A secret new budget AMD Ryzen X3D gaming CPU just got benchmarked

There's a new AMD gaming CPU with 3D V-cache in town, and it's just been benchmarked. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D, which AMD silently launched in Latin America only a few months ago, features six cores and the same additional L3 cache as its bigger siblings, but its performance potential wasn't clear until now.

With AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D stock now spent, the 5500X3D is one of the few X3D Socket AM4 CPUs that you can still buy. With its aging architecture, fewer cores than the 5700X3D, and low clock speeds, the 5500X3D isn't likely to top our best gaming CPU guide, but all that extra 3D V-cache will still make this AMD chip a formidable option for gaming compared to non-X3D alternatives in older machines.

The 5500X3D was recently tested using PassMark to give us an idea of its performance in single and multi-threaded tests. In the multi-threaded test, the 5500X3D scored 20,498, while scoring 3,005 in the single-threaded test. That's only slightly lower than the results from the Ryzen 5 5600X3D, the only other Zen 3 socket AM4 chip still on sale with 3D V-cache, which has average scores of 21,891 and 3,187 apiece.

In comparison, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500, the non-X3D model without the 64MB extra L3 cache tile, has an average score of 19,324 in the multi-threaded test, scoring 3,058 in the single-threaded test. That's only a modest drop in performance against the 5500X3D, but it's also comparing an average of several tests against a single one in the 5500X3D, so it's not a fully fair comparison at this stage.

The important thing for the 5500X3D, however, isn't the raw numbers here - it's the price. In Brazil, tech retailer Kabum has the 5500X3D at a sale price of R$1,169.90, or around $216. If that ~$200 price could be replicated across the US and Europe, then the 5500X3D would be a serious contender for budget gaming machines.

However, there's no indication that AMD is planning a wider release for this six-core CPU outside of Latin America. If anything, the company looks set to move away from Socket AM4 chips, leaving its Zen 3 CPUs such as this one behind. If it does go on wider sale, however, we'll be prepared to put it through its paces, as it could sit comfortably as a starter CPU in a budget gaming rig.

Thinking about your next build? Check out our best gaming motherboard guide next and pick your side, whether it's an AMD or Intel CPU that you're planning to install.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.