AMD has dominated PC gaming CPU performance for over two years. Its
The first Zen 5 desktop CPUs were disappointing in gaming, but the 9800X3D, which arrives on November 7, features big improvements over the already excellent Ryzen 7 7800X3D. I tested it over the past week and found big improvements in productivity workloads, along with about an 8 percent increase in gaming performance.
Like the $449 7800X3D, if you primarily game on your PC, then the 9800X3D should be your next CPU.
$479
AMD's new Ryzen 7 9800X3D is based on the Zen 5 architecture and includes second-generation 3D V-Cache. AMD has improved the base and boost clocks to improve this CPU in both gaming and productivity tasks.
AMD's productivity improvements with the 9800X3D are largely due to a redesign of the processor. AMD is using a second generation of its 3D V-Cache technology in which the cache is now located beneath the processor cores. It's a big difference that means the processor cores have better access to cooling and the cache is now less sensitive to high temperatures. That's the big reason why AMD has been able to increase the base clock speed by 500MHz and add an additional 200MHz to the boost clock.
Both clock speed increases have helped boost productivity performance, along with the Zen 5 architecture. For the first time on an X3D chip, AMD even supports overclocking, which should mean we'll see even more impressive results with this processor.
I've been testing 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 one of the latest AM5 motherboards, but the 9800X3D will work with existing AM5 boards thanks to BIOS updates.
I tested a variety of workloads, synthetic benchmarks, and games on AMD's new Ryzen 7 9800X3D, its existing 7800X3D, and Intel's $589 Core i9-14900K and Core Ultra 9 285K. All tests were run on Windows 11 (version 24H2) with virtualization-based security (VBS) and resizable BAR enabled.
All tests are run at 1080p resolution to analyze raw CPU performance. Like most other CPU reviewersWe don't test at 1440p or 4K in games to make sure we're demonstrating differences between CPUs. Most games demand more from the GPU at higher resolutions, rather than the CPU. But a better CPU can still help in 4K, especially for upscaling technologies like DLSS or in CPU-intensive titles like Baldur's Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacyand Microsoft Flight Simulator.
AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D outperforms the 7800X3D in productivity and creator workloads. It's not even close. In Geekbench 6, the 9800X3D is about 20 percent faster than the 7800X3D in both single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. In Cinebench 2024, it is almost 16 percent faster for the single-threaded test and a whopping 27 percent faster in the multi-threaded workload.
Even in the Premiere Pro and Photoshop PugetBench tests, the 9800X3D leaves the 7800X3D behind, with an 18 percent performance boost in PugetBench for Photoshop and just 10 percent in the Premiere Pro test.
These scores demonstrate the big improvements AMD has made to the 9800X3D for everyday tasks and creator workloads. It's still well behind Intel's latest Core Ultra 9 285K in these workloads, but AMD has significantly closed the gap that the 7800X3D had.
When it comes to gaming, AMD has widened its lead, especially against Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K. Like many other reviewers, when I tested Intel's latest desktop CPU last month, I found it to be a step back in gaming performance compared to the Core i9-14900K.
The 7800X3D has already handily surpassed the 14900K and Core Ultra 9 285K, and the 9800X3D leaves Intel's gaming CPU efforts even further behind. During my testing, I found that the 9800X3D is about 8 percent faster in games than the 7800X3D. That's exactly what AMD promised when it announced the 9800X3D, and in some games, it's even higher.
In Metro Exodus I saw frame rates with the 9800X3D that were almost 14 percent higher than the 7800X3D. Cyberpunk 2077 also improved by almost 11 percent. To put that in perspective, the 9800X3D is 50 percent faster than Intel's latest Core Ultra 9 285K in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p. It's a surprising gap for Intel that suggests there must be some kind of bug with that particular game and CPU combination. But the 9800X3D is still 38 percent faster than Intel's previous 14900K, so AMD has an impressive lead either way.
If you want to take even more advantage of the 9800X3D's performance in gaming, Gigabyte offers an X3D turbo mode on the Aorus Master, which increases single-threaded performance by making some bandwidth adjustments, unifying the CPU core layout, and balance some of the hardware power. . The result is lower overall performance on workloads that rely on multi-threaded performance, but some increases in game performance, depending on the game.
I saw a 9 percent increase in performance in Metro Exodus with X3D turbo mode enabled, with only a 3 percent increase in Cyberpunk 2077. Other games saw a smaller increase, such as The shadow of the Tomb Raider seeing an increase of almost 2 percent. In 2023 forza motorsports, X3D turbo mode had no effect on performance. However, you definitely sacrifice multithreaded performance in creator workloads if you have it enabled in the BIOS.
This additional performance comes at a slight cost in terms of power consumption and temperature. During Cinebench 2024, I noticed that the 9800X3D reached a CPU package temperature of 88 degrees Celsius, higher than the 82 C I saw in the 7800X3D during the same test. The 9800X3D also used 160 watts at its peak during this test, while the 7800X3D only managed 89 watts.
Both chips have a TDP of 120 watts, but it's clear that the 9800X3D uses it more often. during the Black Myth: Wukong In the benchmark, the 9800X3D used 131 watts, more than double the 63 watts the 7800X3D used for the same test. The 9800X3D's power consumption is still far behind Intel's power-hungry 14900K during creator workloads, which consumes more than 260 watts during Cinebench tests. Power consumption will also vary depending on the types of games you are playing.
What's clear to me with this 9800X3D is that AMD has now established an even more impressive gap over Intel in gaming performance, while closing the performance gaps in productivity and creator workloads. I think this smaller gap on the non-gaming side will now tempt more creators who also play AMD.
Intel sacrificed gaming performance for efficiency with its Core Ultra 9 285K, but many PC gamers simply don't care about power efficiency unless it results in significantly cooler temperatures and therefore better performance. and less acceleration. Intel's sacrifices make the 9800X3D an obvious buy if you want the best PC gaming performance, and the Core Ultra 9 285K is an obvious choice if you want the best in productivity and creator performance and do little to no gaming.
If, like me, you're someone who plays a lot of PC games but also streams 4K videos and needs great performance on productivity tasks, then it's a tougher choice. Intel has always offered a good balance between creator workloads and gaming, but AMD beats it in gaming and is closing the gap on the productivity side. If I was primarily gaming I would go for the 9800X3D or even wait to see what rumored 16 cores The Ryzen 9000 X3D chip could be delivered very soon.
