AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X3D debuted earlier this week to vital acclaim because it dethroned Intel’s Core i9-13900K because the greatest CPU for gaming when paired with a discrete GPU. Nonetheless, PC Magazine reported in its 7950X3D evaluate that AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech, the chip-stacking expertise behind the large features in gaming efficiency, resulted in a 3x to 4x improve within the efficiency of the tiny built-in GPU onboard over the usual Ryzen 9 7950X. PC Magazine’s outcomes have been later picked up and cited by various different publications who clearly didn’t do their very own testing.
Whereas this would not be very thrilling with the essential RDNA 2 iGPU aboard the Ryzen 7000 collection processors, that kind of efficiency achieve would theoretically be phenomenal if the tech have been utilized to an APU, setting lovers’ hopes alight with the information. Nonetheless, we put the efficiency claims to the check by means of our personal battery of iGPU checks and located that the cited check outcomes look like in error.
Once we first learn PC Magazine’s report and the next tales about it by different retailers, the outcomes appeared questionable due to some technical features. First, each CPUs have the identical primary graphics engine, and the performance-boosting cache is situated on simply one of many 7950X3D’s two compute chiplets.
Nonetheless, the iGPU resides on the I/O die and is a self-contained unit with its personal L2 cache. As such, it would not entry the L3 cache on the compute die in any significant means (diagram additional under within the article). Due to this fact, any efficiency features could not come from further cache bandwidth.
Quite, any improve must come from the 7950X3D’s phenomenal features in CPU compute efficiency. That may push the GPU even more durable, however the CPU is not the limiting issue. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D’s iGPU solely has two RDNA 2 compute items (CU) at its disposal, so it would not have the required horsepower to profit from elevated reminiscence bandwidth or a sooner CPU. This unit is totally GPU compute-bound.
Yet one more fast tidbit. AMD has been fairly clear that the Ryzen 7000-series’ new iGPU is not meant for any kind of significant gaming. As an alternative, it is meant to offer primary display-out capabilities for troubleshooting and the like in addition to sufficient efficiency for watching movies and doing primary workplace duties.
So regardless that these outcomes are removed from inspiring, the GPU is doing precisely what it is presupposed to do. Apart from, nobody of their proper thoughts would purchase the $699 Ryzen 9 7950X3D to recreation on its built-in graphics, so keep in mind that we’re doing this for science.
| Tom’s {Hardware} | 7950X3D vs 7950X | 7950X3D (fps) | 7950X (fps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dota 2 – 1280 | +1.60% | 233.2 | 229.5 |
| Dota 2 -1920 | +1.8% | 228.7 | 224.5 |
| F1 2021 – 1280 | 0.42% | 71.3 | 71 |
| F1 2021 – 1920 | +0.80% | 37.9 | 37.6 |
| Shadow Tomb Raider – 1280 | +0.60% | 32.4 | 32.2 |
| Shadow Tomb Raider – 1920 | +1.00% | 19.6 | 19.4 |
| Unusual Brigade – 1280 | Identical | 49.7 | 49.7 |
| Unusual Brigade – 1920 | -0.80% | 24.1 | 24.3 |
| Grand Theft Auto V – 1280 | +0.67% | 105.1 | 104.4 |
| Grand Theft Auto V – 1920 | +0.89% | 56.4 | 55.9 |
We ran a collection of benchmarks with 5 titles: Dota 2, F1 2021, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Unusual Brigade, and Grand Theft Auto V, at 1920×1080 and 1280×720 resolutions to check the efficiency of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D’s built-in GPU versus the Ryzen 9 7950X’s iGPU. We used both low or medium settings for these titles. For our testing, we used the identical ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard and config we used for our Ryzen 9 7950X evaluate.
The primary column sums it up properly: The outcomes are largely inside one proportion level of one another. And with efficiency this low, that largely quantities to lower than one fps of distinction between the 2 configs. That small delta falls inside the anticipated run-to-run variation of those benchmarks, so you’ll be able to safely view these as a tie. There is no such thing as a distinction in efficiency between these two iGPUs.
Testing built-in graphics is a fruitless and aggravating chore. That is typically an train in endurance as you are handled to video games that appear like slideshows as a result of they run so slowly. Nonetheless, being gluttons for punishment, we ran yet another collection of checks to squash the controversy.
| Tom’s {Hardware} | X3D Chiplet vs Naked | X3D Chiplet (CCD 0, fps) | Non-X3D Chiplet (CCD 1, fps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dota 2 – 1280 | +1.20% | 234.2 | 231.4 |
| Dota 2 -1920 | +0.80% | 229 | 227.1 |
| F1 2021 – 1280 | +1.57% | 71 | 69.9 |
| F1 2021 – 1920 | +0.50% | 37.3 | 37.1 |
| Shadow Tomb Raider – 1280 | +0.94% | 32.3 | 32 |
| Shadow Tomb Raider – 1920 | +0.50% | 19.6 | 19.5 |
| Unusual Brigade – 1280 | -1.00% | 49.1 | 49.6 |
| Unusual Brigade – 1920 | Identical | 24.2 | 24.2 |
| Grand Theft Auto V – 1280 | Identical | 106 | 106 |
| Grand Theft Auto V – 1920 | +0.90% | 56 | 55.5 |
The Ryzen 9 7950X3D and the Ryzen 9 7950X have some minor variations, however there’s a solution to additional slim down any potential features from the 3D V-Cache tech: The 7950X3D has two chiplets, one with 3D V-Cache and a ‘naked’ chiplet with out the 3D-stacked cache. We disabled one chiplet for every of those collection of checks, due to this fact both working the video games on solely the 3D V-Cache chiplet or on the naked chiplet.
As we have proven extensively in our different testing of those two varieties of chiplets, there’s a clock frequency distinction between these two chips. The naked chiplet is round 500 MHz sooner, however that is about as apples-to-apples for this testing as we are able to get.
Once more, there isn’t a significant distinction between the chiplets. Even when the X3D stacking tech might assist, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D’s built-in RDNA 2 iGPU is not sturdy sufficient to make the most of the extra sources. The RDNA 2 iGPU comes with two compute items, 4 ACE, and 1 HWS, in order that ought to be fairly obvious.
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Our testing exhibits that the 7950X3D’s iGPU stays simply as compute-starved because the an identical unit on the Ryzen 9 7950X, so there are not any features available. Not that it is a lot of a contest — Intel’s iGPU can also be principally nugatory for gaming. Given our outcomes right now, it is secure to say that nothing has modified with the Ryzen 7000-series RDNA 2 iGPU’s relative efficiency positioning towards Intel, which you’ll see right here.
Does this imply that AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech would not show to be revolutionary on an APU? Not by any means, as AMD might theoretically forge a design that might leverage the elevated throughput of a 3D-stacked cache.
In reality, the Infinity Cache on the RDNA 2 and RDNA 3 devoted GPUs is principally precisely that concept, and but AMD selected to omit any Infinity Cache on the built-in RDNA 2 options we have seen. In brief, placing a number of cache on an built-in GPU would not appear possible on condition that AMD has used its monolithic APU chips to focus on the low finish of the market the place the premium pricing of 3D V-Cache merely would not make any sense — except you rely the Xbox Sequence X and PlayStation 5. It’d sound good, however in apply AMD has different targets in thoughts for the PC market.