AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core 3.9GHz compare Intel Xeon E7-8890 v2 CPU

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CPU Core Details

CPU Codename	Zen 2	Ivy Bridge
MoBo Socket	Socket AM4	LGA 2011/Socket R
Notebook CPU	no	no
Release Date	07 Jul 2019	18 Feb 2014
CPU Link	GD Link	GD Link
Approved

CPU Technical Specifications

{

CPU Cores	8	15
CPU Threads	16	30
Clock Speed	3.9 GHz	2.8 GHz
Turbo Frequency	4.5GHz	3.4 GHz
Max TDP	105 W	155 W
Lithography	7 nm	22 nm
Bit Width	64 Bit	64 Bit
Max Temperature	-	77°C
Virtualization Technology	no	no

CPU Cache and Memory

L1 Cache Size	512 KB	960 KB
L2 Cache Size	4096 KB	3840 KB
L3 Cache Size	32 MB	37.5 MB
Memory Types
Max Memory Size	64 GB	-
Memory Channels	4	-
ECC Memory Support	no	no

CPU Graphics

Integrated Graphics	no	no
Base GPU Frequency	-	-
Max GPU Frequency	-	-
DirectX	-	-
Displays Supported	-	-

CPU Mini Review

Mini Review	The Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core 3.9GHz is a high-end CPU based on AMD's 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. It offers 8 physical cores (16 logical), initially clocked at 3.9GHz, which may go up to 4.5GHz using Precision Boost. It has an unlocked multiplier, therefore, it can be overclocked using traditional methods. As an AMD 'X' CPU, the Ryzen 5 3800X can use eXtended Frequency Range (XFR) for automated overclocking. It has 32MB of L3 Cache. Level 3 cache is a static memory bank of a processor and it is used to feed it instructions. This processor also supports DDR4 based RAMs with maximum memory support of 64GB. It has a maximum Thermal Power Design of 105W. It is power efficient compared to competitor processors. Among its many features are Simultaneous Multithreading, Cool n Quiet, CoolCore Technology, Extended Frequency Range (XFR), Pure Power and Precision Boost are enabled.	Xeon E7-8890 v2 is a server processor based on the Ivy Bridge architecture. It offers 15 Ivy Bridge-EX Cores (30 logical, clocked at 2.8GHz that go up to 3.4GHz, in Turbo Mode. It also offers over 37MB of L3 Cache and may consume up to 155 Watts. Its performance, just like its price, is outstanding and though not meant for gaming, the processor easily beats any Core i7 processor.

Gaming Performance Comparison

In terms of overall gaming performance, the AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core 3.9GHz is very slightly better than the Intel Xeon E7-8890 v2 when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.

Both the Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core 3.9GHz and the Xeon E7-8890 v2 were released at the same time, so are likely to be quite similar.

Both CPUs exhibit very powerful performance, so it probably isn't worth upgrading from one to the other, as both are capable of running even the most demanding games at the highest settings (assuming they are accompanied by equivalently powerful GPUs).

The 15 has 7 more cores than the Ryzen 7 3800X. 15 cores is probably excessive if you mean to just run the latest games, as games are not yet able to harness this many cores. The 8 cores in the Ryzen 7 3800X is more than enough for gaming purposes. However, if you intend on running a server with the 15, it would seem to be a decent choice.

The Xeon E7-8890 v2 has 14 more threads than the Ryzen 7 3800X. Both the Ryzen 7 3800X and the Xeon E7-8890 v2 use hyperthreading. The Ryzen 7 3800X has 2 logical threads per physical core and the Xeon E7-8890 v2 has 2.

Multiple threads are useful for improving the performance of multi-threaded applications. Additional cores and their accompanying thread will always be beneficial for multi-threaded applications. Hyperthreading will be beneficial for applications optimized for it, but it may slow others down. For games, the number of threads is largely irrelevant, as long as you have at least 2 cores (preferably 4), and hyperthreading can sometimes even hit performance.

More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.

The Ryzen 7 3800X and Xeon E7-8890 v2 are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Ryzen 7 3800X has a 1.1 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. In this case, however, the difference is probably a good indicator that the 15 is superior.

Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.

The Ryzen 7 3800X has a 256 KB bigger L2 cache than the Xeon E7-8890 v2, but on the other hand, it is the Xeon E7-8890 v2 that has a 5.5 MB bigger L3 cache than the Ryzen 7 3800X. In this case, the L2 size is probably what counts, so the Ryzen 7 3800X is likely superior in this area.

The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.