AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D review: An unbeatable value gaming CPU

Considering the price, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is a monster gaming CPU. You can pick it up online for around $250, and in-store at Micro Center for $200, and in either situation, it’s a great deal. It’s the cheapest X3D processor still readily available, and it manages to beat just about everything below $300, coming closer to the performance of the $370 Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

As usual, we tested with the RTX 5090 FE at 1080p, using identical test beds across each platform, including a frozen OS image. You can find full details about our test bench configurations at the end of this review.

The Ryzen 5 7600X3D is just 4.5% slower than the eight-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D in our 17-game geomean, and it outclasses Intel’s new Core Ultra 5 250K Plus by a solid 10% margin. Compared to the base Ryzen 5 7600X, the larger L3 cache helps the Ryzen 5 7600X3D claim a lead of 22%, despite a vast drop in both clock speed and peak power draw.

Although our test pool is limited to a handful of CPUs around the same price range, we could extend this graph upward even further, and the Ryzen 5 7600X3D would still post excellent results. It ranks seventh out of the 30 CPUs currently in our CPU benchmark hierarchy for gaming performance, only beaten by other, more-expensive X3D CPUs. Anything that isn’t packing AMD’s 3D V-Cache from the last few generations is slower, at least in games.

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AMD’s lower-rated power draw for the Ryzen 5 7600X3D isn’t just hot air. On average, it consumed just 65W in our test suite, which is exceptional. It’s only above the (much slower) Core Ultra 5 225. Even the base Ryzen 5 7600X consumed about 29% more power in games on average, showing the efficiency advantages of 3D V-Cache in games.

Looking more closely at efficiency, you can see the Ryzen 5 7600X3D easily tops the charts. Once again, the Core Ultra 5 225 is in the running, but these two CPUs are in completely different leagues when it comes to gaming performance. The Ryzen 5 7600X3D even manages to slightly outclass the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which stands as one of the most efficient gaming CPUs in recent memory. Most chips here struggle to produce two frames per watt, but the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is closing in on three.

Bringing price into the mix, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D isn’t quite the knockout value that it appears to be at first glance, at least based on online pricing. It’s still a great value, but chips like the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus are much more competitive on a frames-per-dollar level. Of course, if you have a Micro Center nearby and can pick up the Ryzen 5 7600X3D for $200, it shoots to the top of our value rankings.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Benchmarks

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Baldur’s Gate 3 loves X3D CPUs, and the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is no exception. It’s just 5% behind the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, with similar 1% lows, and ahead of the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Ryzen 7 9700X by a solid 19%. Compared to the stock Ryzen 5 7600X, you’re looking at a 35% uplift, showing how much that extra 96 MB of L3 is doing in this game.

Borderlands 4 Benchmarks

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Borderlands 4 is a newer addition to our test suite. It certainly sees a small uplift from AMD’s X3D CPUs, but it’s not as drastic as what we see with other titles, such as Baldur’s Gate 3 or Final Fantasy XIV, helping balance the scales a bit against the Intel competition. Here, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is 6.4% behind the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, but AMD’s lowest-end X3D chip still keeps pace with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and outclasses the base Ryzen 5 7600X by 10%.

Crimson Desert Benchmarks

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Crimson Desert is another new addition to the test suite, and its unique BlackSpace engine scales remarkably well on the CPU. Here, both the Ryzen 5 7600X3D and Ryzen 7 7800X3D top the charts in lockstep with each other, with the former leading the base Ryzen 5 7600X by 31% and the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus by 16%. This game runs particularly well on Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs, but the Ryzen 5 7600X3D still manages to beat the Core i5-14600K by just shy of 10%.

Counter-Strike 2 Benchmarks

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In Counter-Strike 2, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D takes a backseat to its eight-core sibling, running 6% slower on average. It still manages to marginally outclass the Ryzen 7 7700X, showing that the 3D V-Cache is doing some work, as well as the Ryzen 5 9600X. Compared to the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, AMD is 8% ahead, and compared to the base Ryzen 5 7600X, the X3D version is 9.6% ahead.

Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmarks

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Cyberpunk 2077 is one of our most tried-and-trusted benchmarks, and the chips fall almost as squarely as you’d expect. The two X3D chips top the charts, with the Ryzen 5 falling behind by 5%. Compared to Intel, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is 6% ahead of the Core i5-14600K, and just shy of 5% ahead of the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. This is one of the games that’s accelerated by the recent iBOT feature from Intel, as well.

Doom: The Dark Ages Benchmarks

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Doom: The Dark Ages is a unique test in our suite, not only because it leverages Vulkan instead of DirectX 12, but also because it has always-on ray tracing. The game generally favors newer architectures, so it’s not surprising to see the Ryzen 5 7600X3D fall behind the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus by 4.5%. 3D V-Cache is pulling its weight, however, with the X3D model pulling ahead of the base Ryzen 5 7600X by 16%.

F1 24 Benchmarks

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Far Cry 6 Benchmarks

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Far Cry 6 is known for how much it’s accelerated by 3D V-Cache, but the Ryzen 5 7600X3D doesn’t completely run away with performance here. It’s still in second place, falling behind the eight-core model by 7.8%. It’s faster than both Zen 5 chips in our test pool, however, as well as 7.2% ahead of the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus.

Final Fantasy XIV Benchmarks

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Unlike Far Cry 6, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is on full display with its 3D V-Cache acceleration in Final Fantasy XIV. Both X3D chips are in a different performance league here, with the Ryzen 5 7600X3D sitting a staggering 44% ahead of both the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Ryzen 5 7600X.

Flight Simulator 2024 Benchmarks

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In Flight Simulator 2024, we see the Ryzen 5 7600X3D slip slightly behind the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, which isn’t too surprising. Both the Zen 4-based Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 7700X are at the bottom of the pile here, showing that, although this game is leveraging the extra cache on the 7600X3D, it’s not enough to overcome the underlying architecture.

Hitman 3 Benchmarks

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Hogwarts Legacy Benchmarks

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Hogwarts Legacy is a unique result in our suite, mainly due to the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. Intel has optimized this game with iBOT, allowing the Arrow Lake Refresh CPU to take the top slot and outpace the Ryzen 5 7600X3D by 7.6%.

Marvel Rivals Benchmarks

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The Unreal Engine 5-based Marvel Rivals is one of the most popular hero shooters around, and it’s surprisingly demanding despite its cartoon-esque aesthetic. Despite UE5 being known for its heavy GPU demand, we can see scaling here, with the Ryzen 5 7600X3D offering a minor bump over the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and beating the base Ryzen 5 7600X by nearly 24%.

Minecraft RTX Benchmarks

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Our Minecraft benchmark stresses the memory chain between your RAM and CPU. Although the game doesn’t appear demanding, we use the maximum 96 render chunk distance to stress system memory and CPU cache, with a particular focus on moving data through the memory chain as quickly as possible. As you can see, the X3D CPUs rule the roost here, while Intel’s Arrow Lake chips occupy the bottom of the charts with a separate SoC tile that houses the memory controller.

Spider-Man 2 Benchmarks

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Although X3D chips still top the charts in Spider-Man 2, the margins are thinner. The Ryzen 5 7600X3D is just 2% faster than the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, and 8% faster than the Ryzen 5 9600X. Despite smaller margins, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D still decimates its non-X3D counterpart, with a 17% lead.

Starfield Benchmarks

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Starfield shows another tight race between the Ryzen 5 7600X3D and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, with only a few frames of difference between them, both in average frame rates and 1% lows. This game clearly sees some benefit from eight cores, with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D outpacing the Ryzen 5 model by 10%.

The Last of Us Part One Benchmarks

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Rounding out our gaming tests is The Last of Us Part One, where the Ryzen 5 7600X3D falls just short of the top slot. It’s in line with the Ryzen 7 9700X, 7700X, and Core Ultra 5 245K, with all four chips hitting a performance wall around 156 FPS. Both the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are able to push through this wall for better average and 1% low performance.

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