There’s no doubt about it — the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the best gaming CPU you can buy. And if you’re building a high-end gaming PC, it’s the CPU you should look out for. There’s just one problem: Over the past several weeks, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has slowly faded from store shelves, and now, it’s almost impossible to find in stock.
You can technically find it through third-party sellers, but you’ll pay up for the CPU — prices range from $500 to $700, while the CPU was selling for under $350 just a couple of months ago. With AMD reportedly clearing the shelves for the upcoming Ryzen 7 9800X3D, it may be a few months before the last-gen CPU comes back for a reasonable price. Thankfully, there are some other great CPUs you can buy right now.
The Intel path — Core i9-14900K
I hear you — the Core i9-14900K is in a completely different class of CPU than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. And you’re right. The Core i9-14900K is Intel’s latest flagship, at least until its next-gen Arrow Lake CPUs show up, and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a midrange chip with 3D V-Cache giving it a gaming boost. However, just as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D slowly disappeared from store shelves, the Core i9-14900K has slowly dropped in price. Now, you can pick up it for around $460, and even less if you go for the graphics-free Core i9-14900KF. That’s the list price of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
No other CPU can touch the Ryzen 7 7800X3D when it comes to overall gaming performance, but if there’s one CPU that gets close, it’s the Core i9-14900K. You can see from my tests below that the CPUs trade blows across games. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D leads in F1 2022, but Intel claims a lead in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. The largest difference is in Far Cry 6, which is a title that really shows off what the extra cache of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D can do.
Gaming performance is similar with the Core i9-14900K, but Intel’s chip is a much better productivity performer, as you can read in our Core i9-14900K review. After all, this is a 24-core, 32-thread chip, which absolutely decimates the productivity performance of the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 7800X3D. AMD’s CPU may be the undisputed gaming champion, but Intel’s Core i9-14900K is a much more powerful CPU overall.
There’s more to this discussion than performance, however. The Core i9-14900K has been the center of some controversy because of its flawed power design. This CPU, along with the Core i9-13900K, were taking too much power, which resulted in them essentially burning themselves out. Intel has addressed the issue with its latest BIOS updates, so you’ll want to make sure you keep your BIOS updated if you plan on investing in Intel’s latest generation.
In addition, the Core i9-14900K has more higher power demands than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. It runs hotter, and it consumes more power, so you’ll want to make sure you have one of the best CPU coolers at the ready to keep Intel’s behemoth nice and cool.
Save some cash — Ryzen 7 5700X3D
If you really need a 3D V-Cache CPU right now, you don’t have a ton of options. Even the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, which is slower than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in games, is tough to come by. Last-last-gen’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D is also hard to find in stock, which has been the go-to recommendation for the past couple of years. Thankfully, we have the Ryzen 7 5700X3D.
This is basically just the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. It actually uses the exact same silicon. However, these chips just barely fell short of the mark to sell as a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, so AMD rounded them up and is now selling them at a cheaper price in the form of the Ryzen 7 5700X3D. All of the specs are identical, short of the clock speed. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D runs at 4.1GHz, while the Ryzen 7 5800X3D can boost to 4.5GHz. In practice, the two CPUs are within a couple of frames of each other in games.
I don’t have data for the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, but you can see my gaming results for the Ryzen 7 5800X3D above. Keep in mind that the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a bit slower, but not by much. The difference ranges from a few frames to no difference at all. If you want a more in-depth look, I’d recommend taking a look at TechSpot’s review.
No doubt, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is faster, but it’s not faster across the board. A game like Red Dead Redemption 2 is a good testament to that, showcasing how your CPU can become less of a factor in a graphically demanding game. It’s a reasonable performance trade-off, too. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D is just $200, and given that it’s based on AMD’s older AM4 platform, you’ll save even more money if you factor in your motherboard and RAM.
The Ryzen 7 5700X3D isn’t a suitable replacement for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and I don’t want to pretend like it is. However, it’s the best way to get a taste of AMD’s 3D V-Cache right now without shelling out for a newer CPU through third-party sellers.
A couple of other options
The CPU world is constantly in motion, and although the Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn’t available for a reasonable price now, there will be more options in short order. Rumors suggest AMD is launching the Ryzen 7 9800X3D soon — really soon. The week this article is being published, a box design and marketing material for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D leaked, suggesting that a launch is right around the corner. If you want to get the best of the best, just waiting a little bit might be your best bet.
Believe me, AMD doesn’t want to get rid of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. There’s near-universal consensus on how powerful the CPU is for gaming, and AMD would want to keep selling the CPU if it could. The fact that stock is dwindling for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and that third-party prices are going up, suggests the Ryzen 7 9800X3D will be here very soon. That’s just speculation, but it would make sense given how popular the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has been.
If you can’t wait, you can shop on the secondhand market for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Sellers on eBay have gotten privy to the stock situation with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, so most listings are still asking for $500 or more. Looking at the listings that have actually sold, however, at least some listings are going up for $400 or less. If you’re diligent about looking on eBay, you have a good chance of snagging a Ryzen 7 7800X3D for a reasonable price.
