platform becomes available and has a chance to mature a bit. Either that or my next step would be to an Intel board but I don't see that happening with Alder Lake at this time.
 
Space_Ranger said:
Pulled the trigger on a $394 5900X. That'll be my last AM4 purchase for a while until the AM5 platform becomes available and has a chance to mature a bit. Either that or my next step would be to an Intel board but I don't see that happening with Alder Lake at this time.
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Man, I'm looking at those prices and going... well, nowhere, because I can't return the 5700G. But still, $400 for twelve full-size cores?
 
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