AMD's first Ryzen 7000X3D gaming processors arrive on February 28th

AMD's Ryzen 7000X3D gaming-focused processors finally have a release date - or rather, two release dates. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D and 7950X3D will debut on February 28th, with the 7800X3D arriving on April 6th.

AMD announced prices for its new CPUs too, with the eight-core 7800X3D at $449, the 12-core 7900X3D at $599 and the 16-core 7950X3D at $699. For context, the original eight, 12 and 16-core Ryzen 7000 models have MSRPs of $399, $549 and $699, respectively, so this is at most a $50 premium in terms of MSRP - although of course retail prices have dropped significantly since the original Ryzen 7000 models debuted in September last year.

All three X3D CPUs have been hotly anticipated since they were announced just after the new year, as they combine the new features of AMD's Ryzen 7000 series - an efficient 5nm process, more powerful socket and generally excellent performance - with the 3D V-Cache design that made the rather ordinary 5800X into the ridiculously powerful Ryzen 5800X3D. By tripling the chip's L3 cache, the 5800X3D was able to compete with Ryzen 7000 and Intel's 12th and 13th-gen designs in many games - despite being bound to older DDR4 memory and the venerable AM4 socket. That makes an X3D version of Ryzen 7000 quite a tantalising prospect for extreme gaming performance.

With AMD's 65W non-X CPUs having arrived in early January, their Ryzen 7000 lineup has expanded rapidly - which should ensure that there's a good pick available for most people. The 65W CPUs essentially offer nigh-identical performance at a lower price, based on our testing of the Ryzen 5 7600, so they're the best choice for budget-oriented builds. Meanwhile, these new X3D options should offer the best gaming performance from the lineup. That leaves the original launch models in a more diminished role, basically offering slightly better performance at a higher power target than the non-X versions, but they might still be a good fit for content creation workloads - especially as some X models have dropped lower in price than their non-X counterparts as retailers seek to clear out older stock.

You can refer to the spec table below to see how the full Ryzen 7000 lineup compares. Note that UK prices weren't included in the press release we received, but we're following up with AMD about this and will add this information if we get it.

Ryzen™ 7000 Series Processors with AMD 3D V-Cache™ Technology Pricing and Availability

While performance on the AMD side is excellent from this generation, sales are reportedly slow due to the shift to the new AM5 socket, which requires both DDR5 RAM and a new X670/670E or B650/650E motherboard. These remain expensive, making the likes of the last-gen 5800X3D a good value as it can be paired with cheap, readily available DDR4 RAM and AM4 motherboards and provides a significant uplift over earlier Ryzen designs.

Still, the new socket and faster RAM should also push these new X3D chips well beyond what the 5800X3D is capable of, and could even help AMD reclaim the gaming crown from Intel's 13900K - so it'll be fascinating to see how performant they turn out to be. We'll of course aim to test these new CPUs ourselves, so stay tuned for our coverage around launch time!