In context: Intel may have managed to stave off AMD's conquest in the desktop CPU space, but the latter company seems to have one last piece of heavy Ryzen artillery left for the AM4 platform before Zen 4 arrives. If early benchmarks are to be believed, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D might offer gamers who own a 300, 400, or 500 series motherboard a decent upgrade path.

Many gamers were disappointed to learn that AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D will come with some overclocking limitations when compared to the regular Ryzen 7 5800X, but most signs so far point to the 3D V-Cache being able to compensate for this shortcoming.

Last week, someone in Peru was able to get a hold of a Ryzen 7 5800X3D ahead of its official retail availability date, which is April 20. After performing a few benchmarks, they found AMD's new Ryzen 5000 series processor won't be exceptional in productivity tasks, which shouldn't come as a surprise since AMD is marketing this specifically as a gaming CPU.

However, it turns out the 3D V-Cache can lead to some significant performance gains in certain games. For instance, the larger effective size of the L3 cache seemed to make the Ryzen 7 5800X3D faster than Intel's Core i9-12900KS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is notorious for being sensitive to memory speed and latency.

This week, XanxoGaming posted more benchmarks comparing the new AMD CPU to Intel's Core i9-12900KF, and this time around it used more comparable systems that were both equipped with DDR4-3200 CL14 memory and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition.

The new tests were done using resolutions like 1080p and even 720p to try and gauge pure CPU performance in titles like FFXV, Borderlands 3, Death Stranding, Control, Assassin's Creed Origins, Strange Brigade, The Witcher 3, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and it looks like the two processors are more or less equal in that regard. In some cases, the Ryzen 5800X3D pulled ahead of the Core i9-12900KF, while the latter processor had the upper hand in other tests.

Of course, we still need to wait for more comprehensive testing before we can pass any judgment on AMD's last processor for the AM4 platform, but if these tests are any indication, the company seems to be ending the AM4 era on a good note.

The Ryzen 7 5800X 3D will retail for $449, which is cheaper than Intel's latest and greatest. However, it will land at a time when AMD's Ryzen 9 5900X has dropped to its lowest ever price --- you can snag one for $395 on Amazon or Newegg.