We’ve known for the past couple of weeks that AMD is working on the Ryzen 5 7600X3D—a 6-core/12-thread processor based on the older “Zen 4” microarchitecture, but featuring 3D V-cache that enables significant gaming performance uplifts. The company finally launched the chip, but here’s the bummer—it’s only available in the US, and is a MicroCenter exclusive, where’s it’s going for $299.99. Here’s the second bummer—you can’t buy the processor on its own, but in a 3-part bundle that includes it, an ASUS TUF Gaming B650-Plus Wi-Fi motherboard, and an unspecified brand of 32 GB (2x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 memory kit. When you add up the prices of the three parts when purchased separately, you arrive at $630, but MicroCenter is selling the bundle for an impressive $450—a $180 discount.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D comes with a maximum boost frequency of 4.70 GHz, which is a steep 600 MHz fall from that of the regular Ryzen 5 7600X, and 400 MHz less than that of the 65 W Ryzen 5 7600 (non-X). Much like the 7600, the 7600X3D comes with a 65 W TDP. Where it loses on clock speeds, it makes up for with its large cache—1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 96 MB of L3 cache (or 102 MB of L2+L3 “total cache.”). The bundle could offer good value for those building PCs from scratch, or coming in from the older Socket AM4 platform. The TUF Gaming B650-Plus Wi-Fi is a fairly feature-packed mid-range ATX motherboard.