AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D outclasses the Intel Core i9-12900K in gaming performance, but with a few caveats

Although the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D might have arrived a tad too late, the wait was well worth it, as the processor has successfully punched above its weight class in gaming performance. It is a breath of fresh air for Team Red enthusiasts, as the CPU offered little to no performance gains in synthetic benchmarks. XanxoGaming, the same outlet that tested the Ryzen 7 5800X3D earlier, has pitted against Intel's best, the Core i9-12900K.

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and Intel Core i9-12900K were tested only at 720p and 1080p, despite being paired with DDR4 3,200MT/s CL14 RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. A host of popular, resource-heavy titles such as The Witcher 3, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Control, and Metro Exodus were tested, and the results were no different from what was previously revealed by Shadow of the Tomb Raider, likely due to the large amount of CPU cache it packs.

Overall, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D outperformed the Intel Core i9-12900K across most games and kept itself within spitting distance in titles it couldn't. The test methodology is undeniably AMD-favoured here, as the i9-12900K can significantly benefit from faster DDR5 RAM. To test this hypothesis, XanxoGaming paired the Core i9-12900K with a 3,600 MT/s CL16 module and noted a not-so-insignificant increase in performance. Nonetheless, seeing a Ryzen 7 class processor defeat Intel's best silicon is still impressive.

Despite its numerous shortcomings, such as no overclocking support and nerfed clock speeds, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is still an excellent choice of processor, especially for gamers. It's even better for those with a limited budget and some patience. Once the AM5-based Ryzen 7000 series CPUs are out and about, one can buy the AM4-based Ryzen 7 5800X3D (and a corresponding B550/X570 board) for much lower than its asking price of US$450.

Buy the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X on Amazon