AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT, 8 Cores & 16 Threads Unlocked Desktop Processor Without Cooler

I decided to go ahead and build a new PC for Christmas. I wanted the 5800X, but I have not been able to procure one, so I settled on the 3800XT. Coming from an i7-7700K, a whole heck of a lot has changed. AMD actually did a pretty good job extracting the most performance possible out of the silicon from TMSC's 7nm fab process. Pair this CPU with a quality motherboard and DDR4-3600 CL16 RAM (Crucial Ballistix is excellent for the money and over-clockable), set the infinity fabric and memory data rate to 1800-1900MHz in a 1:1 ratio, tighten the timings using the Ryzen memory timing calculator and pretty much leave everything else on auto. You will get excellent performance, see significant latency improvements, and you can also experiment with the PBO settings and under-volting to see what works best. This is actually much closer to Intel's offerings for gaming than pundits claim, especially with the newer AGESA BIOS firmware. And for productivity and power efficiency, AMDs Ryzen chips are the reigning champs.For single thread performance, I am scoring 569 in the CPU-Z bench and nearly 6,000 for the multi-threaded benchmark. For reference, my massively overclocked i7-7700K was only slightly lower for single thread, but considerably less than half of the 3800XT's multi-threaded score. I am very impressed. I am also not having any temperature issues, using the Be Quiet Dark Rock 4 heatsink and a -100 mV under-volt offset., which gives me about 32 degrees C idle temp and around 60-65 degrees C under 100% load. Be aware that under-volting may impact your CPU's performance. I noticed that my multi-threaded bench scores went down with an under-volt, but my single-thread scores went up with an under-volt, which is fine for me since I am mostly gaming, I will sacrifice a bit of multi-threaded performance for better single-thread performance. Also, I tried various PBO settings, none of which improved my particular chip's performance. I suspect the 3800XT on the latest silicon from TSMC is already optimized, hence PBO did not help me. Make sure to install the latest AMD chipset drivers and select an AMD Ryzen power plan for Windows. I am currently using the "AMD Ryzen Balanced Power Plan", but the performance plan is good for another 1-2% performance at the expense of power consumption.I have 2 cores that can hit 4.725 GHz (#0 and #3), with 4 cores routinely hitting a bit over 4.6 GHz and the other 2 typically around 4.55 GHz. During a long-running, multi-threaded load, I am seeing about 4.5 GHz on average across all cores, which I think is very good. Some have questioned the value proposition of the 3800XT since it is more expensive and does not come with a stock Wraith cooler, but it was worth it to me for the better boost clocks and massively improved single thread performance (~4-9% faster than the 3700X/3800X for light workloads thanks to the 4.7+ GHz boost, maybe 2-3% for heavy workloads.)I am very happy with this chip so far and definitely recommend it if you are switching over from Intel or a first gen Ryzen and you cannot get yours hands on the newer 5000 series Ryzen chips. This CPU works great for both gaming and productivity, and uses far less power than an i7-10700K or i9-10850K, which I had considered but I like AMD's PCIE4 support and upgrade path better than Intel's.CPU: AMD 3800XTMB: Asus Prime X570-ProRAM: 64 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3600 @ 1900 MHz (DDR-3800) 16-18-18-38, 1:1 with infinity fabricVC: Gigabyte 5700XT OC (2nd gen)PS: Corsair RMX750Case: Corsair 750DDrives: Multiple Samsung 860/970 SSDs (2.5" and NVME M.2)OS: Windows 10 ProCPU-Z Score: https://valid.x86.fr/bench/mxru2m/1

Luckily I got this when it was the same price as Micro Center for $329. I came back to get another one and as of 8/21/20 it is closer to $400 and would be worth it to grab a 3900x instead, going to a 3800x for $329 would feel like a smack to the face. I’m not sure why prices aren’t competitive with Micro Center on a more consistent basis. Bottom line on the cpu though is that it is excellent. Very future proof and if you look at year over year performance it is very similar to what you could expect on performance bump. Take Intel for example too, year over year on 10700k and 10900k we got more threads which is nice but speed was only a 100mhz bump. Whereas last years supply is still very relevant and a great buy. If you’re just gaming be ok with 3600, 3600x and 3600xt. If you’re a tiny bit scared to upgrade just to have 6 cores which benchmarks will show it hangs with 8+ cores, then the 3700x is just fine but if you’re creative and getting busy then 8 cores is great, but at this current price I would consider the 3900x at $400-429.

I got this CPU paired with a B550 Tomahawk for $450 during prime day and it performs really well. I ran Prime 95 (CPU Stress test) on the toughest setting with a Hyper 212 Black RGB cooler and Arctic Silver 5 paste. After the paste reached peak efficiency (After running the PC for 100 hours the paste sets) it only got up to 84C in prime 95's toughest test. I was worried about thermals since the cooler I'm using isn't as expensive as some of the Scythe coolers or an AIO but it really hasn't been an issue. If you can get this CPU for roughly $300 then it is very competitive with the newly released 5600x.

This is an upgrade for a teen-ager's computer, with an assortment of parts from the usual b*stards (New*egg, etc.). Anyhow, this worked a treat and the kiddo was very happily satisfied with the results. Combined with an old up-cycled GTX-970, he's able to play most of the A-games on full settings (1080p), no worries. The CPU is not a bottleneck in any situation, so it is right on the money for what he needed. The only drawback is cost, but you get what you pay for, so I shouldn't complain.