Skip to main content

New CPU: AMD Ryzen 9800x3D

 I have just upgraded my CPU from a Ryzen 9700x to a 9800x3D. The 9700x was plenty fast enough for my 5070ti  but I wanted to try one of AMDs much vaunted x3D cpus for myself. It is the most expensive CPU I have ever bought but then again my 5070ti is the most expensive GPU I have ever bought.  At least the €400 9800x3D is currently the best gaming CPU on the planet. My €800 5070ti on the other hand offers less than 60% the performance of an RTX 5090ti. Given that the RTX5090 currently costs around €2.7k I don't think I will be upgrading my GPU again any time soon.  

I haven't noticed much of a difference in Windows or in Games yet. Total War Warhammer seems a bit quicker over the end turn but that could be wishful thinking. I ran a few synthetic benchmarks and the 9800x3D is a bit slower than the 9700x in single threaded tests but faster in multi threaded. That makes sense because the 9700x has faster clocks but a smaller cache. The single threaded test probably doesn't fill the smaller cache but the multi threaded test does. 

Overall I am pleased with the CPU even though it is really overkill for my gaming needs (I mainly play games on high graphical settings and I am happy with 100 fps frame rates). If nothing else it allows me to get over my FOMO about x3D cpus.  I managed to sell my 9700x for €210 (bought for €275 seven months ago) and I expect the 9800x3D will hold its value well because x3D parts are always popular with gamers.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Android Tip 3: Sharing a Folder between multiple users of an Android device

Android has allowed multiple user logins for quite a while now. This is can be very useful for tablets which are shared by family members. Normally Android erects strict Chinese walls between users preventing them from using each others apps and viewing each others files. This is a useful security feature and ensures your kids don't mess up your work spreadsheets when screwing around on the tablet and should also prevent them from buying €1,000 worth of Clash of Candy coins on your account. Sometimes however you really do want to share stuff with other users and this can prove surprisingly difficult. For example on a recent holiday I realised that I wanted to share a folder full of travel documents with my wife. Here are some ways to achieve this. 1. If you have guaranteed internet access  then you can create a shared folder on either Dropbox or Google drive. Either of these has the great advantage of being able to access the files on any device and the great disadvantage of bein...
50 comments
Read more

Portal 2 two screen coop on one PC.

I mentioned before that I intended to try Portal 2 in "unofficial split screen co-op mode. Well split screen on a small computer monitor is a recipe for a headache especially when the game defies gravity as much as portal. However a minor bit of extra fiddling allowed us to drive two seperate screens from one PC. The Steam forums describes a complicated method of doing this that I couldn't get working so this simpler method which worked for me might be of use to someone. 1. First I followed the instructions in this post to get split screen multi-player working: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904 A minor issue not mentioned is that you need to enable the console from the keyboard/mouse options menu I am using keyboard and one wired Xbox360 controller as suggested. Getting the controller to switch to channel 2 was tricky at first but as Chameleon8 mentions plugging it out and in again during loading works. The trick for me was to do the plug / p...
2 comments
Read more

Exploiting Checkpoints in Deadspace 3

Dead Space 3 has a rather strange save system where inventory is saved when you quit the game even though progress through the story is lost. The game has both "hard" and "soft" checkpoints. The soft checkpoints are far more frequent but are not permanently saved. If you die while playing you respawn at the last soft checkpoint but if you quit the game  you will return to the previous hard checkpoint. Since hard checkpoints are relatively infrequent you can lose quite a bit of progress unless you are disciplined enough to always wait till the next hard checkpoint (indicated by a symbol in the corner of the screen) before quitting. This sucks of course and is the type of thing which convinces me that save anywhere is much better than rigid checkpoints. The developers of Dead Space 3 decided to soften the blow of losing progress by allowing you to keep your entire inventory and health when you quit even though you lose your progress in the story. Collecting loot ...
2 comments
Read more