The X3D variants of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs are tearing up the efficiency benchmarks, particularly for gaming builds. But what makes the Ryzen 7950X3D higher than the usual 7950X, and the same designs with out the improve? It’s all concerning the cache, child. Gordon Ung breaks it down for you within the newest video on the official PCWorld YouTube channel.

In layman’s phrases, the X3D variations of the three Ryzen 7000 chips AMD is promoting with V-cache (Ryzen 7950X3D, 7900X3D, and Ryzen 7 7800X3D) get an additional enhance of 64 megabytes of L3 cache on half of its processor cores. In processor-intensive duties like huge video games or media functions, these cores develop into devoted to efficiency, relegating the cores with out the additional cache to background duties. It’s much like Intel’s efficiency and effectivity cores, however dealt with extra instantly.

In precise use, issues get a bit of extra sophisticated. Technically the cores with out the boosted V-cache run at a barely greater clock than the opposite cores attributable to some primary {hardware} controls. In most instances Windows-based methods ought to routinely run video games and different intensive functions on the V-cache cores. But within the instances the place it doesn’t, you possibly can pressure apps like Cinebench to make use of the V-cache cores with the Windows Game Bar “remember this is a game” setting.

What sort of enhance are you able to count on when utilizing these V-cache cores versus the usual cores? According to some primary benchmarks, the single-core outcomes will match the non-X3D variations of the identical chips when working with out that cache. When the Cinemark benchmark is pressured to make use of the V-cache cores by way of Game Bar, it really runs a bit of extra poorly — it’s because these cores are clocked barely decrease. But in an precise sport benchmark just like the dependable Shadow of the Tomb Raider check, the sport exhibits a stunning 20 p.c improved framerate when working on the cores with V-cache.

Generally the Game Bar setting is sufficient to handle which apps ought to use the V-cache cores and which shouldn’t. But in order for you extra wonderful management, you possibly can pop into your motherboard’s BIOS and flip the CPPC Dynamic Prefered Cores setting from Auto to Frequency (pressure run on non-cache cores) or Cache (pressured to run on V-cache cores). This setting varies from producer to producer, however often it’s discovered beneath SMU choices.

Unfortunately the choice to check particular person video games on customary cores versus V-cache cores isn’t simply seen in AMD’s Ryzen Master program. But with a bit of tweaking you possibly can see which video games profit from the additional cache, and which of them don’t (if any). For extra deep dives into the most recent high-end PC {hardware}, you’ll want to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube, and verify our our Ryzen 9 7950X3D review for our full evaluation of AMD’s ferocious new gaming flagship.