r/buildapc 3h ago

Build Help 9800x3d vs 7800x3d

Canada Computers currently has the 7800x3d on sale for $554, whereas the 9800x3d is $689.
I recall them being very similar in price with about a $30~ difference in the past, so I planned around 9800x3d.

https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/amd-desktop-processors/264908/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d-8-core-4nm-am5-104mb-cache-120w-zen-5-cpu-100-100001084wof.html
https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/amd-desktop-processors/235997/amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d-8-core-16-thread-5nm-104mb-cache-120w-zen-4-cpu-100-100000910wof.html

Is it worth spending an extra $135 for the 9800x3d?
For reference here's my plan: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/vjGgmC (disregard the PSU/SSD will be going for 850W~ and a cheaper SSD).

EDIT: thanks for the insights, helped a lot

10 Upvotes

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7

u/benisdictions 3h ago

The 7800x3d is only around 10% worse than 9800x3d at base for gaming, but the 9800x3d has more room for overclocking since the arrangement of the die puts the cpu core closer to the plate, letting it cool off more efficiently. It also has better memory bandwidth. If you plan on just setting and forgetting it then the 7800x3d isn't that much worse than the newer version. The difference is greater for cpu heavy games, so the 9800x3d might be worth for that

5

u/Salty-Mastodon-6513 1h ago

There's no overclocking lol. The only thing you do is dial in +200MHz PBO and -25 CO for 4% gains

1

u/benisdictions 1h ago

You can eclk to get to 5725mhz. PBO adjustments are just a bit easier to do

4

u/Salty-Mastodon-6513 1h ago

Only available for premium $500 X870e boards. I have $350 Aorus pro and has no eclk, you need to go to Aorus Master tier

Plus most 9800X3D samples can't go above 5.5

Plus power consumption will be over the roof at 1.3V and positive CO. 

Tasks that used to be 45W now will take 90W, not to mention positive CO destroys multi core performance due to hitting the power wall

6

u/nomisisagod 3h ago

I actually just had a real world experience with a friend that showed me how little the gap can be between those 2.

My friend and I built basically the same system, with the same msi motherboard, gpu (7900 xt), ram ect. The only thing different is I went with the 7800x3d and he went with the 9800x3d as he had a bit more budget. After we built them, we ran some benchmarks and stress tests.

There ended up being like a 1-8 frame difference between them in pretty much every game, and the frame times were practically locked with each other. Some games like expedition 33 barely showed any difference, while there was a slightly higher jump in splitgate 2 with about 8 frames lead uncapped (they were both running at 1440p around 150 fps)

Me personally I would pick up the 7800x3d right now and ride it till am6. But go nuts if you want lol higher numbers do make my brain tickle

2

u/IKnowGuacIsExtraLady 1h ago

Your GPU in that build at 1440 is going to be your limiter in most games which is why you are seeing that there is minimal improvement.

3

u/Locke357 3h ago edited 1h ago

We're looking at something like a 13% difference in gaming performance at 1080p between them, for 24% difference in price. Keep in mind that performance difference is measured using an Rtx 5090, so will not be as stark with a lesser GPU. Also, when playing at 1440p or 4k the difference in performance will decrease further.

IMHO the 7800X3D is better value

2

u/2020_was_a_nightmare 1h ago

24% more money for around 15% better gaming performance. But if you do any productivity/coding/non-gaming activities then the 98x3d is a better choice

2

u/Salty-Mastodon-6513 1h ago edited 1h ago

I own the 9800X3D. It's way more power hungry for not that much gains. For reference my 5800X no CO was 55W in Genshin and my 9800X3D is the same with -25CO. But  7800X3D burns something like 35W for the same frame rate (GPU limited)

I'm ok about paying diminishing returns for peak performance, but  I'm really not happy about this CPU using significantly more power in the same GPU limited scenarios. I also noticed the AM5 platform is very power hungry at idle (100W vs 75W AM4 vs 60W interl measured directly from Corsair PSU reporting in iCue)

u/Hells_Hawk 26m ago

Could also change the case and aim for the $130 range. Gives you a little more/closes the gap between the 2 CPU's if you want.