AMD’s Ryzen 9800X3D is close at hand now, and Gigabyte has given us a look at a new feature for its latest motherboards that boosts the performance of 3D V-Cache chips (and other Ryzen CPUs besides).
VideoCardz points out the revelations that come from a video (and presentation slides therein) uploaded to YouTube by Gigabyte, which informs owners of its AM5 motherboards that they can install the latest BIOS and get access to an ‘X3D turbo mode’ that speeds up their CPU for gaming.
The Ryzen 9800X3D is mentioned – even though it’s not officially confirmed yet, it is strongly rumored to be the sole Zen 5 X3D processor set to launch on November 7 – and we’re told we can expect frame rate boosts to the tune of up to 5%.
The motherboard maker claims that Tomb Raider gets a 5% boost, Horizon Zero Dawn gets a 4.5% uplift, and Far Cry 6 a 3.5% increase with the 9800X3D in turbo mode. We don’t get to learn anything about the PC configuration or settings used here, though, save for the fact that it’s a measurement of turbo mode on, versus turning off the feature.
Gigabyte explains that this is a one-click turbo mode (turned on in the BIOS) that works with all X3D chips, including past generations (not just 9800X3D, or other Zen 5 X3D chips when they arrive), and indeed it will give vanilla Ryzen processors a similar boost, too.
So, this is good news for gamers who have any Ryzen CPU in a Gigabyte AM5 motherboard, not just X3D owners.
Analysis: Tempering expectations and peeking under the hood
This is a little odd, as previous leaks from Gigabyte had suggested that X3D turbo mode could provide a massive boost for PC games (there was talk of up to 35%), and these are far more modest increases aired here – but they are still gains which are well worth having. (And if any huge gains were in evidence, these were always likely to be outliers of one kind of another – it’s possible that the previously mentioned figures included EXPO memory overclocking as well as this turbo mode).
What’s the feature doing under the hood? As VideoCardz notes, the turbo mode appears to turn off SMT (multi-threading with the CPU) and doing so has benefits for games, as well as fine tuning aspects of power usage and core distribution. Dropping SMT is the reason why Gigabyte recommends you only turn on X3D turbo mode when gaming, as it’s likely to drag down the performance of your everyday apps (and demanding non-gaming workloads in particular).
If the leaks are right, the Ryzen 9800X3D processor is set to provide an 8% performance boost for gaming compared to the Ryzen 7800X3D, and the gains from turbo mode will be on top of that (but also applicable to the 7800X3D, too – perhaps not to quite the same extent, though).