The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D has held its position as the gaming CPU benchmark since launch, and at $388.98 it’s $60 off its $449 list price. For anyone building or upgrading an AM5 system with gaming performance as the priority, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains the processor to build around, and the discount makes the decision easier than it already was.
The 7800X3D’s advantage comes from AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology, which stacks an additional cache die directly on top of the processor to bring total L3 cache to 96MB. That number matters in gaming specifically because modern titles increasingly benefit from keeping more data closer to the CPU cores, reducing the latency penalty of reaching out to system RAM. The result is frame rate gains in CPU-limited scenarios that a higher clock speed alone doesn’t produce, which is why the 7800X3D consistently outperforms faster-clocked chips in gaming workloads despite a 4.2GHz base clock that looks modest on paper.
Eight cores and sixteen threads handle the processing side, and the 5nm process node keeps efficiency high under sustained gaming loads. The AM5 socket gives the Ryzen 7 7800X3D a platform with meaningful longevity ahead of it, making this a processor you can upgrade around rather than one that forces a full rebuild when you want more performance down the line.
For productivity workloads, the picture is more nuanced. The 7800X3D’s cache optimization is tuned for gaming, and tasks that prioritize raw clock speed over cache depth, like video rendering or heavy compilation, are better served by non-X3D alternatives. As a dedicated gaming processor, though, nothing on AM5 at this price touches it.
The 7800X3D has commanded a premium since launch because the gaming performance justifies it. A $60 saving brings the Ryzen 7 7800X3D to a price where the gap between it and the next best gaming option on AM5 becomes very difficult to rationalize in favor of the alternative.
The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D at $388.98 is the gaming CPU purchase that holds up well against scrutiny. The 3D V-Cache advantage, AM5 platform longevity, and consistent benchmark leadership add up to a processor that justifies the buy before you factor in the discount, and the $60 saving makes this the right time to pull the trigger.
Speech-to-text apps have flooded the App Store, making it easier than ever to type on our Macs with just our voice. I have previously covered one such app called TypeWhisper. However, there has been a dearth of good text-to-speech models, and most of the good ones are locked behind a subscription.
Ollama, an open-source app that lets you run local AI models on your computer, wants to change that. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and your prompts are never stored or used for training.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).