AMD Ryzen 7 7700X3D: Everything You Need to Know

The heart of the PC is the CPU and, while having a bleeding edge CPU is great, most people do not need the absolute best of the best. This is where CPUs such as the 7700X3D come in a budget friendly 8 core 16 thread gaming CPU which has more than enough processing power for day-to-day tasks and gaming while not breaking the bank.

While from the naming they appear similar, under the hood they have some notable differences. The 7700X outperforms the 7700X3D at an outright pace with both a higher base clock speed of 4.5Ghz and boost clock of 5.4Ghz.

But loses out in the vital L3 cache which massively boosts the CPUs 1% frame performance in games making it a better choice for gaming thanks to the 3D V-Cache, reducing the number of stutters caused by texture loading and generation meaning the CPU can queue the next frame more easily.

We explain this in greater detail in our article explaining FFR and MFG.

As you can see from the CPU specifications, the 7700X3D does not require a massive amount of cooling at a 120W TDP. It is in line with most mid-range CPUs in terms of cooling needs.

Although we would still recommend a 360mm AIO such as the NAUTILUS 360 RS ARGB or TITAN RX 360. Reasoning for this is twofold.

Firstly, the CPU uses a 1st generation 3D V-Cache where it sits above the CPU die. This means they can in some instances run quite hot as the CPU die itself has no direct cooling, which is one of the reasons for the reduced clock speed.

The second reason is, while a 240mm would be able to cool the CPU, a larger cooler means the fans spin at a lower speed meaning it runs more quietly and allows headroom for possible upgrades down the line, so if your case allows a larger cooler, it is worth reading our article on which AIO size you should choose