$\"How$ <\/p>\n

Image: Adam Patrick Murray\/IDG<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

The X3D variants of AMD\u2019s Ryzen 7000 CPUs<\/a> are tearing up the performance benchmarks, especially for gaming builds. But what makes the Ryzen 7950X3D<\/a> better than the standard 7950X, and the similar designs without the upgrade? It\u2019s all about the cache, baby. Gordon Ung breaks it down for you in the latest video on the official PCWorld YouTube channel. <\/p>\n

In layman\u2019s terms, the X3D versions of the three Ryzen 7000 chips AMD is selling with V-cache (Ryzen 7950X3D, 7900X3D, and Ryzen 7 7800X3D) get an extra boost of 64 megabytes of L3 cache on half of its processor cores. In processor-intensive tasks like big games or media applications, these cores become dedicated to performance, relegating the cores without the extra cache to background tasks. It\u2019s similar to Intel\u2019s performance and efficiency cores, but handled more directly. <\/p>\n

\n<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In actual use, things get a little more complicated. Technically the cores without the boosted V-cache run at a slightly higher clock than the other cores due to some basic hardware controls. In most cases Windows-based systems should automatically run games and other intensive applications on the V-cache cores. But in the cases where it doesn\u2019t, you can force apps like Cinebench to use the V-cache cores with the Windows Game Bar \u201cremember this is a game\u201d setting. <\/p>\n<p>What kind of boost can you expect when using those V-cache cores versus the standard cores? According to some basic benchmarks, the single-core results will match the non-X3D versions of the same chips when running without that cache. When the Cinemark benchmark is forced to use the V-cache cores via Game Bar, it actually runs a little more poorly \u2014 this is because those cores are clocked slightly lower. But in an actual game benchmark like the reliable <em>Shadow of the Tomb Raider<\/em> test, the game shows a shocking 20 percent improved framerate when running on the cores with V-cache. <\/p>\n<p>Generally the Game Bar setting is enough to manage which apps should use the V-cache cores and which shouldn\u2019t. But if you want more fine control, you can pop into your motherboard\u2019s BIOS and flip the CPPC Dynamic Prefered Cores setting from Auto to Frequency (force run on non-cache cores) or Cache (forced to run on V-cache cores). This setting varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but usually it\u2019s found under SMU options. <\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately the option to test individual games on standard cores versus V-cache cores isn\u2019t easily visible in AMD\u2019s Ryzen Master program. But with a little tweaking you can see which games benefit from the extra cache, and which ones don\u2019t (if any). For more deep dives into the latest high-end PC hardware, be sure to , and check our our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1524570\/amd-ryzen-9-7950x3d-review-v-cache.html\">Ryzen 9 7950X3D review<\/a> for our full analysis of AMD\u2019s ferocious new gaming flagship.<\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/div>\n<div data-ga=\"article-footer-author\">\n<h3>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/author\/mcrider\" rel=\"author\"><br \/>\n\t\tAuthor: Michael Crider<\/a>, Staff Writer\t\t<\/h3>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/author_photo_Michael-Crider_1635298804-1.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=150&h=150&crop=1\" height=\"125\" width=\"125\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@MichaelCrider\" title=\"Twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M459.37 151.716c.325 4.548.325 9.097.325 13.645 0 138.72-105.583 298.558-298.558 298.558-59.452 0-114.68-17.219-161.137-47.106 8.447.974 16.568 1.299 25.34 1.299 49.055 0 94.213-16.568 130.274-44.832-46.132-.975-84.792-31.188-98.112-72.772 6.498.974 12.995 1.624 19.818 1.624 9.421 0 18.843-1.3 27.614-3.573-48.081-9.747-84.143-51.98-84.143-102.985v-1.299c13.969 7.797 30.214 12.67 47.431 13.319-28.264-18.843-46.781-51.005-46.781-87.391 0-19.492 5.197-37.36 14.294-52.954 51.655 63.675 129.3 105.258 216.365 109.807-1.624-7.797-2.599-15.918-2.599-24.04 0-57.828 46.782-104.934 104.934-104.934 30.213 0 57.502 12.67 76.67 33.137 23.715-4.548 46.456-13.32 66.599-25.34-7.798 24.366-24.366 44.833-46.132 57.827 21.117-2.273 41.584-8.122 60.426-16.243-14.292 20.791-32.161 39.308-52.628 54.253z\" \/><\/svg><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1524857\/how-to-use-amds-ryzen-7000-v-cache-on-windows.html\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Marquis Damron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Adam Patrick Murray\/IDG The X3D variants of AMD\u2019s Ryzen 7000 CPUs are tearing up the performance benchmarks, especially for gaming builds. But what makes the Ryzen 7950X3D better than the standard 7950X, and the similar designs without the upgrade? It\u2019s all about the cache, baby. Gordon Ung breaks it down for you in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":612793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25144,22296,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-612792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-amds","8":"category-ryzen","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}