TechPowerUp Processor of the Year

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the best processor for gaming PCs by leaps. This chip consistently provides the best frame-rates in games across all resolutions, beating even the fastest competing Intel Core processors, and even the Special Edition Intel "KS" processor that commands double its price. Games are memory intensive workloads, and it really helps to have a large amount of cache memory close to the CPU cores that's an order of magnitude faster than the main memory, and with a tiny fraction of its latency.

The 7800X3D debuts AMD's second generation of 3D Vertical Cache, an innovation that sees 3D stacking of additional L3 cache above the on-die L3 cache of the CPU chiplet, linearly scaling it into a continuously addressable cache block with uniform performance. The 7800X3D ends up with 96 MB of L3 cache, which is plenty of size for a large amount of frame data as the CPU is working its share of the graphics rendering pipeline. The 7800X3D ends up faster than even the 16-core 7950X3D, because all of its cores are on a single chiplet, with no scope for movement of gaming workloads to a neighboring one, and all of the processor's power budget being allocated to a single chiplet.

Speaking of power, the 7800X3D offers jaw-dropping gaming power figures of just 49 W, with Intel processors of comparable gaming performance pulling close to 130 W in comparison. The 7800X3D is also very reasonably priced, around $350, and is based on Socket AM5, a platform AMD intends to support till 2025 and beyond with new processor launches. The platform has a superior PCIe Gen 5 implementation, with two dedicated Gen 5 x4 connections from the processor without cutting into the x16 PEG interface. For this reason and more, the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the TechPowerUp Processor of the Year—2023.

TechPowerUp Hardware of 2023 Runner Up

Intel Core i9-14900K

The Intel Core i9-14900K is our runner-up for 2023. Based on the "Raptor Lake Refresh" silicon, this Hybrid architecture processor packs 8 P-cores with 16 E-cores. The 8 P-cores boost up to 6.00 GHz under the right cooling conditions, to serve up gaming performance that's almost as fast as the 7800X3D, but it's the 16 E-cores that vastly shore up multi-threaded productivity performance. With these, Intel is able to beat 16-core Ryzen 7000-series chips, such as the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and 7950X in productivity workloads, despite the E-cores being lean, low-power cores, in contrast to the AMD chips being made up entirely of what Intel would consider P-cores.

From a technical perspective the 14900K is really a 13900K with a clock frequency bump. While this is sad and more of a "rebrand" than a "refresh," the 14900K is still a formidable processor—just like the 13900K. In our testing the Core i9-14900K was found to roughly match the performance levels of the Special Edition Core i9-13900KS, but at a $200 or 25% lower price. A unique feature with this chip is APO (application optimization), a software-based extension of Intel Dynamic Tuning technology that fine-tunes the processor in real-time for a game or application's workload. This can result in an up to 15% improvement in performance, but Intel only has a small list of games that are supported, with more in the pipeline. The Core i9-14900K is based on the Intel 7 (10 nm Enhanced SuperFin) foundry process, while AMD has moved on to TSMC N5. This results in the i9-14900K drawing much more power than competing AMD chips, with a gaming power draw that's almost three times higher than the 7800X3D. The i9-14900K is also 70% pricier than the 7800X3D. The LGA1700 platform it is based on will likely not see any new processor generations, as Intel looks to transition to the LGA1851 socket. So, the i9-14900K takes the second spot in our list. Perhaps the biggest reason this is #2 on our list is because Intel is once again slacking with innovation in the desktop processor space, and the 14th Gen is a near-complete rehash of the "Raptor Lake" silicon.

Notable Mentions

There are several processor models that offer decent levels of value and performance that didn't quite make it to our top spots. These include the Intel Core i7-14700K, priced just $60 above the 7800X3D, with 2% lower gaming performance, but over 20% higher productivity performance thanks to the 12 E-cores that place this chip halfway between the i7-13700K and the i9-13900K. The Core i5-14600K is another such chip, with 9% higher productivity performance thanks to its 6P+8E design, albeit with close to 9% lower gaming performance from the two fewer P-cores and lower frequency. The year also saw the introduction of AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series catering both to the HEDT and workstation crowd; and of course Intel Core Ultra "Meteor Lake," an innovative new chiplet-based processor.