AMD has dominated PC gaming CPU capacity 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 only amended gaming capacity but besides day-to-day tasks and imaginative workloads.
The first desktop Zen 5 CPUs were disappointing successful gaming, but the 9800X3D, which arrives connected November 7th, makes immoderate large improvements complete the already-great Ryzen 7 7800X3D. I’ve been testing it complete the past week, and I’ve recovered large improvements to productivity workloads, alongside astir an 8 percent jump successful gaming performance.
Just for illustration the $449 7800X3D, if you mostly play games connected your PC, past the 9800X3D should beryllium your adjacent CPU.
$479
AMD’s caller Ryzen 7 9800X3D is built connected the Zen 5 architecture and includes second-generation 3D V-Cache. AMD has improved the guidelines and boost clocks to make this CPU amended astatine some gaming and productivity tasks.
AMD’s productivity improvements pinch 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 now beryllium beneath the processor cores. It’s a large quality that intends the processor cores person amended entree to cooling and the cache is now little delicate to precocious temperatures. That’s the large logic AMD has been capable to ramp up the guidelines 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 first clip connected an X3D chip, AMD is moreover supporting overclocking, which should mean we’ll spot immoderate moreover much awesome results from this processor.
AMD trial machine:
- CPU cooler: Corsair H150i Elite LCD
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus Master (EXPO enabled and default BIOS options)
- RAM: 32GB G.Skill DDR5-6000
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition
- Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB
- PSU: Corsair HX1000W
Intel trial machine:
- CPU cooler: Corsair H150i Elite LCD
- Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 Carbon Wi-Fi for i9-14900K / Asus ROG Strix Z890-A Gaming Wifi for Core Ultra 9 285K
- RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 6600
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition
- Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB (14900K) / Samsung 980 Pro 2TB (285K)
- PSU: Corsair HX1000W
I’ve been testing AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D pinch 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 will activity pinch 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) pinch 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 aliases 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 still thief retired astatine 4K, particularly for upscaling technologies for illustration DLSS aliases successful CPU-heavy titles for illustration 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 moreover 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, pinch an 18 percent summation successful capacity successful PugetBench for Photoshop and conscionable awkward 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 still 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 capacity compared to the Core i9-14900K.
The 7800X3D already comfortably hit the 14900K and Core Ultra 9 285K, and the 9800X3D leaves Intel’s gaming CPU efforts moreover 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 moreover higher.
In Metro Exodus, I saw framework rates pinch the 9800X3D that were astir 14 percent higher than the 7800X3D. Cyberpunk 2077 besides improved by astir 11 percent. To put 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 location must beryllium immoderate benignant of bug pinch that peculiar operation of crippled and CPU. But the 9800X3D is still 38 percent faster than Intel’s erstwhile 14900K, truthful AMD has an awesome advantage present either way.
If you want to compression moreover much capacity retired of the 9800X3D successful games, Gigabyte offers an X3D turbo mode connected the Aorus Master, which boosts single-thread capacity by performing immoderate bandwidth tuning, unifying CPU halfway distribution, and balancing immoderate of the hardware power. The consequence is little wide capacity successful workloads that trust connected multithreaded capacity but immoderate increases successful crippled performance, depending connected the game.
I saw a 9 percent jump successful capacity successful Metro Exodus pinch X3D turbo mode enabled, pinch conscionable a 3 percent summation in Cyberpunk 2077. Other games saw a smaller increase, for illustration 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 capacity successful creator workloads if you person this enabled successful the BIOS, though.
This other capacity does travel astatine a flimsy costs to powerfulness tie and thermals. During Cinebench 2024, I noticed the 9800X3D deed a CPU package 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 only deed 89 watts.
Both chips person a 120-watt TDP, but it’s clear that the 9800X3D is utilizing this much often than not. During the Black Myth: Wukong benchmark, the 9800X3D was utilizing 131 watts, much than double the 63 watts that the 7800X3D was utilizing for the aforesaid test. The 9800X3D powerfulness tie is still acold down Intel’s power-hungry 14900K during creator workloads, which pulls much than 260 watts during Cinebench tests. Power tie will besides alteration depending connected the types of games you’re playing.
AMD’s caller Ryzen 7 9800X3D has a caller procreation of its 3D V-Cache technology.
What’s clear to maine pinch this 9800X3D is that AMD has now established an moreover much awesome spread complete Intel successful gaming performance, while shrinking the capacity differences successful productivity and creator workloads. I deliberation this smaller spread connected the non-gaming broadside will now tempt much creators who besides play games complete to AMD.
Intel sacrificed gaming capacity successful favour of ratio pinch 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 capacity and little throttling. Intel’s sacrifices make the 9800X3D an evident acquisition if you want the champion PC gaming performance, and the Core Ultra 9 285K is an evident prime if you want the champion successful productivity and creator capacity and play games very small aliases not astatine all.
If, for illustration me, you’re personification who plays a batch of PC games but besides renders 4K videos and needs awesome capacity successful productivity tasks, past it’s a tougher choice. Intel has ever offered a bully equilibrium betwixt creator workloads and gaming, but AMD thumps it successful gaming and is closing the spread connected the productivity side. If I were mostly gaming, I would prime the 9800X3D aliases moreover hold to spot what a rumored 16-core Ryzen 9000 X3D spot could present very soon.