Ryzen 7 5800X3D Shows Negligible Gaming Gains on X570 Over X370 Boards

Q: Why does a massive 96MB cache make an aging motherboard just as powerful for gaming as a newer, more expensive one?

Because the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s 96MB of L3 cache removes much of the gaming advantage a newer motherboard would normally provide. In games, the CPU is constantly pulling small, latency-sensitive chunks of data for AI, physics, draw calls, and world state. AMD’s 3D V-Cache lets far more of that data stay on the chip instead of going out to system RAM, which is much slower. That reduces memory delays, and once those delays are cut, differences between an old X370 board and a newer X570 board matter far less for frame rates. That is why Linus Tech Tips saw near-identical results in titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Counter-Strike 2, and even the more CPU-heavy Cities: Skylines II. Both systems used the same GPU and DDR4 memory, and the 5800X3D itself was doing the heavy lifting. The cache effectively masks weaknesses that would otherwise show up from older platform memory tuning or chipset limitations. The motherboard chipset still matters for features, not much for gaming speed in this case. X570 offers easier CPU support, better BIOS maturity, more tuning options, PCIe 4.0, and broader I/O. But those benefits do not automatically raise FPS when the game is primarily benefiting from the CPU’s large on-die cache. The practical result is that AM4 users can often get nearly the full gaming benefit of a 5800X3D without buying a new board. The main caveat is compatibility: older boards may need BIOS updates and can be harder to tune, even if final gaming performance ends up almost the same.

2 articles · Updated · Wccftech · Aug 23

Linus Tech Tips found AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D delivered near-identical gaming results on an older X370 motherboard and a newer X570 board.
Tests in Cyberpunk 2077, CS2 and CPU-heavy Cities: Skylines II showed little benefit from the newer AM4 platform, even after the older setup proved harder to configure.
The X370 pairing struggled more to get memory running at optimal speeds, while X570 still offers newer platform features such as PCIe Gen 4 NVMe support.
For AM4 owners weighing an upgrade, the results suggest a $339.95 5800X3D swap may make more sense than replacing CPU, motherboard and DDR4 memory together.