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Comment by ChrisRR | Hacker News Reader

I don't follow PC hardware at all but recently I'm looking into replacing my 10 year old gaming PC and would normally just throw in an upper-mid range Intel CPU and be done with it

But with the recent failures of intel CPUs it's had me looking into AMDs to find the equivalent. I don't want to risk my investment not lasting because it just burns out over time.

(Also I like the fact that each generation doesn't have a new socket unlike intel)

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AMD had a similar problem which was caused by some motherboards pushing the SoC voltage too high (because it provides better overclocking). If you want to be careful (and it looks like you are), stay away from the latest hardware and avoid overclocking (or learn the theory and configure everything yourself -- if you do any automatic overclocking, voltages set by most motherboards are still higher than what I'm personally comfortable with; usually you can push them way down without affecting stability, but it takes hours of trial and error).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiTngvvD5dI

Intels 12000-14000 chips were ironically only having problems when cooled well, because before the latest microcode they would ramp up the voltage too much with sufficient cooling. When run ragged at high temps they were reliable even before the updates.

The Ryzen X3D CPUs are really the best value out there for gaming.

especially long term - boy does the 5800x3d have legs.

I got a bit confused by the X3D CPUs as many places listed X3D is the equivalent to the largest i5. But on the flip side the latest X3D is a few years old so I didn't know why it's better than the more recent version of their non-X3D CPUs

The latest X3D cpu was just released, as part of the 9000 series. Though it's probably out of stock because it's currently just about the best processor for cache heavy workloads, especially gaming.

The X3D chips have way larger caches so they punch well above their weight on many workloads that are traditionally cache bound. And with the 9000 series they figured out a better assembly method so they work even better than the 7000 or 5000 series ones.

Thanks for the info. So if I wait a few months for stock to replenish it sounds like the 9000 series X3D may be a good option for a future-proof gaming PC

yea, or if you're in hurry, get something older gen with AM5 socket, and swap to 9800X3D once it's available.

You might even be able to pick up a used 7000 X3D from someone else that's upgrading to the 9000 X3D series. They're still very capable chips.

The latest X3D just came out last week (9800X3D).

The 5800x3d is older but still one of the best gaming CPUs, because of the fast cache.

https://gamersnexus.net/cpus/rip-intel-amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d-c...

The cpu naming is so bad and confusing, I think it’s deliberate to confuse consumers that aren’t up to date.

Several new AM4 & AM5 X3D CPUs released this year.

I recently had a problem that I thought might be the CPU, mobo, or RAM, and was looking at upgrading. For the same reasons as you, I also decided I'd get an AMD this time. The only real choice seemed to be the 7800X3D for a gamer. (Though now the 9800X3D is out, so that's probably the better choice.)

Luckily, after my computer locked up and rebooted enough times, I realized it always happened while saving the game. I replaced the C: drive's NVME and that fixed the problem, so that upgrade can be put off again for a while.

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