We weren’t disappointed, with our 3800X sample
reaching 4.4GHz across all cores using our maximum
vcore of 1.425V – you may be able to drop the latter a
bit for a more long-term overclock as well. This means
that, unlike many other recent AMD CPUs, an all-core
overclock only loses you 100MHz compared to the peak
boost of 4.5GHz. As such, it’s definitely worth manually
overclocking the Ryzen 7 3800X for heavily multi-threaded
workloads, and you won’t lose much lightly threaded
performance compared with running at stock speed either.
This overclock only saw the load power consumption
rise from 215W to 233W, and the chip was easily tameable
by our 240mm all-in-one liquid cooler. By comparison,
both of Intel’s 8-core CPUs drew a similar amount power
at stock speed and significantly more when overclocked,
although admittedly hitting much higher frequencies.
In our RealBench image editing test, the Ryzen 7 3800X
actually managed to outstrip the Ryzen 9 3900X, albeit
within the margin of error we generally expect for this
test, and it wasn’t that much faster than the other 3rd-gen
CORES
+ Most
overclockable
Zen 2 CPU yet
+ Faster than
Core i7-9700K
in most tests
+ Excellent
all-rounderCHORES- Intel chips quicker
in some games - Cheaper Ryzen
7 3700X isn’t
much slower - Limited
overclocking
headroom
compared
with Intel
Ryzen CPUs we’ve tested. However, it definitely
had the measure of the two 8-core Intel CPUs.
Our heavily multi-threaded video encoding
test painted a clearer picture, with the Ryzen 7
3800X outstripping the Core i7-9700K by more
than the price difference suggests, with a score
of 610,355 compared to just 498,461. Similarly,
despite costing another £60 or so, the Core
i9-9900K was only a small amount faster.
The system score of 241, 240 is only just
short of the Core i9-9900K and not a whole lot
more than the Ryzen 7 3700X, but the Ryzen
9 3900X does offer a fair amount more grunt
here, easily topping 300,000. Once it was
overclocked on all cores, the 3800X’s system
score rose to 253,121, with the biggest gain being
seen in the video encoding test, but it was slower in the
image editing test, due to our all-core overclock being
slower than the single-core stock speed boost frequency.
Overclocking also offered sizeable increases to the
Far Cry 5 benchmark, with the minimum frame rate
rising from 91fps to 97fps. Even so, this test is an area
where Intel still reigns supreme, although bear in mind
that not all games respond so strongly to using different
CPUs, and that this is a deliberately CPU-limited test.Conclusion
Compared with Intel’s offerings, the Ryzen 7 3800X is a
beast, usually matching or bettering the Core i9-9900K
in multi-threaded benchmarks and trouncing the Core
i7-9700K. The latter, though, can be bought for less than
£350, so it’s definitely worth considering if gaming is your
top priority. However, you won’t see benefits in all games,
and as soon as you dip into multi-threaded workloads, the
Ryzen 7 3800X completely outstrips both Intel CPUs in
terms of value and very often in raw performance too.
The Ryzen 7 3800X’s pricing is the main factor in
deciding whether it’s worth buying over the Ryzen
7 3700X. The latter is a little slower at stock speed,
especially in multi-threaded tests, and it doesn’t
overclock as far. The price difference is fluctuating too,
going between £40 and £60 over the past month.
If it’s a £60 difference, that’s money that would be
better spent on a bigger SSD, a more premium case or
a better CPU cooler. However, if the difference is small,
the promise of a higher overclock or stock speed boost
frequencies is worth a small amount of extra cash.
Either CPU is currently a great buy, though, especially
if you’ll be throwing a range of tasks at your PC.
ANTONY LEATHERVERDICT
One of the best 8-core CPUs around, but the cheaper
Ryzen 7 3700X isn’t much slower.OVERALLSCORE
88
PERFORMANCE
44 / 50
FEATURES
15 / 15
VALUE
29 / 35