AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is no longer just a rumour, as the new budget gaming CPU has now been officially released. With its $269 / £244.99 price significantly undercutting other X3D CPUs, but bringing the same 64MB bucket of 3D V-cache, AMD is clearly hoping this new chip can bring X3D to the masses.
AMD is making a big deal about the 7500X3D being significantly quicker than Intel’s competing Core i5 14600K and Core Ultra 5 245KF in games, claiming a 22% average performance advantage in competitive games against the latter. There are some key sacrifices involved in bringing down the price of this CPU, however, so let’s take a look at what makes the 7500X3D tick.
AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D specs
| Ryzen 5 7500X3D | |
|---|---|
| Platform | AM5 |
| Cores | 6 |
| Threads | 12 |
| TDP | 65W |
| Architecture | Zen 4 |
| L2 cache | 6MB |
| L3 cache | 96MB (32MB on-die, 64MB 3D V-cache) |
| Base clock | 4GHz |
| Boost clock | 4.5GHz |
| Launch MSRP | $269 / £244.99 |
You make two key compromises by opting for the 7500X3D over the 7800X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Firstly, you only get six cores rather than eight. That’s not a massive deal for gaming, as even now the vast majority of games don’t hugely benefit from having more than six cores. As its model number suggests, the 7500X3D is also based on AMD’s older Zen 4 architecture, rather than the latest Zen 5 tech underpinning its 9000-series CPUs. While six cores is fine for gaming, however, unlike the 7500X3D, Intel’s Core Ultra 5 and Core i5 chips also have E-Cores to help them out with multi-threading.
The potentially bigger deal, however, is clock speed. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D boost clock is only 4.5GHz, giving it a substantial 500MHz frequency deficit compared with Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and 700MHz against the 9800X3D. Given that one of our key criticisms of the former in our Ryzen 7 7800X3D review was its low clock speed, it’s a bit disappointing to see such a low boost clock on the 7500X3D.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first six-core X3D chip AMD’s launched either. The company has already launched an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D with a higher boost clock of 4.7GHz, but with supply limited to just one retailer (Micro Center) in the US, and limited availability elsewhere. This time, though, the 7500X3D is getting a big worldwide release – it’s just a shame it’s not as powerful as the 7600X3D.
On the plus side, you do still get the exact same 64MB slice of 3D V-cache sitting under the 7500X3D’s six cores as you’ll find on the 7800X3D. Even if you account for the lower clock speed, the fact that this CPU will have far fewer cache misses in games, meaning it’s much less likely to need to page your system memory, will still give it a serious advantage when it comes to maintaining decent frame rates.
One other key part of the specs list sticks out, which is that the 7500X3D TDP is 65W. On the plus side, this means you won’t need an oversized CPU cooler to keep its temperatures in check, and you won’t need a hefty PSU to run it either. On the downside, AMD has clearly dropped the boost clock in order to meet this TDP.
AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D price
The Ryzen 5 7500X3D price is $269 / £244.99, undercutting the price of the 7600X3D by $30, coming in significantly cheaper than the usual $399 price of the 7800X3D. AMD is taking a clear aim at Intel’s chips with six P-Cores here, and at $269 the 7500X3D sits between Intel’s Core Ultra 5 245K and 265K, offering superior gaming performance.
AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D performance
We’ll bring you the full picture of AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D performance once we’ve put our sample through its paces (watch this space), but in the meantime, AMD has shared its own figures. As this data comes from AMD, it obviously needs to be viewed with a degree of scepticism, but it is very likely that the 7500X3D’s 3D V-cache will indeed give it a big advantage over Intel’s chips in games.
As you can see in the graph above, AMD claims the 7500X3D outperforms the Core Ultra 5 245KF by 22% on average in competitive gaming titles, after testing ten esports games at 1080p with high settings, with a 42% advantage in PUBG at the top. Meanwhile, AMD states there’s an average 13% performance benefit of using a 7500X3D over the 245KF in the 20 AAA titles it’s tested. At the top, this includes a 34% advantage in Borderlands 3, and it’s 28% ahead in Elden Ring as well.
AMD has also provided its figures against the Core i5 14600K, where the 7500X3D isn’t quite so dominant, but it’s still well ahead, as you can see in the above graph. According to AMD, a 7500X3D beats the 14600K by an average of 12% in esports games, and 8% in its AAA game benchmarks.
It’s the price that’s key here, though. AMD has lacked an affordable X3D chip on its AM5 platform to take the fight to Intel, and at $269, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is likely to be very popular. It might lack clock speed and multi-threading prowess, but it has that all-important silo of cache to keep frame rates on track, and that’s a formidable weapon in the fight against Intel in the gaming arena.
