AMD released earlier this year based on the Zen4 architecture of the sharp Ryzen 7000X3D series products, including the 16-core R9 7950X3D, 12-core R9 7900X3D, 8-core R7 7800X3D, continue to stack up to 64MB 3D V-Cache cache, the total capacity of up to a staggering 144MB.
Now, AMD R9 7950X3D and R9 7900X3D have been unblocked and will be officially launched at 22:00 tonight with official suggested prices of RMB 5299 and RMB 4499 respectively, which are RMB 1300 and 1200 more expensive compared to the standard version; R7 7800X3D will only be available on April 6.
With the new processor unblocked, overclocking enthusiast SkatterBencher put out a video on Ryzen 9 7950X3D overclocking, and der8auer spared no effort to introduce the Zen4 desktop CPU with 3D V-Cache.
Similar to last year’s 5800X3D, these processors are locked down for overclocking, at least not in the traditional way, meaning you won’t see the Ryzen 7000X3D’s “X GHz” setting in the motherboard menu at all.
To get the best performance out of the Ryzen 7950X3D, users must rely on technologies such as Precision Boost Overdrive 2 or EXPO (Memory Overclocking Profile), but these technologies are hardly satisfactory for overclocking enthusiasts either.
SkatterBencher explains each possible overclocking strategy in detail, bent on unlocking more of Ryzen X3D’s performance potential.
He explained that there are differences between the two Ryzen chips (small chips) in the new Ryzen 9 X3D package, where CCD0 (with 3D V-Cache) has a maximum frequency limit of 5250 MHz and a voltage floor of 1.2V, while CCD1 (without 3D V-Cache) goes up to 5750 MHz and 1.4V.
In comparison, the original 7950X SKU has only one Fmax limit of 5850 MHz and 1.475V.
When PBO2 and the voltage/frequency curve optimizer are enabled, overclockers can force the CPU to higher frequencies, but it takes a lot of time to try and fine-tune this strategy to get its Fmax up to 5900 MHz. however, there is actually a better way to overclock it, and we can take advantage of Raphael’s available ECLK feature.
SkatterBencher explains that the Raphael ECLK (external clock generator) can be used with Ryzen CPUs and push them to higher frequencies. In short, he made the voltage-frequency-temperature go from 5.0 GHz / 1.1V / 50°C to 5.25 GHz by changing ECLK to 105 MHz at the same voltage and temperature.
That said, the Ryzen 7000X3D series is similar to the previous generation 5800X3D in that it can be overclocked via ECLK, but this requires a bit of manual adjustment by the user, which may be complicated for some users. In addition, the overclocking range varies depending on the cooling solution, motherboard, and the body of each processor, overclocking enthusiasts to directly adopt the default configuration.
It’s worth mentioning that overclocking can certainly bring higher scores, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to a significant increase in in-game frame rates, such as in the figure below. This overclocking method can increase CPU performance by 9%, but the performance improvement it brings to the game is minimal.
Sure, the processor series may not be too far ahead of the competition in terms of gaming performance, but it does cost less than the competition, for example, the i9-13900KS currently costs 5799 RMB (it was 5999 RMB a few days ago), but the cheaper R9 7950X3D can easily achieve higher gaming performance with lower power consumption as well.
Furthermore, a big aspect of the new 7000X3D that is impressive is the power consumption ratio, at least the 7950X3D completely crushes the 13900K and KS in terms of efficiency.
According to ComputerBase Germany, the average power consumption of the 7950X3D is almost half that of the 13900K at around 70-80 watts, but the 13th generation Core i9 can exceed 150W. In addition, the X3D model is also more power efficient than AMD’s own non-3D V-cache SKUs.
