Having not used AMD for many years I was pleasantly surprised that paired with the Asrock x670e RS and Kingston Fury 6000 system booted immediately, overclocking well so far and has given my 7900xtx a massive boost over my older 8700K which was starting to bottleneck it. Temps around 40-50 idle and 70 when gaming with a Corsair H150i which is not the best AIO out there. Idle temps seem high but this is an average, some windows processes seem to bump it up temporarily so I am assuming it is a little sensitive at times.

This processor performs extremely well, upgrading from a 4790K how couldn't it. It runs cool under a 360mm Arctic Liquid Freezer II and obliterates games.However, there are a few things to consider before buying:Problem 1 - The Cost: Building an AM5 system is extremely expensive at the moment beyond the CPU with a decent motherboard and a good DDR5 RAM kit coming in at over £500 combined just to get you started. Going for an Intel alternative or an AM4 chip like the 5800X3D would be significantly cheaper overall.Problem 2 - The Design: Due to the design of the chip only having the 3D v-cache on one of the two CCDs, core parking during gaming workloads is applied, meaning 6 cores and 6 threads are deactivated so you're only utilising the 6 cores and 6 threads ... MoreThis processor performs extremely well, upgrading from a 4790K how couldn't it. It runs cool under a 360mm Arctic Liquid Freezer II and obliterates games.However, there are a few things to consider before buying:Problem 1 - The Cost: Building an AM5 system is extremely expensive at the moment beyond the CPU with a decent motherboard and a good DDR5 RAM kit coming in at over £500 combined just to get you started. Going for an Intel alternative or an AM4 chip like the 5800X3D would be significantly cheaper overall.Problem 2 - The Design: Due to the design of the chip only having the 3D v-cache on one of the two CCDs, core parking during gaming workloads is applied, meaning 6 cores and 6 threads are deactivated so you're only utilising the 6 cores and 6 threads that hold the 3D v-cache while gaming. When the 7800X3D launches that CPU only have 1 CCD which holds all the 3D v-cache meaning all 8 cores will be available during gaming.Problem 3 - The Competition: Wait for the 7800X3D (£TBC) if you just want to game. If you want improved productivity go for the 7950X (£570) or 13900K (£580). If you want to do both and don't want to go Intel, spend the extra on the 7950X3D (£750).Overall, no one will be disappointed with this chip's performance, however pretty much everything else is a better option, I am overall happy with the chip however I do have some buyers remorse as the alternatives either, perform better or cost less and potentially in the case of the 7800X3D - both!

This is hardly a bad processor, and it comfortably goes toe to toe with Intel's top end CPUs in gaming performance, if configured right.The problem is that configuring it right can be a real pain, if you're not comfortable looking up guides and tinkering in BIOS, your mileage may vary. That said, this issue will continue to be less and less of an issue as BIOS drivers and Windows updates/scheduler alone should make it easy enough to set up without too many qualms.That said.... I've never had stronger buyer's remorse with the 7900X3D than I have with anything else in a long time. It's only after purchasing the 7900X3D, I found out that 7800X3D which is set to come out any second now has all its cores with the V-Cache. 7900X3D has its cores split to two.... only ... MoreThis is hardly a bad processor, and it comfortably goes toe to toe with Intel's top end CPUs in gaming performance, if configured right.The problem is that configuring it right can be a real pain, if you're not comfortable looking up guides and tinkering in BIOS, your mileage may vary. That said, this issue will continue to be less and less of an issue as BIOS drivers and Windows updates/scheduler alone should make it easy enough to set up without too many qualms.That said.... I've never had stronger buyer's remorse with the 7900X3D than I have with anything else in a long time. It's only after purchasing the 7900X3D, I found out that 7800X3D which is set to come out any second now has all its cores with the V-Cache. 7900X3D has its cores split to two.... only one of the two having the V-Cache, which are gonna be the cores that actually make the real difference in gaming...Essentially, while the more expensive 7950X3D comes with 8 'gaming cores' and 8 regular cores and the 7800X3D comes with 8 'gaming cores'.... the 7900X3D comes with 6 'gaming cores' and 6 regular cores... which in gaming performance, you're taking a definite hit in exchange for mild improvement in productivity. 7950X3D MOSTLY dwarfs Intel's top end in most benches, and 7800X3D is set to do the same, being basically the same thing without the 8 extra 'regular' cores which aren't utilized at all for gaming performance, and a luxury for whenever doing non-gaming tasks. 7900X3D falls just a little short of Intel's top end... which isn't comforted much by the fact that the processor does a decent bit better than the 7800X3D in non-gaming tasks.I am definitely contemplating just turning this in and upgrading to a 7950X3D instead... as 7800X3D is probably not going to be very available at all when its hotly anticipated release hits.