Is the AMD Ryzen 7800X3D a good chip to upgrade to from i9 10900KF?

[katrina.balanchuk]

I currently have  a Intel i9 10900KF CPU I am very happy with.

 

My sisters son, aka my nephew, just upgraded his computer to the latest and wants to give me a AMD 7800X3D for free.

Its a chip from a couple of years ago.

He says its really good and I looked at reviews and they are all good. But they are also all good for my i9 10900.

 

If I get this other chip, I been told I have to get a new motherboard ($$) and have been told the RAM will have to be changed to the next generation (also $$).

My current compauter ( largely based on recommendation I got on this board a couple years back in a couple of threads were i was askign questions) has 64GB of DDR4 RAM and an SSD plus a RTX 4070,... So I always felt I had a good Computer and its less than 2 and half years old too.

 

Is it worth it for Fallout 4 to put in a free 7800X3D when I then have to pay for a new motherboard and to change my RAM to , I think, DDR5?

[Steak Barbare]

It depends on a lot of things. Do you do video editing or any other work program requiring a powerful processor?
If yes, keep your I9 and 64GB RAM.
If not, get the R7, it's much better suited for gaming. Its memory cache is much larger (104MB vs. 20MB for your I9), and upgrading to DDR5 with 32GB RAM would provide more performance (no point in getting 64GB Ram for gaming).

 

For the money, you can always try reselling your motherboard, RAM, and processor, just look the price, I think you'll make money

 

I recommend an MSI B650 (in France, it costs €150).

 

For RAM, DDR5 2x16GB Corsair or GSkill optimized AMD: around €100. For R7 7800x3d, 5200mhz or take more, just check the good frequency in the BIOS.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Steak Barbare

[katrina.balanchuk]

1 hour ago, Steak Barbare said:

It depends on a lot of things. Do you do video editing or any other work program requiring a powerful processor?
If yes, keep your I9 and 64GB RAM.
If not, get the R7, it's much better suited for gaming. Its memory cache is much larger (104MB vs. 20MB for your I9), and upgrading to DDR5 with 32GB RAM would provide more performance (no point in getting 64GB Ram for gaming).

 

For the money, you can always try reselling your motherboard, RAM, and processor, just look the price, I think you'll make money

 

I recommend an MSI B650 (in France, it costs €150).

 

For RAM, DDR5 2x16GB Corsair or GSkill optimized AMD: around €100. For R7 7800x3d, 5200mhz or take more, just check the good frequency in the BIOS.

 

I dont do any video editing.

Just games. Only Fallout 4 really so far.

 

Thank you for your detailed response!!

Edited July 13, 2025 by katrina.balanchuk

[Steak Barbare]

Np , after checking, I think you could sell your hardware for between $350 and $400, it shouldn't be difficult to get selled.

 

In the future, there will be more games that require cache memory. Currently, CP77 and quite a few VR games, the 7800x3D is a much better choice, but you do what you want.

 

You said that people advised you to get an I9 and 64GB of RAM? For gaming? I don't know who it is, but it's either a seller with few scruples or someone who doesn't know anything about it. Games will require more CPU cores in the future, but we're still a long way from that . Your current setup is much more work-oriented than gaming.

 

Regarding DDR5, I would advise you to take 6000mhz, you can always downgrade in the bios for the 7800x3d and if one day you decide to improve your PC, you can turn to a used R7 9000 series for cheap and it will work without problems at 6000mhz with the AMD EXPO and you will not need to change the motherboard, you will just have to update the bios. It's just a little advice to save money and have a PC always up to date.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Steak Barbare

[South8028]

Ha. I think for fallout (like any game from 10 years ago) you clearly need a supercomputer. Without a normal 64 core Epyc or Threadripper you clearly won't be able to play a game from 10 years ago normally. 😁 Look. CE fo4 can use 4 cores at most, doesn't know what an ssd is, and has no visible rendering difference between gtx1080ti and rtx4080. Conclusion. I don't care what you play fo4 on. As long as the frequency is higher. The fo4 engine doesn't understand anything other than frequency. This is 10 year old technology.The first thing you need from a video card is the amount of VRAM. For example, I will never exchange a 3090 for a 4080 or 5080. NVIDIA has gone crazy, or rather, has become insolent from the monopoly, putting an insignificant amount of VRAM into modern GPUs. 

Edited July 14, 2025 by South8028

[plutocene]

9800X3d and former 7800x3d user. If you think of switching to AMD get a 9800X3D.  As for your current CPU, according to my quick google search, the 7800X3D and 9800X3D mop the floor with it., see e. g., https://technical.city/en/cpu/Core-i9-10900KF-vs-Ryzen-7-9800X3D

 

However, for Fallout 4, your rig is more than sufficient. The real bottle neck is DX11, same for Skyrim. Once you reach ~10K+ draw calls, the game will always lag. Faster hardware does help but it won't fix the issue, when the software can't handle the load. 

In order to battle this, use optimization and performance boost mods such as PRP, Buffout, X-Cell, Baka's mods, etc.

 

Button line: If you can easily afford the upgrade, we're talking MB, CPU, Cooler (AIO), Ram, depending on were you live at least 1200€, and you can utilize it somewhere else, cool. 

 

Forgot to mention: Low latency DDR5 6000 kit, a AIO cooler from Arctic 280+ and an MSI board, I have an 670E tomahawk, either 670E or 870E chipset.

Edited July 15, 2025 by plutocene

[katrina.balanchuk]

2 hours ago, plutocene said:

9800X3d and former 7800x3d user. If you think of switching to AMD get a 9800X3D.  As for your current CPU, according to my quick google search, the 7800X3D and 9800X3D mop the floor with it., see e. g., https://technical.city/en/cpu/Core-i9-10900KF-vs-Ryzen-7-9800X3D

 

However, for Fallout 4, your rig is more than sufficient. The real bottle neck is DX11, same for Skyrim. Once you reach ~10K+ draw calls, the game will always lag. Faster hardware does help but it won't fix the issue, when the software can't handle the load. 

In order to battle this, use optimization and performance boost mods such as PRP, Buffout, X-Cell, Baka's mods, etc.

 

Button line: If you can easily afford the upgrade, we're talking MB, CPU, Cooler (AIO), Ram, depending on were you live at least 1200€, and you can utilize it somewhere else, cool. 

 

Forgot to mention: Low latency DDR5 6000 kit, a AIO cooler from Arctic 280+ and an MSI board, I have an 670E tomahawk, either 670E or 870E chipset.

 

Thank you for the thorough response to you and everyone else.  

Also the 7800X3D would be free for me as stated in original post.

I would be responsible only for buying a new motherboard and new gen RAM.

 

Assembly would also be free and performed by the same family member that is giving me the free AMD CPU. 

 

 

PS: I have Buffout. PRP needs so many patches everywhere I dont bother with it. I do already have in my current rig the AIO cooler. I dont run Baka because I read somewherre to runj either Baka or Buffout but not both.

I never really understood what x-cell is supposed to do.

[plutocene]

 

40 minutes ago, katrina.balanchuk said:

 

Thank you for the thorough response to you and everyone else.  

Also the 7800X3D would be free for me as stated in original post.

I would be responsible only for buying a new motherboard and new gen RAM.

 

Assembly would also be free and performed by the same family member that is giving me the free AMD CPU. 

 

 

PS: I have Buffout. PRP needs so many patches everywhere I dont bother with it. I do already have in my current rig the AIO cooler. I dont run Baka because I read somewherre to runj either Baka or Buffout but not both.

I never really understood what x-cell is supposed to do.

 

Woops, sorry, I'm tired so I overlooked your getting a 7800X3D CPU for free. Well that reduces the cost considerably. 160€ ish for Ram, X3D chips run best between 6000 and 6200 mhz with low latency modules. Ensure that the kit is listed as compatible with MB by the manufacturer. ~350€ for MB, depending on your preference, anything more is just overspending. Maybe you can reuse your cooler. You need AM5 brackets, ensure that you have those. Depending on the brand, they might sell upgrade kits. 

 

PRP is a major pain to run indeed, however I have integrated it successfully. It does need patches currently running 25 needing at least 2 more, so yea, it is a bit tedious to set up and heavy on the load order, as each patch requires a BA2 regular slot, I'm at 252 of 255  Not to mention the hurdles creating a patch, currently at it.

I'm not familiar with Baka and Buffout having issues. When in doubt, I trust Perchik71 and her recommendations. Baka are several mods, Baka Framework, Baka Scrap heap and Baka max papyrus ops. Depending on weather you run X-Cell or NG/OG, the combo changes. In example, Baka MaxPapyrusOps is recommended when you're on NG (Buffout 4 NG does not do this for NG). While Baka Framework is "A small plugin that exposes some new data to other mods, and fixes a few bugs." And Baka ScrapHeap - Script Memory Limit Expander, which I do not use since X-Cell does it.

 

And X-Cell basically does a few things the other mods do and more, so it needs correct configuration and then Buffout and X-Cell can be run together. It also fixes the head problem on NG NPcs, sort of, you still need face gen patches. I use it on OG for memory management and CPU control. 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2025 by plutocene

[katrina.balanchuk]

On 7/16/2025 at 12:42 AM, plutocene said:

And X-Cell basically does a few things the other mods do and more, so it needs correct configuration and then Buffout and X-Cell can be run together. It also fixes the head problem on NG NPcs, sort of, you still need face gen patches. I use it on OG for memory management and CPU control. 

 

 

 One more reason to stay away from  NG game version

 

BTW I am now typing on that new chip 

[plutocene]

10 minutes ago, katrina.balanchuk said:

 One more reason to stay away from  NG game version

 

BTW I am now typing on that new chip 

 

Yea, unless ENB and Robco Patcher are updated, I would not even consider to use NG and fixing the stuttering from the face gen issue is easier said then done.
Grats, you will notice the improvement