While the Ryzen 5000 series lineup is undoubtedly excellent, and no one will deny that Zen 3 has blown Intel out of the water, ushering a new era for the king of production and gaming, there is a black sheep among them. Despite AMD being well-known for the better value option over the past decade, it seems their 8-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5800X fails to impress in comparison to its brothers and sisters. Sure, it does stand a drastic leap in performance to its previous 8-core 16-thread counterpart, but that alone doesn’t justify its purchase.
Doesn’t Make Sense As A Workstation CPU
Of course, for the longest time ever, 8-cores and 16-threads is generally a sweet spot for most workstations and production systems. In fact, it won’t be hard to find people who guarantee the performance and value of the Ryzen 7 2700X and even their Intel counterparts. However, regardless of conventional advice, the 5800X falls short against anything past it by a considerable margin, making it an unwise choice for a workstation CPU.
- More Cores And Threads For $100 More: Cores and threads are the bottom line performance determinants for a workstation, and any rendering/production applications will significantly benefit from them. And for only $100 more, you could opt to get the 5900X and future-proof your production system for years to come, which puts the 5800X at a peculiar price point. Pair the 5900X with the latest RTX graphics card or RX Radeon series; then, you’re good to go.
- 5900X Performance Lead: As the benchmark scores show, the 5900X offers a huge performance gain for only a fraction of the price more, making the 5800X look lackluster in comparison. You can expect half the render times and higher overclock, giving you more flexibility overall. Plus, you’re most likely going to use a high-end motherboard, which only puts the 5800X further out of place.
Bad Value For Gaming CPU
Sure, you could argue that 8-cores and 16-threads is a great place to position yourself for the release of next-gen triple-A titles in the next decade, and the 5800X’s boost clock of up to 4.8 GHz is nothing to scoff at either. However, in terms of gaming, it’s relatively hard to justify the price point and value per frames you’re getting with it. As proven by AMD’s 3300X and 3600 that still hold the popularity vote, most games don’t benefit from all those extra cores and threads.
- Relatively Same Performance: if you revisit and review any of the benchmarks, the numbers will tell you that the 5600X, AMD’s 6-core 12-thread variant, is more than capable of staying head to head with the 5800X. What’s worse, in select games, the performance gain is absolutely negligible, averaging at around 1% only. So, if you’re planning to build a PC for gaming alone, the 5800X is not the CPU for you.
- 5600X $150 Cheaper: Piggybacking off the previous flaw, the 5600X is $150 cheaper than the 5800X, which gives you more budget on different parts that significantly affect gaming like your RAM and GPU. Plus, the 5800X falls between almost high-end and hardly mid-range, which will give you an imbalance in power and a lot of bottlenecking with your system.
Is It Really That Bad?
However, despite all the downsides the Ryzen 7 5800X has in comparison to the rest of the Zen 3 lineup, it isn’t as bad when you think of the advantages. There are instances where it could potentially be a good purchase, and here are some things you need to consider.
- It Still Beats Out Intel: As of now, Intel is out of the ballpark, and it’s definitely hard to recommend any of their CPUs because they’ve fallen out of touch. So, if your choices are either the 5800X or an Intel-counterpart, you should always opt for AMD because it beats out almost every 10th-gen processor available in the market.
- Stock Problems: Because the 5950X, 5900X, and 5600X were the more high-demand and top-value choices, it’s hard to find any of these available. So, if you need that upgrade now and want to get on the latest Zen 3 platform, you might have some luck at your local tech store grabbing one from the shelf.
- Workstation/Production System Value: If you can’t afford the extra $100 for the 5900X and need that for other components, then the 5800X is still a solid choice for a Workstation/Production System. It will give you a performance uplift instead of the 5600X, which is 6-cores and 12-threads and is still 20% faster on average compared to the previous Ryzen 3700X.
Our Advice, Wait For The Restock
Overall, if you can afford to wait just a bit more, our advice is to wait for the restock and grab yourself the better choice among the Zen 3 lineup. And while the 5800X is a solid choice compared to previous generations, it’s hard to recommend when there’s everything else available with the Ryzen 5000 series processors.
