New AMD chart-topping processor impresses gaming community, crushes Intel


Reviewers confirm AMD’s claims that their new Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor is “the fastest gaming processor the world has ever seen.” However, not everyone is happy about its premium pricing.

The new Ryzen 7 9800X3D appears to dominate gaming benchmarks while delivering strong performance across various productivity workloads.

The 9800X3D has improved base and boost clocks, 4.7 Ghz and 5.2 Ghz, respectively, and the same massive 64MB 3D V-Cache memory. However, due to a new packaging method, the additional cache memory is now layered below the CPU cores, while previous processors had the cache stacked above the cores.

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This change enables better cooling and heat dissipation, leading to a higher power budget and clock speeds. The change fixes the predecessors' limitations and translates to real-world performance improvements.

AMD claims that 9800X3D delivers an average of 8% gaming performance improvement compared to the previous chart-topper, 7800X3D, and a 20% uplift over the competition. However, reviewers often found even larger margins.

“For now, the 9800X3D is mighty impressive, the undisputed king of gaming, and it marks a historic milestone. We don't think AMD has ever been this dominant over Intel, certainly not in the last 15 years,” TechSpot assesses after running multiple benchmarks.

Tom's Hardware gave the product 4.5 stars out of 5 and said its gaming performance was ‘devastating’ the competition by a large margin, while performance in productivity workloads significantly improved.

“The Ryzen 7 9800X3D's gaming performance was exceptional, offering a sizeable lead over the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in many tests and was huge amounts faster than anything Intel has, wiping the floor with the Core i9-14900K and Core Ultra 9 285K at both test resolutions,” Forbes concluded.

According to YouTube reviewer optimum, AMD just deleted Intel.

The remaining main weakness of the chip is productivity tasks that require many cores, such as video rendering. At a similar price, buyers could get a processor with twice the number of cores.

jurgita Gintaras Radauskas Niamh Ancell BW Konstancija Gasaityte profile
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The newly released 8-core chip costs $479, which is similar to the release price of its predecessor, 7800X3D, but significantly higher than the current pricing of other capable processors.

“The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a processor that doesn't make sense as it is positioned and priced. That may seem harsh given its performance numbers, but you must look at the whole picture and how the 9800X3D relates to its competition,” the verdict by PCMag reads.

However, some leaks suggest that AMD plans to release even higher-end 12 and 16-core parts, which will also be boosted by the 3D V-Cache. According to wccftech.com, the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU is expected to launch in early 2025 and should be announced at CES 2025.