It's time for yet another "new" AMD processor review, and we swear AMD is now binning CPUs faster than Intel can sell them. This time we have the Ryzen 5 7500X3D, a new binned 3D V-Cache chip derived from another binned 3D V-Cache chip, the 7600X3D, which itself is a cut-down version of the 7800X3D.
The 7800X3D is a familiar CPU many of you know and love. Released in mid-2023, it's an 8-core Zen 4 processor packing a massive 96 MB of L3 cache. Then last year we got the 7600X3D – well, sort of. That processor was locked to select retailers, sold in-store only at places like Micro Center, with similar restrictions applying to Mindfactory in Germany. Even so, we managed to source one via AliExpress, and we'll be putting it through its paces soon.
We also managed to buy the 7500X3D, which is available locally here in Australia. That's a bit odd, as this is meant to be an OEM-only part, meaning it should only be available in pre-built systems, and yet we were able to buy one in a retail box. Go figure.
In any case, it cost us $430 AUD, around 33% less than the 7800X3D, which currently sells for $640. This also makes the 7500X3D about $100 more than the 7600X, so it'll be interesting to see how they compare.
Before we jump into the blue bar graphs, here are a few quick details regarding the 7500X3D's specifications...
| Ryzen 5 7500F | Ryzen 5 7500X3D | Ryzen 5 7600X3D | Ryzen 7 7800X3D | |
| Price (MSRP) | $180 | OEM | $300 | $450 |
| Release Date | Jul 22, 2023 | Nov 12, 2025 | Aug 31, 2024 | Apr 6, 2023 |
| Cores / Threads | 6 / 12 | 8 / 16 | ||
| Base Clock | 3.7 GHz | 4.0 GHz | 4.1 GHz | 4.2 GHz |
| Boost Clock | 5.0 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 5.0 GHz |
| L3 Cache | 32 MB | 96 MB | ||
| Box Cooler | Wraith Stealth | N/A | ||
| Chiplets | 1 × CCD, 1 × I/OD | |||
| Core Config | 1 × 6 | 1 × 8 | ||
| TDP | 65 W | 120 W | ||
Like the 7600X3D, it features 6 cores and 12 threads, but this time the cores boost to a maximum frequency of 4.5 GHz. That's 200 MHz lower than the 7600X3D and 500 MHz lower than the 7800X3D.
Compared to the standard 7600X, we're looking at a substantial 800 MHz frequency reduction, so that 96 MB L3 cache is going to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
For testing, we're using our standard AM5 test system, featuring 32 GB of DDR5-6000 CL30 memory and the GeForce RTX 5090. We won't go into detail here on why we test this way, but if you're curious, we have plenty of content explaining our CPU testing methodology and why this approach makes the most sense.
With that out of the way, let's get into the results…
Test System Specs
| CPU Motherboard Memory |
AMD Ryzen 9000 AMD Ryzen 7000 |
Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master [BIOS F38e] G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30-38-38-96 |
| AMD Ryzen 5000 | MSI MPG X570S Carbon MAX WiFi [BIOS 7D52v1D1] G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 32GB DDR4-3600 CL14-15-15-35 |
|
| Intel Core Ultra | Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Hero [BIOS 2201] G.Skill Trident Z5 CK 32GB DDR5-8200 CL40-52-52-131 CUDIMM |
|
| Intel Core 12th & 14th | MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi [BIOS 7D89v1H] G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30-38-38-96 |
|
| MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk [BIOS 7D91v1D2] G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 32GB DDR4-3600 CL14-15-15-35 |
||
| Graphics Card | Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC Edition | |
| Power Supply | Kolink Regulator Gold ATX 3.0 1200W | |
| Storage | TeamGroup T-Force Cardea A440 M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD 4TB | |
| Display Driver | GeForce Game Ready Driver 581.42 WHQL | |
Benchmarks
Clock Frequency Behavior
Before we get into the blue bar graphs, here's a look at how the 7500X3D behaves during a heavy all-core workload using Cinebench. At stock settings, it maintained an average all-core clock frequency of 4.43 GHz, with a peak single-core boost of 4.55 GHz.
Using a 360 mm all-in-one liquid cooler, we also observed a peak CPU temperature of 76 °C, which is fairly typical for AMD Ryzen 5 processors – at least those that use solder rather than thermal paste.
Cinebench 2024
As for Cinebench performance, as you might expect, a low-clocked 6-core/12-thread Zen 4 processor isn't exactly a productivity powerhouse. The 7500X3D scored just 792 points, making it the slowest modern processor we've tested to date.
Single-core performance is also very weak, only narrowly beating the 5800X3D. Keep in mind that 3D V-Cache offers no benefit in Cinebench, which helps explain the lacklustre result.
Shader Compilation
The 3D V-Cache doesn't help when it comes to shader compilation either. As a result, the 7500X3D takes around 14-16% longer to compile shaders compared to the already fairly slow 7600X. While most games allow you to play as shaders compile in the background, this often leads to stuttery frame rates during gameplay.
Gaming Benchmarks
Rainbow Six Siege X
Moving on to the gaming benchmarks, we'll start with Rainbow Six Siege using the Medium preset. Here, the 7500X3D matched the 9600X, making it 17% faster than the 7600X and 24% faster than the 14600K – an encouraging result for a more budget-focused processor.
Using the Ultra+ preset, it again matched the 9600X. However, with this more GPU-limited data set, it was just 13% faster than the 7600X and only 5% slower than the 7800X3D.
Marvel Rivals
The 7500X3D was notably slower than the 7800X3D in the Marvel Rivals benchmark when using the Medium setting, trailing by 18%. That still put it 5% ahead of the 9600X and 10% faster than the 7600X.
When switching to the more GPU-limited Ultra preset, it roughly matched the performance of the 14600K. This made it 8% faster than the 7600X, while remaining 8% slower than the 7800X3D.
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows is heavily GPU-limited when paired with a modern processor. As a result, the 7500X3D was able to match the 7800X3D using both the Medium and Ultra High settings. Even so, this still made it around 10% faster than the 7600X.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
Moving on to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, at Medium settings the 7500X3D was 13% slower than the 7800X3D, but also 13 – 15% faster than the 9600X, 14600K, and 7600X.
Switching to the Very High preset saw the 7500X3D compete more closely with the 14600K. In this configuration, it was 16% faster than the 7600X and 17% slower than the 7800X3D.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Next up is Cyberpunk 2077. Here, the 7500X3D was 12% faster than the 7600X using the Medium settings, and 9% faster when using Ray Tracing Ultra. These are fairly modest gains, but still impressive given the 7500X3D operates at an 800 MHz lower clock speed.
It was also just 12% slower than the 7800X3D at Medium settings, shrinking to only a 5% deficit with ray tracing enabled.
Counter-Strike 2
The 7500X3D performed very well in Counter-Strike 2, delivering around 20% higher performance compared to the 7600X. It even managed to pull ahead of the Zen 5 – based 9600X, which already performs strongly in this title.
Space Marine 2
The CPU-heavy Space Marine 2 doesn't benefit massively from the 3D V-Cache on the 7500X3D – though it does help, just not as much as you might expect for such a CPU-limited title. The substantial clock speed deficit clearly hurts performance here, which is why the 7500X3D is only 15 – 16% faster than the 7600X.
By comparison, the 7800X3D is much faster than the 7700X in similar workloads. While the 7700X isn't included in this data set, we have tested it previously.
Even so, the 3D V-Cache does allow the 7500X3D to beat the 14600K, despite it still being 16% slower than the 7800X3D.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered
Testing with The Last of Us Part II Remastered shows that 3D V-Cache can significantly improve 1% low performance. For example, the 7500X3D was just 6% faster than the 7600X when comparing average frame rates, but a substantial 25% faster when looking at 1% lows.
Spider-Man 2
The 9600X, 14600K, and 225F all deliver just under 190 fps in Spider-Man 2 using the Medium preset. This means the 7500X3D is 16% faster, reaching 215 fps and coming in just 6% behind the 7800X3D. That said, when using the Ultimate Ray Tracing preset, the 7500X3D is limited to the same level of performance as the 7600X and 9600X.
Mafia: The Old Country
In Mafia: The Old Country, the inclusion of 3D V-Cache is only just enough to offset the reduction in core clock frequency. As a result, the 7500X3D merely matches the performance of the 9600X and 7600X, though it does deliver notably stronger 1% low performance when using the Epic preset.
Assetto Corsa Competizione
Assetto Corsa Competizione thrives on 3D V-Cache and doesn't require a great deal of raw CPU processing power. Unsurprisingly, the 7500X3D performs exceptionally well here, delivering 260 fps using the Medium preset. That makes it 21% faster than the 9600X and 31% faster than the 7600X. It was also just 11% slower than the 7800X3D, with similar scaling observed when using the Epic preset.
Baldur's Gate 3
Finally, we have Baldur's Gate 3, another title that responds very well to AMD's 3D V-Cache. As a result, the relatively low-clocked 6-core 7500X3D performs strongly, boosting performance over the 7600X by 34% to reach 172 fps. This makes it around 20% faster than both the 14600K and the 9600X.
12 Game Average
Looking at the 12-game average, calculated using the geometric mean, we see that at Medium settings the 7500X3D was, on average, just 11% slower than the 7800X3D. That's impressive given it's clocked 10% lower and features 25% fewer cores, strongly suggesting that reduced clock frequency is the primary factor behind the performance gap. It was also 10% faster than the 9600X and 16% faster than both the 14600K and the 7600X.
When using Ultra settings, the 7500X3D was on average just 7% slower than the 7800X3D, while still managing to be 13% faster than the 7600X.
Cost Per Frame
In terms of value, the 7500X3D isn't particularly compelling at its current asking price here in Australia. We paid $430 AUD, which remains the going rate. While that does make it considerably better value than the 7800X3D – reducing the cost per frame by 25% – it's also far worse value than our best-value option, the 7500F, costing nearly 70% more per frame.
If we set the 7500F aside for a moment – which must be purchased via AliExpress, though there's no real downside to doing so and the $210 AUD price includes delivery – then the 7500X3D is only about 10% more expensive per frame compared to the 7600X. That's not a terrible premium for the additional performance.
Even so, we think the 7500X3D needs to drop below $400 AUD to become a genuinely attractive option for lower-end builds. After all, these results are almost entirely based on CPU-limited gaming scenarios, and even then the 7500X3D was, on average, just 21% faster than the 7500F while costing a little over twice as much.
Overclocking
Finally, out of interest, we also overclocked our retail 7500X3D sample. We applied a positive 200 MHz boost alongside a negative voltage offset of -15; pushing this to -20 caused system instability. This configuration increased the all-core frequency to 4,725 MHz in the Cinebench multi-core workload – a 7% frequency uplift with no change in power consumption.
Cinebench 2024
That 7% frequency increase translated into a 6% improvement in the Cinebench score. While not particularly exciting, it did bring the 7500X3D quite close to the multi-core performance of the 5800X3D. Single-core gains were even more modest, at just a 4% uplift.
Cinebench 2024 Power
The good news is that this extra performance didn't come at the cost of increased power draw. Thanks to the -15 voltage offset, power consumption remained low, with the CPU pulling just 66 W while scoring 842 points in Cinebench.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
Interestingly, some games responded more favorably to the overclock. The 7500X3D appeared to boost more aggressively in these workloads, improving performance in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered by as much as 11%.
Marvel Rivals
That said, gains were more typically in the 6 – 7% range, as seen here in Marvel Rivals. Overall, it's nothing particularly exciting, and it's probably not worth risking long-term stability for these relatively modest improvements.
Good Silicon, Awkward Timing
The 7500X3D isn't particularly compelling at today's prices, but it's an interesting piece of AMD's AM5 puzzle. With a more aggressive price tag, it could easily turn into a smart entry point for newcomers to the platform – though that audience may be smaller than usual right now, thanks to the painful cost of DDR5.
This is not a chip that makes sense as an upgrade or sidegrade for existing AM5 owners; its appeal is firmly aimed at those making the jump for the first time.
Perhaps by the time DDR5 pricing recovers, AMD will be pushing out 7500X3D stock at a heavy discount, much like what they've done with the 7500F – we can only hope. There's also the 7600X3D, though that model isn't available everywhere either. As always, you'll need to check pricing and availability in your region to determine which option makes the most sense for you.