zen3 For Those Considering a Zen 3 Upgrade

[Oraceon]

I’ve been using a 3700x for about six months now - upgraded from an FX8320. I recently was able to get my hands on a 5800x and popped it in my B550 board. After seeing benchmarks online that made this CPU just as appealing as a GPU upgrade, I found that my performance in games were quite literally little to none.

 

Examples: Horizon Zero Dawn went from 73 FPS average to 75; Generation Zero went from 92 FPS average to 96.

 

I thought that was strange because if you’re like me, a Zen 2 user who saw the huge gains from benchmarks and videos online, you’d have probably expected much better, right?

 

Well, here’s the thing, and a lot of you have probably already said ‘there isn’t enough info or context,’ get ready. I’m gaming at 1440p on a 2070 Super. That’s where the issue lies.

 

For those gaming at 1080p, you will likely see a much bigger difference than I did - obviously because the CPU is more stressed at lower resolutions. I didn’t even connect the dots when buying the CPU.

 

So, here’s my warning/advice for those on Zen 2 or similarly-performing architectures such as 9th or 10th Gen Intel: wait. Wait for Zen 4 if you’re gaming at 1440p. Your CPU is already more than enough. Focus on a GPU upgrade if you must upgrade something. I will be returning my 5800x now.

 

Obviously, this article does not speak of productivity performance as that’s a whole other issue you need to workout yourself. But for the gamers out there, hear my words. Thank you for your time

[AMD A10-9600P]

I appreciate the sentiment of this but honestly I think it should go without saying that you generally don't get absolutely massive gains from one generation to the next, especially in terms of Intel, but also for AMD.

 

The days of one generation of tech being extremely behind the next are mostly behind us, and compared to the past, the industry is actually fairly stagnant.

[Johnston]

cheers this is actually helping to decide weather to go zen 2 or zen 3

[johnsoner13]

Who would’ve guessed a cpu upgrade doesnt have a massive impact in gpu bound scenarios? /s

[Chris Pratt]

The one thing that may change this analysis is resizable BAR. It's still early days, and not every game sees an improvement, but some do and quite dramatically in some cases. You need Zen 3 for resizable BAR.

[Oraceon]

1 hour ago, AMD A10-9600P said:

I appreciate the sentiment of this but honestly I think it should go without saying that you generally don't get absolutely massive gains from one generation to the next, especially in terms of Intel, but also for AMD.

 

The days of one generation of tech being extremely behind the next are mostly behind us, and compared to the past, the industry is actually fairly stagnant.

I’m fully aware that CPU upgrades generally don’t provide much gains in games, at least compared to GPUs, but when you look online at gaming benchmarks, on the surface it looks like it’s the equivalent of upgrading a whole GPU series. We’re talking 10-20% more performance in many 1080p instances such as CSGO, R6, and many other titles. My point of this post was to help those who aren’t exactly considering gaming resolution in mind when looking at these benchmarks.

[Oraceon]

16 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

The one thing that may change this analysis is resizable BAR. It's still early days, and not every game sees an improvement, but some do and quite dramatically in some cases. You need Zen 3 for resizable BAR.

I believe AMD discussed resizable bar support for Zen 2 in the future as well as Nvidia supporting it on their 2000series cards.

[freeagent]

Regardless, Zen 3 is the better CPU.. and games are just a small part of the computing world.