In a Nutshell
Both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT are great high-end CPUs. Featuring 8 cores, 16 threads and support for PCIe 4.0 bus, both of these CPUs are capable of delivering unprecedented performance. The Ryzen 7 3700X, however, is a better choice for gaming, while the Ryzen 7 3800XT is a better CPU for users who deal with content creation.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- Incredible raw performance
- Supports PCIe 4.0 bus
- Low power consumption
- Affordable price
- Single-threaded performance could be better
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
- Great multi-threaded performance
- Supports PCIe 4.0 bus
- Good overclocking potential
- High TDP
- Could’ve been cheaper
Both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT are undeniably powerful desktop processors. Despite the fact that Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs are starting to hit the market, these processors are still worth the purchase, provided you are looking for a powerful CPU at a reasonable price. In this roundup we’ll explore the performance of both CPUs, and determine which one is better for gaming, and which one for content creation.
CPU Specifications
| AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AMD | AMD |
| Released | Q2 2019 | Q3 2020 |
| Codename | Zen 2 | Zen 2 |
| Socket | AM4 | AM4 |
| Integrated GPU | No | No |
| Cores | 8 | 8 |
| Threads | 16 | 16 |
| Base Clock | 3.60 GHz | 3.90 GHz |
| Boost Clock | 4.40 GHz | 4.70 GHz |
| L3 Cache | 32 MB | 32 MB |
| Fab Process | 7 nm | 7 nm |
| Memory Support | DDR4-3200 | DDR4-3200 |
| TDP | 65 W | 105 W |
Design and Features
Both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT are based upon AMD’s Zen 2 microarchitecture, and are built upon TSMC’s 7 nm manufacturing process. The Ryzen 7 3800XT, however, is a bit newer CPU, as it was released in July 2020, and features some minor upgrades thanks to certain manufacturing refinements. The 3800XT sports 300 MHz higher base and boost clocks compared to the Ryzen 7 3700X, but it also features 40 W higher TDP. Both CPUs feature native support for DDR4-3200 RAM, as well as PCIe 4.0 bus interface. Each of them also comes with a whooping 32 MB of L3 cache, as well as with eight physical cores and 16 processing threads.
On paper, both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT feature almost identical specifications. In practice, the 3800XT beats its older brother 3700X, but only by a small margin. Thanks to its slightly increased core clocks, the newer CPU is able to deliver 5% better performance in multithreaded applications, and 6-8% better performance in singlethreaded applications. Unfortunately, the increased TDP is hardly able to justify the purchase of 3800XT over 3700X, as newer CPU consumes a lot more power, and produces more heat.
Both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT are great CPUs for productivity, content creation, and performing other heavy-duty tasks such as video editing or 3D modelling. They are also very good CPUs for gaming, however, their primary purpose is to deliver unprecedented performance in professional applications. Based upon multiple sources and dozens of data entries, we have also conducted a meta-analysis of various benchmarks of these two CPUs available online. All benchmark data was based on PC systems featuring NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU, as well as 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and Windows 10 operating system running from an SSD drive. Results are shown below.
Synthetic Benchmarks
| Test | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT |
|---|---|---|
| Passmark Result | 22.702 | 23.961 |
| Passmark Result (Single) | 2.681 | 2.864 |
| Cinebench R20 (Single) | 501 | 539 |
| Cinebench R20 (Multi) | 4.834 | 5.122 |
| Geekbench 5 (Single) | 1.252 | 1.355 |
| Geekbench 5 (Multi) | 8.634 | 9.111 |
| Blender (BMW27 Test) | 170,7 sec | 171,6 sec |
As you can see both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT are great CPUs for multithreaded applications. In most tests the Ryzen 7 3800XT performs better than the 3700X, but performance advantage is negligible. The Ryzen 7 3800XT, however, scores noticeably better results in singlethreaded tests, however, in Blender, the Ryzen 7 3700X performs identically the same, if not even better. Overall, the Ryzen 7 3800XT is a faster CPU than the 3700X, however, its performance advantage can only be observed in applications that fully utilize multithreaded hardware.
Gaming Benchmarks
When it comes to gaming, the Ryzen 7 3800XT is obviously the better CPU. In certain games it can deliver up to 10 FPS more on average than the Ryzen 7 3700X, although usually the performance advantage is much more modest. In some games like Red Dead Redemption 2, the 3700X is even better than the 3800XT, but this should be seen as an exception. Overall, both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT perform better than Ryzen 9 3900X in gaming, which makes them a better choice for building a gaming PC.
Which CPU Should You Buy?
Both Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 7 3800XT are great CPUs. Both of them have native support for DDR4-3200 RAM, as well as PCIe 4.0 bus interface, which makes them great for pairing with a high-end graphics card such as GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or Radeon RX 5700 XT. Both CPUs also feature 8 cores and 16 threads, as well as 32 MB of L3 cache. The Ryzen 7 3800XT sports 300 MHz higher base and boost clock, which gives him a slight advantage over Ryzen 7 3700X in gaming and multithreaded applications. Unfortunately, this performance boost comes with a cost of increased TDP of 105 W, which is 40 watts more than the TDP of Ryzen 7 3700X. Overall, if you are looking for a powerful gaming CPU, then Ryzen 7 3700X is a better choice. If, however, you are a content creator that relies heavily upon multithreaded applications, then Ryzen 7 3800XT is a smarter choice.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
With a TDP of only 65 W, the Ryzen 7 3700X is an amazing piece of hardware that is able to deliver unprecedented performance for a reasonable amount of money.
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
The Ryzen 7 3800XT is a slightly improved Ryzen 7 3800X that features higher core clocks and modest multithreaded performance improvements.
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