As DDR5 memory prices blast off into the heavens, lots of PC gamers are understandably thinking twice about forking out for a new motherboard and CPU. After all, when a 32GB kit that cost £116 earlier this year now costs £500, is it really worth it? The other option is to stick with DDR4, but AMD is now missing a trick with the big X3D-shaped hole in its AM4 CPU lineup. Let’s bring back the acclaimed AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
It’s a situation that’s created a real hunger for AM4 X3D chips.
Both AMD and Intel still make decent chips that will work with your old memory, as I established when compiling my guide to the best DDR4 CPUs. However, there’s a notable lack of gaming CPUs using AMD’s 3D V-cache. The Ryzen 7 58003D went the way of the dodo a while back, and now even Ryzen 7 5700X3D chips have disappeared from store shelves. It’s a situation that’s created a real hunger for AM4 X3D chips, especially when upgrading to a new DDR5 system has become prohibitively expensive.
As tech leaker HXL recently pointed out on X, 5800X3D is now more expensive than 7800X3D if you buy secondhand. In fact, a quick search through eBay shows several 5800X3D chips with ‘Buy it now’ prices of £425-£430. That’s even more expensive than the £399 needed to buy a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Even AMD’s lower-clocked 5700X3D chips are going for around £300 secondhand.
It’s easy to see why. AMD’s AM4 platform enjoyed a very long life, and loads of gamers are still using these motherboards in various configurations. All these boards would happily support a 5800X3D, as long as you have a decent cooler. In current market conditions, would you pay £400-£500 for 32GB of DDR5 memory, another £400 for your CPU, and then buy a new motherboard, or would you just try to buy a secondhand CPU instead?
In fact, building a whole new DDR4 system from scratch is starting to look more tempting than a DDR5 rig. Older RAM is definitely going up in price, but not by anywhere near as much as DDR5. You can still buy a 32GB (2x16GB) 3,200MT/s Corsair DDR4 kit for £156.67 at the time of writing, which isn’t cheap compared to earlier this year, but it’s less than half the price of a 32GB DDR5 kit.
There’s a big gap in the PC gaming market ripe for the taking.
So how about it, AMD? Bringing back 5800X3D or, even better, a new AM4 X3D chip with a higher clock speed, would be good for both AMD and gamers. With memory makers predicting that DDR5 RAM prices will remain expensive for a long while yet, and demand for AI infrastructure booming, there’s a big gap in the PC gaming market ripe for the taking.
AMD is still commissioning Zen 3 silicon from TSMC, as we can see from its current Ryzen XT CPUs, and the 5700X3D was only released last year. It would definitely take some resource juggling, but with reports of collapsing motherboard sales and DDR5 prices continuing to climb, a significant number of PC gamers simply aren’t going to upgrade to AM5 from AM4 now.
AMD might prefer it if gamers instead bought into a whole new platform, but that’s simply not a realistic expectation any more, at least not in the same numbers as before. AMD has the tech to turn this situation around, giving itself a unique product that works with DDR4 memory, and providing PC gamers with an all-important upgrade path to plug the gap for the next couple of years.
It feels slightly counterintuitive to be requesting tech companies to take a step backwards, but extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Come on AMD, let’s bring 3D V-cache back to Socket AM4.
