AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: the best gaming CPU

AMD has dominated PC gaming CPU show for much than 2 years. Its X3D chips person provided a boost that Intel has been incapable to match, and its caller $479 Ryzen 7 9800X3D goes a measurement further to not lone amended gaming show but besides day-to-day tasks and originative workloads.

The archetypal desktop Zen 5 CPUs were disappointing successful gaming, but the 9800X3D, which arrives connected November 7th, makes immoderate large improvements implicit the already-great Ryzen 7 7800X3D. I’ve been investigating it implicit the past week, and I’ve recovered large improvements to productivity workloads, alongside astir an 8 percent leap successful gaming performance.

Just similar the $449 7800X3D, if you mostly play games connected your PC, past the 9800X3D should beryllium your adjacent CPU.

AMD’s productivity improvements with the 9800X3D are mostly acknowledgment to a redesign of the processor. AMD is utilizing a 2nd procreation of its 3D V-Cache exertion that sees the cache present beryllium beneath the processor cores. It’s a large quality that means the processor cores person amended entree to cooling and the cache is present little delicate to precocious temperatures. That’s the large crushed AMD has been capable to ramp up the basal timepiece velocity by 500MHz and adhd an further 200MHz to the boost clock.

Both of these timepiece velocity increases person helped boost productivity performance, alongside the Zen 5 architecture. For the archetypal clip connected an X3D chip, AMD is adjacent supporting overclocking, which should mean we’ll spot immoderate adjacent much awesome results from this processor.

I’ve been investigating AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D with a Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master motherboard, 32GB of G.Skill DDR5-6000, and Nvidia’s RTX 4090. This is 1 of the latest AM5 motherboards, but the 9800X3D volition enactment with existing AM5 boards acknowledgment to BIOS updates.

I’ve tested a assortment of workloads, synthetic benchmarks, and games crossed AMD’s caller Ryzen 7 9800X3D, its existing 7800X3D, and Intel’s $589 Core i9-14900K and Core Ultra 9 285K. All the tests were tally connected Windows 11 (version 24H2) with virtualization-based information (VBS) and resizable BAR enabled.

All tests are performed astatine 1080p solution to analyse earthy CPU performance. Like astir other CPU reviewers, we don’t trial astatine 1440p oregon 4K successful games to guarantee we’re demonstrating the differences betwixt CPUs. Most games request much from the GPU astatine higher resolutions, alternatively of the CPU. But a amended CPU tin inactive assistance retired astatine 4K, particularly for upscaling technologies similar DLSS oregon successful CPU-heavy titles similar Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D blows the 7800X3D distant successful productivity and creator workloads. It’s not adjacent close. In Geekbench 6, the 9800X3D is astir 20 percent faster than the 7800X3D successful some single-threaded and multithreaded performance. In Cinebench 2024, it’s astir 16 percent faster for the single-thread trial and a monolithic 27 percent faster connected the multithreaded workload.

Even successful Premiere Pro and Photoshop PugetBench tests, the 9800X3D leaves the 7800X3D behind, with an 18 percent summation successful show successful PugetBench for Photoshop and conscionable shy of 10 percent successful the Premiere Pro test.

These scores show the large improvements AMD has made to the 9800X3D for day-to-day tasks and creator workloads. It’s inactive mostly down Intel’s latest Core Ultra 9 285K successful these workloads, but AMD has importantly closed the spread the 7800X3D had.

Over connected the gaming side, AMD has extended its lead, particularly against Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K. Like galore different reviewers, erstwhile I tested Intel’s latest desktop CPU past month, I recovered that it was a measurement backmost successful gaming show compared to the Core i9-14900K.

The 7800X3D already comfortably bushed the 14900K and Core Ultra 9 285K, and the 9800X3D leaves Intel’s gaming CPU efforts adjacent further behind. During my tests, I’ve recovered that the 9800X3D is astir 8 percent faster successful games than the 7800X3D. That’s precisely what AMD promised erstwhile it announced the 9800X3D, and successful immoderate games, it’s adjacent higher.

In Metro Exodus, I saw framework rates with the 9800X3D that were astir 14 percent higher than the 7800X3D. Cyberpunk 2077 besides improved by astir 11 percent. To enactment that successful perspective, the 9800X3D is 50 percent faster than Intel’s latest Core Ultra 9 285K successful Cyberpunk 2077 astatine 1080p. It’s an astonishing spread for Intel that suggests determination indispensable beryllium immoderate benignant of bug with that peculiar operation of crippled and CPU. But the 9800X3D is inactive 38 percent faster than Intel’s erstwhile 14900K, truthful AMD has an awesome vantage present either way.

If you privation to compression adjacent much show retired of the 9800X3D successful games, Gigabyte offers an X3D turbo mode connected the Aorus Master, which boosts single-thread show by performing immoderate bandwidth tuning, unifying CPU halfway distribution, and balancing immoderate of the hardware power. The effect is little wide show successful workloads that trust connected multithreaded show but immoderate increases successful crippled performance, depending connected the game.

I saw a 9 percent leap successful show successful Metro Exodus with X3D turbo mode enabled, with conscionable a 3 percent summation in Cyberpunk 2077. Other games saw a smaller increase, similar Shadow of the Tomb Raider seeing a boost of astir 2 percent. In 2023’s Forza Motorsport, the X3D turbo mode had nary effect connected performance. You decidedly sacrifice multithreaded show successful creator workloads if you person this enabled successful the BIOS, though.

This other show does travel astatine a flimsy outgo to powerfulness gully and thermals. During Cinebench 2024, I noticed the 9800X3D deed a CPU bundle somesthesia of 88 degrees Celsius, much than the 82C I saw connected the 7800X3D during the aforesaid test. The 9800X3D besides utilized 160 watts astatine its highest during this test, whereas the 7800X3D lone deed 89 watts. 

Both chips person a 120-watt TDP, but it’s wide that the 9800X3D is utilizing this much often than not. During the Black Myth: Wukong benchmark, the 9800X3D was utilizing 131 watts, much than treble the 63 watts that the 7800X3D was utilizing for the aforesaid test. The 9800X3D powerfulness gully is inactive acold down Intel’s power-hungry 14900K during creator workloads, which pulls much than 260 watts during Cinebench tests. Power gully volition besides alteration depending connected the types of games you’re playing.

What’s wide to maine with this 9800X3D is that AMD has present established an adjacent much awesome spread implicit Intel successful gaming performance, portion shrinking the show differences successful productivity and creator workloads. I deliberation this smaller spread connected the non-gaming broadside volition present tempt much creators who besides play games implicit to AMD. 

Intel sacrificed gaming show successful favour of ratio with its Core Ultra 9 285K, but galore PC gamers simply don’t attraction astir powerfulness ratio unless it results successful importantly cooler temperatures and, therefore, amended show and little throttling. Intel’s sacrifices marque the 9800X3D an evident acquisition if you privation the champion PC gaming performance, and the Core Ultra 9 285K is an evident prime if you privation the champion successful productivity and creator show and play games precise small oregon not astatine all. 

If, similar me, you’re idiosyncratic who plays a batch of PC games but besides renders 4K videos and needs large show successful productivity tasks, past it’s a tougher choice. Intel has ever offered a bully equilibrium betwixt creator workloads and gaming, but AMD beats it successful gaming and is closing the spread connected the productivity side. If I were mostly gaming, I would prime the 9800X3D oregon adjacent hold to spot what a rumored 16-core Ryzen 9000 X3D spot could present precise soon.