AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs are finally out and with it comes some impressive IPC improvements and higher clock speeds (finally!). However, the new Ryzen 5000 CPU lineup also has gotten a price bump (except the 5600X). Today, we’re comparing the Ryzen 7 5800X vs 3800XT vs 3700X. You can read our full review on the Ryzen 7 5800X here, but this article will take a more comparative stance on the 8-core CPUs.

I’ve taken last year’s 65W 8-core chip (3700X) and this year’s XT refresh which improved on the slightly more expensive (and power-hungry) 3800X. Here’s a look at how the 3 CPUs stack up:

	Ryzen 7 3700X	Ryzen 7 3800XT	Ryzen 7 5800X
Cores/Threads	8/16	8/16	8/16
Base Clock	3.6 GHz	3.9 GHz	3.8 GHz
Boost Clock	4.4GHz	4.7 GHz	4.7GHz
TDP	65W	105W	105W
Included Cooler	Wraith Prism	None	None
Launch Price (INR and USD)	INR 24990 + GST ($329)	INR 30,990 + GST ($399)	INR 34,490 + GST ($449)

Review Test Bench:

• Motherboard – MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE
• GPU – NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super FE
• Cooler – Deepcool Gammax L240T 240mm AIO
• RAM- 16 GB G.Skill TridentZ RGB (3000 MHz)
• Storage – Crucial P1 500GB NVMe PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD

For testing overall performance, we used a varying set of programs. We looked at synthetic benchmarks, real-world content creation metrics, and in-game performance. All benchmarks were done with PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) turned on, which makes sure that the CPUs are boosting as high as possible on all cores. Note that this is different from AutoOC which helps in boosting more, but only momentarily. That helps in games like CSGO but not much in other AAA titles or all-core workloads.

Ryzen 7 5800X vs 3800XT vs 3700X – Gaming Benchmarks

In AAA titles which don’t always make use of more threads, the gap between all 3 CPUs isn’t too big. While it’s still noticeable in charts, in real-world gameplay you wouldn’t really notice the difference.

With that said, in esports titles, it’s a completely different playing field. The Ryzen 7 5800X completely mops the floor with the older processors, thanks to Zen 3’s increased IPC but more so the higher boost clocks. During gaming, our 5800X would easily boost to 4.8 GHz, which is over the advertised 4.7 GHz boost clock!

CSGO and Valorant love that single-thread performance and the difference is clear.

Ryzen 7 5800X vs 3800XT vs 3700X – Synthetic Benchmarks

In synthetic benchmarks, we saw similar gains by the 5800X vs 3800XT and the 3700X. Multi-core scores are higher as expected, and single-core scores are great too. In Cinebench R20, we were easily able to score past 600 points, just as AMD flaunted during its keynote.

During the multi-core workloads, our 5800X would lock to 4.5 GHz on all cores while remaining under the highest operating temperature limit! It’s something I’ve never seen before with Ryzen, with Zen 2 and its XT refresh topping out at 4 GHz mostly.

Here’s a look at the average effective clock speed during Cinebench R20’s multi-core test on the Ryzen 7 3800XT and 5800X:

With AutoOC turned on at 200 MHz boost override, the max ceiling for our 5800X is 5050 MHz. That doesn’t mean it’ll touch it, but we came really close at 4.9 GHz in testing! Don’t believe me? Here you go:

In the 3DMark the results are just as expected. Do note that if these scores look low, it’s because of our RTX 2060 Super which can bottleneck performance even at 1080p. You might see higher scores from other outlets as they use higher-end GPUs.

Premiere Pro rendering is another real-world test that many consumers look forward to. After all, if you’re getting an 8-core CPU then you’re probably doing more than just gaming. More and more people are starting to edit and share their gameplay online, and with the 5800X you’ll be saving a little more time when doing so. We rendered the first 10 minutes of our recent interview with NODWIN Gaming. The test settings included Constant Bit-rate encoding at 16 Mbps and count the encode time.

Verdict

Alright, so in our overall Ryzen 7 5800X vs 3800XT vs 3700X comparison, it’s clear that the new Zen 3 chip takes the lead. But that performance lead also comes at an increased cost. Remember that the Ryzen 7 3700X comes with a Wraith Prism cooler, which increases its value. For more enthusiast overclockers they’ll still need to use a good 3rd party cooler. For many, the higher frequencies on the R7 5800X will be more than justifiable.

On average, the Ryzen 7 5800X scores 38% higher than last year’s Ryzen 7 3700X while costing 36% more (at launch). It scores 25% higher than this year’s Ryzen 7 3800XT while costing 12% more (at launch) across gaming, content-creation and synthetic benchmarks.