Alleged leak suggests AMD Ryzen 7950X3D needs special Windows driver to beat Intel 13900K

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D packaging box — The Ryzen 9 7950X3D packaging

Earlier this year in January at CES, alongside a bunch of other important announcements, AMD also revealed its Ryzen 7000X3D processors which will be using 3D V-cache, similar to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. However, the similarity between the 5800X3D and the upcoming 7000X3D ends there as AMD has deployed a very different V-cache layout for the new CPUs this time around wherein the cache memory isn't spread out across the CCDs. AMD previously explained the benefits of this approach in detail and had promised special Windows optimizations for reaping the fruits of this new design approach.

Staying true to its promise, new WHQL-certified Windows chipset drivers have begun to drop even though AMD is yet to make a public announcement of these new drivers. For those wondering about how the special 3D V-cache optimized drivers will affect the performance of the Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs, we seem to now have an idea thanks to an alleged reviewer's guide leakage courtesy of the South American technology blog HD Tecnologia. Keep in mind though that the chipset driver used in the test hasn't been explicitly stated, which means it is possible that the new driver wasn't used.

Here are the full specs of the test rigs, which show Windows 11 21H2 being used:

AMD Ryzen 7950X3D alleged reviewers guide leak

A chart, in AMD's typical style, showing a gaming performance comparison between the 7950X3D and the 13900K is there too, alongside a table showing benchmark numbers. Overall, it looks the 7950X3D will be around 5.6% faster than the 13900K on average.

Performance figures for some productivity apps have also leaked which shows the two chips trading blows:

Finally, we also have a gaming comparison with the current AMD flagship, the Ryzen 9 7950X:

AMD Ryzen 7950X3D alleged reviewers guide leak

Hence, in terms of gaming and the overall output, it looks like AMD's 7950X3D requires the new chipset to convincingly beat the 13900K in gaming, or trade blows with it for productivity. If these figures are without the new driver, then the performance here is certainly very impressive.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D will go on sale on February 28, 2023. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D will be available on April 6, 2023.

Source and images: HD Tecnologia