There’s never been a better time to upgrade to the Ryzen 5800X3D

Dec 03, 2023

Looking to soup up your aging AM4 gaming PC with a new CPU? Well, AMD's Ryzen 5800X3D could be just the upgrade you were looking for.

AMD's AM4 platform might be discontinued in favor of swanky new AM5 CPUs, but there's one final upgrade waiting in the wings for anyone who has stuck with the platform since it was launched in 2016. AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the final boss of AM4 CPUs, offering AMD's 3D V-cache technology that makes it excellent for gaming.

Initially launched in the spring of 2022 for $449, the 5800X3D was an expensive upgrade for a platform that would not be receiving any more support. But now, with the rising costs of things like motherboards, processors, and DDR5 RAM, that value proposition has changed somewhat.

A number of retailers have slashed the price of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D over the past few weeks, and it can now be had for under $300, making it an excellent value upgrade from older AM4 CPUs.

In 2023, the Ryzen 5800X3D manages to be around as fast as an Intel Core i5-13600K under gaming workloads, and on par with some of the fastest gaming CPUs of previous generations, like the Intel Core i9-12900K. While modern gaming CPUs like the Ryzen 7800X3D outclass it, it is still a formidable CPU for gaming in the mid-range.

But, faster CPUs would require an upgrade of other crucial components such as your motherboard. With Ryzen CPUs and the AM4 socket being as popular as they are, the 5800X3D becomes a new frontrunner for anyone stuck on older Ryzen chips, and looking for good gaming performance.

I upgraded from a Ryzen 5 3600 to the Ryzen 5800X3D and the results are nothing short of astonishing. It's breathed new life into an aging system, and alongside a GPU upgrade over to the RTX 4070 Ti, it's likely that I’ll be able to use the PC for years to come.

Swapping out the CPU itself was a breeze, but you’ll first need to make sure that your motherboard is able to support the 5800X3D in the first place. You’ll want to find the latest version of your motherboard BIOS, and flash the new firmware ahead of taking your CPU out of the system. Once everything is up to date, it's as simple as swapping them out, just be sure not to bend any of the delicate pins in the process.

Really, the biggest headache when it comes to upgrading your CPU will be taking your cooler off. My AM4-mounted AIO has always been a bit of a hassle to install and uninstall, but armed with a handy tube of thermal paste – you should be ready to go. It's also worth mentioning that this CPU can drink up to 110W of power, almost double the number of our old Ryzen 5 3600.

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Due to this, the CPU can run slightly hotter than the more modest 3600, and it does not come with any cooler in the box. So, we suggest that you prepare yourself with an adequate cooler to match. Frankly speaking, the 360mm AIO I had installed previously barely broke a sweat on the 3600, but with the 5800X3D, it manages to do its job damn well.

The 5800X3D managed to save us quite a bit of money. My aging system was built four years ago, and in PC terms, it was basically a dinosaur, especially in this line of work, where you have to stay on the bleeding edge of hardware. For testing new graphics cards, I use a modern testbench PC. But, for personal use, I got increasingly frustrated with the performance of my system. When trying to play Fortnite and testing high-refresh rate monitors. My CPU bottleneck was immediately alleviated, and I get a much more stable 1% low performance, to boot.

The alternative to picking up a Ryzen 5800X3D was to purchase a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM, which could have cost much, much more than just upgrading to the best CPU available on the platform. It feels quick, nippy, and it can keep up with modern systems.

Not only did I end up saving hundreds on upgrading my system, but I also managed to not throw out perfectly good hardware, too. AMD has already committed to making sure that AM5 sticks around for some time, and we hope that Intel chooses to stick with their CPU platforms a bit more too. It's more friendly to the consumer, and lets you just get more out of hardware that you already own.

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