I'm upgrading an older ASRock B450 ITX/ac Fatal1ty system with 16GB of TeamGroup T-Force Xtreem DDR4-4000 memory. I originally planned to buy a Ryzen 7 5800X3D for $299, but I found a Ryzen 5 5600X3D for $229 and am wondering which one makes more sense.
My main concern is whether the motherboard's VRM can safely handle the 5800X3D. The board's VRM is reportedly rated for around 150W, while the 5800X3D can supposedly reach roughly 142W under peak load. Gaming benchmarks seem to show only about a 4 FPS difference between the two processors in many games, although I'm also curious whether the 5600X3D is simply made from chips that didn't meet 5800X3D specifications.
I plan to pair the system with a Radeon RX 9070 XT. I'd prefer to stay on AM4 because I want to keep the ITX form factor; moving to AM5 would require a new motherboard and memory and add more than $700 to the upgrade. Would the 5600X3D be the smarter value, or is the 5800X3D worth the extra $70?
5 Answers
At only $70 more, I’d lean toward the 5800X3D. The extra two cores give it more breathing room for newer games, background tasks, and anything beyond straightforward gaming. If your budget is tight, the 5600X3D is still a strong gaming chip, but the 5800X3D is the better long-term AM4 upgrade.
A platform change is worth considering only if you can do it without seriously stretching the budget. ITX AM5 boards and DDR5 can make that upgrade expensive, so staying with the existing B450 system and choosing either X3D chip is completely reasonable. Just confirm that the motherboard BIOS supports the processor before buying.
I wouldn’t be too worried about the VRM, especially in a small-form-factor build where you can use a decent cooler and tune the CPU. An undervolt or curve adjustment can lower temperatures and power draw while maintaining most of the performance, making the 5800X3D easier on the motherboard.
For gaming alone, the difference is usually pretty small, especially in GPU-limited titles. The 5600X3D makes sense if that $70 can go toward the RX 9070 XT, more memory, or another part of the build. The 5800X3D becomes more worthwhile in CPU-heavy simulation games or if you run virtual machines and other workloads that benefit from eight cores.
With a high-end card such as the RX 9070 XT, the 5800X3D is the safer choice if you want to maximize high-refresh-rate performance and avoid leaving CPU performance on the table. The 5600X3D is not necessarily defective hardware; it is generally understood to use partially disabled eight-core dies. Its lower core count doesn’t make it a bad processor.
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