Intel Core Ultra 7 265K vs Ryzen 7 7800X3D: Which is best for gaming in 2025?

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are among the top $400 choices in the market today. The last-gen eight-core AMD processor has been discounted, making it a worthy alternative to the new Arrow Lake chips. This confuses gamers: Should you go AMD or Intel in mid-2025?

Choosing between the chips can be quite difficult as they come with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. To help you decide, we have compiled the details of the chips in this article.

---

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are powerful gaming CPUs in 2025

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a high-end chip targeting mid-premium gaming rigs (Image via Amazon)

The Ultra 7 265K refines the monolithic architecture with TSMC 3N nodes and improved packaging. Architecturally, it's quite different from the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which uses the chiplet-based Zen 4 design with added 3D V-cache stacked on the CCX. Let's review their on-paper specs before delving into performance differences.

---

Specs comparison

The 265K bundles a whopping 20 cores: eight of which are performance-rated 'P' cores, while the remainder are efficient 'E' cores. The chip boosts to 5.5 GHz, which is a healthy 300 MHz boost over the last gen. The chip also packs 66 MB cache in total, which is competitive against AMD's 96 MB. However, the extra hardware on the processor makes it quite power hungry, drawing north of 125W under load.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D, on the other hand, bundles just eight cores with hyperthreading. Since this was the second generation of X3D chips, AMD was conservative with the boost clocks (5 GHz). This ensured the chip stayed stable under peak load.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the chips:

Specification	Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Architecture / Node	Arrow Lake-S (MCM)	Zen 4 (Raphael) with 3D V-Cache
Cores / Threads	8 P-cores + 12 E-cores = 20 cores / 20 threads	8 cores / 16 threads
Performance-core Base	3.9 GHz	— (not split into P/E cores)
Performance-core Max Turbo	5.4 GHz (Turbo Boost Max 3.0)	—
Efficient-core Base	3.3 GHz	N/A
Max Turbo Frequency	Up to 5.5 GHz	Up to 5.0 GHz
Cache	30 MB Intel® Smart Cache, 36 MB L2	96 MB L3 cache (including 3D V-Cache)
TDP	125 W (base) / 250 W (max turbo)	120 W
Integrated GPU / NPU	Intel Graphics + NPU (AI Boost) — peak 33 TOPS (incl. 13 TOPS NPU)	Radeon Graphics (2 CUs) — no AI NPU
Memory Support	DDR5 (up to DDR5-6400?)	DDR5-5200 (dual-channel)
PCIe Support	PCIe 4.0 and 5.0	PCIe 5.0
Release Date	Q4 2024	Early 2023
MSRP (Launch Price)	MSRP: $399, current: $299	$359

The Core Ultra 7 265K is priced at $299 these days, much lower than its launch MSRP of $399. Intel has aggressively discounted its Arrow Lake chips to stay competitive against AMD. The last-gen 7800X3D, for instance, still retails at $359, making the Intel chip cheaper.

---

Performance comparison

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is among the most popular AMD CPUs today (Image via Amazon)

Here's how the CPUs compare in terms of their gaming performance. Both of the chips were tested with an RTX 4090 at 1080p to create the most CPU-limited scenarios. We sourced the data from the YouTube channel Testing Games.

	Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Forza Horizon 5	234 FPS	264 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	110 FPS	132 FPS
Starfield	134 FPS	139 FPS
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6	236 FPS	238 FPS
PUBG	273 FPS	366 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy	77 FPS	86 FPS
Star Wars: Outlaws	143 FPS	153 FPS
Counter-Strike 2	553 FPS	646 FPS
Ghost of Tsushima	164 FPS	179 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	177 FPS	196 FPS

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, on average, is 12.69% faster than the Core Ultra 7 265KK. More CPU-demanding games like PUBG (+34.07%) and Cyberpunk 2077 (+20%) show gaps so large that opting for the Ryzen might feel like a GPU upgrade.

Unfortunately, the Core Ultra 7 265K, despite being the best current-gen mid-premium offering from Team Blue, fails to secure a single win against AMD's last-generation Ryzen 7. The gap between the chips is too large to justify the $40 savings.

Given the ground reality of gaming performance, we recommend opting for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in 2025. Motherboards are cheaper, offer a solid upgrade plan on the AM5 to a 9800X3D or 10800X3D (when it launches) down the line. The Zen 5 processor already delivers solid gains over the 7800X3D, unlike Intel, whose chips are going through a rough patch now.