My current system has a Ryzen 5 3600X, an ASRock B450 Steel Legend, 32GB of DDR4, an RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, an 850W power supply, and a 240mm AIO. I mainly play Cities: Skylines 2, and simulation speed becomes painfully slow in large late-game cities. I'm considering the recently re-released Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition (100-100000651POF) and would appreciate a sanity check. Has anyone used a 5800X3D specifically on the B450 Steel Legend? Since the board has a six-phase VRM and my AIO doesn't provide much direct airflow over the VRM heatsinks, should I be concerned about throttling? I'd also like to know the minimum BIOS version required, whether the Anniversary Edition uses the same silicon and CPUID as the original 5800X3D, and whether a board support list simply listing the 5800X3D is sufficient. Finally, is the 5800X3D worth paying extra for over a 5700X3D, and is staying on AM4 reasonable when DDR5 kits are currently around €430 or more?
4 Answers
Staying on AM4 is completely reasonable here. You already have the motherboard, memory, cooler, and power supply, so a CPU swap is much cheaper than moving to AM5 and buying DDR5 as well. One owner reported running a 5800X3D on the B450M Steel Legend with good results and found that Curve Optimizer helped reduce temperatures. After updating the BIOS, remember that the first boot may ask you to reset the fTPM key; check whether drive encryption is enabled before doing that.
There are builds using the B450 Steel Legend with a 5800X3D without reported problems. The VRM should handle the processor, especially if the case has reasonable airflow, but monitor VRM and CPU temperatures after the upgrade. If necessary, adjusting the fan layout so a rear or top exhaust moves air across the VRM area can help. A mild Curve Optimizer undervolt is also commonly used to lower temperatures while maintaining performance, provided the system remains stable.
For simulation-heavy games, don’t assume the X3D chip is automatically the best choice. Cities: Skylines 2 can benefit from additional cores in some workloads, so it’s worth checking benchmarks comparing the 5800X3D with the 5900X and 5950X for the late-game situations you care about. The 5800X3D is generally the stronger gaming upgrade, but a higher-core-count Ryzen 9 could be worth considering if simulation throughput is the limiting factor.
The 5800X3D should be a very sensible drop-in upgrade for this system. Its power rating is only a little higher than the 3600X, so the board should be fine as long as the BIOS officially supports it. Check ASRock’s CPU support page for the exact minimum BIOS revision; flashing the newest stable version before changing CPUs is the safest approach. The Anniversary Edition should be treated as the same 5800X3D platform part, so support for the standard 5800X3D should cover it. For the 5700X3D, buy whichever is substantially cheaper—the gaming difference is usually modest, and the 5800X3D premium is only worthwhile if the price gap is small.
That clears things up. I found a good price on the 5800X3D, so I’ll verify the BIOS version and probably go with it.
The ASRock concerns people mention appear to be mainly associated with certain AM5 systems rather than this older AM4 platform. That doesn’t replace checking the support list, but it shouldn’t by itself rule out a 5800X3D on the B450 board.