AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review: king of the hill

AMD is fighting with itself. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the fastest gaming processor you can buy, and I don’t think anyone is surprised by that. It’s even in the running for one of the best processors you can buy thanks to much higher productivity performance compared to previous generations.

But AMD sits at the top uncontested, and it’s lonely up there — or so I hear. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is faster than its last-gen counterpart, and it blows away flagships from AMD and Intel when it comes to games. That’s nothing to scoff at, even if the margins aren’t as wide as I’ve come to expect.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D specs

Specs-wise, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D isn’t too different from the last-gen Ryzen 7 7800X3D. You’re still getting eight cores and 16 threads, along with a maximum power draw of 120 watts. Both also come with 104MB of total cache thanks to AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech. The major difference from the high-level specs is that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is clocked slightly higher, and that reveals a lot about what’s going on under the hood.

This is the first 3D V-Cache processor that’s fully unlocked for overclocking. As with previous 3D V-Cache CPUs like the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, you can overclock the chip with AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO). However, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the only CPU with 3D V-Cache that allows for manual overclocking, as well. You can tweak your voltages, set your multipliers, and so on, which hasn’t been possible on 3D V-Cache CPUs up to this point — without some serious modding, at least.

That’s because the Ryzen 7 9800X3D uses “next-gen” 3D V-Cache, according to AMD. Previous CPUs with the tech have stacked the additional cache on top of the CPU die, serving as almost an insolating (in a bad way) layer between the CPU cores and the integrated heat spreader (IHS) on top of the processor. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has the cache under the CPU cores, giving the cores direct access to the IHS. That, according to AMD, allows the cores to stay cooler and therefore run at higher clock speeds.

Outside of the cache change, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is also packing the Zen 5 architecture that we’ve seen in CPUs like the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X. There are a lot of changes in Zen 5, but one of the most significant is a 512-bit data path for AVX-512 instructions. There are applications for AVX-512 in AI workloads, but also in PS3 emulation. It’s not something that will change your performance in most applications, but in the few apps that can leverage AVX-512, you’ll be happy it’s there in the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

Test configurations

As I do with all CPU reviews, I ran all of the chips featured here through my suite of benchmarks, trying to keep the test platforms as similar as possible. The only differences between them are the motherboards and processors — and I kept motherboard settings identical. The data here is all fresh, meaning the results were recorded within the last couple of weeks with the same Windows and driver versions for each of the respective platforms.

It’s important to highlight these similarities because, as I saw with the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X, Windows can play a big role in performance. And that’s even more true with a 3D V-Cache CPU, which leverages the Xbox Game Bar for optimal performance. I ran all of my tests with the latest updates, both from Microsoft and AMD, as well as the most recent BIOS versions for the motherboards. There have been a lot of updates for Ryzen 9000 CPUs since launch, so all of the results here come from those updates.

The only thing I didn’t get to test was the X3D Turbo mode available on the Gigabyte motherboard I used. Some early testing suggests this mode doesn’t actually boost performance much anyway, and it’s not a consistent setting across motherboards, so I left it off. Gigabyte, for its part, is claiming a performance uplift of 3% to 5% with the mode enabled, however.

Productivity performance

For as impressive as AMD’s 3D V-Cache CPUs have been, they’ve always compromised on productivity performance, limited by power, temperatures, and clock speeds. AMD says that with the new 3D V-Cache layout, productivity performance is up on the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in a big way, and my results back that up.

Cinebench establishes the dynamic here. Although the Ryzen 7 9800X3D easily outclasses flagships like the Core Ultra 9 285K in games, it’s still an eight-core CPU, so it’s not going to dominate in multi-core tests like Cinebench. What’s impressive here is how the Ryzen 7 9800X3D stacks up to the eight-core Ryzen 7 9700X. The 3D V-Cache chip is ahead, which is not a dynamic we normally see. Further, if you look at the 105W power mode of the Ryzen 7 9700X, the two CPUs are identical.

That’s mostly what I found — in productivity apps, this is an eight-core Zen 5 CPU that has access to up to 120W of power. In short, it’s a Ryzen 7 9700X always running in a higher power mode. In past generations, the 3D V-Cache version of a CPU was almost always a clear step behind, sacrificing productivity performance to enable to the extra cache. Not the case here.

Geekbench 6 further backs up that point, with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 7 9700X at 105W sitting right next to each other. Compared to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, you’re looking at a 15% increase in productivity performance, despite the fact that both processors are packing eight cores.

In some cases, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is even a bit ahead of the Ryzen 7 9700X. You can see that in Blender 4.2 above, where the 3D V-Cache CPU squeezed out a narrow lead, even compared to the 105W mode of the Ryzen 7 9700X. The gen-on-gen improvements are fantastic, too, with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D outclassing its last-gen counterpart by upward of 21%. That backs up AMD’s original performance claims about the CPU.

Looking at apps that stress more than your CPU, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D shocked me in Photoshop. It’s on par with the Ryzen 9 9950X. Granted, Photoshop is an app that doesn’t really scale past eight cores, and it leans on your GPU for support plenty. But unlike previous generations, where limited clock speed meant 3D V-Cache couldn’t perform in productivity apps, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is keeping pace just fine.

Premiere scales up to threads more gracefully, and sure enough, you can see the Ryzen 7 9800X3D fall behind multi-core monsters like the Core i9-14900K. Still, the CPU is keeping pace with the Ryzen 7 9700X, which is a positive sign, and it absolutely crushes the last-gen Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

Closing out productivity, take a look at Y-Cruncher. The performance here isn’t too surprising compared to the Ryzen 7 9700X, but this app leverages AVX-512 instructions. That has a massive impact on performance, with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D even beating out Intel’s new 24-core Core Ultra 9 285K.

The productivity performance here is very impressive. True to AMD’s claims, it was able to close the gap by sticking the cache under the CPU die and boosting clock speeds. I don’t think an eight-core CPU is your best bet if productivity performance is your main concern. However, the performance here is very promising if AMD scales up its 3D V-Cache CPUs this generation as it did in previous generations. Something like a Ryzen 9 9950X3D would be a true force in the current landscape of desktop processors.

Gaming performance

Gaming is what matters for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and true to AMD’s word, the CPU is the fastest gaming chip I’ve tested. Cyberpunk 2077 sets the stage here pretty well, though. You can see about a 6% improvement compared to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and a little over 15% compared to the Ryzen 7 9700X. I’ll be straight with you — this section is going to be a little boring. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D just sits at the top of the stack across the board.

The main question is how much the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is ahead, and games like F1 22 and Final Fantasy XIV provide some good insights. I saw a 5% bump in F1 22 and a 7% jump in Final Fantasy XIV compared to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. In all three of these games, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is just under the 8% boost that AMD originally claimed. These are some of the better results for the CPU that I saw, too.

There are a lot of games where the movement is very minor, or completely nonexistent. Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Returnal, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are all prime examples of games where the Ryzen 7 9800X3D does very little over its last-gen counterpart. They also serve as good reminders that some games just don’t care about the additional cache on 3D V-Cache CPUs.

AMD still tops the pile, so this is far from bad performance. It’s just not a reason to go out and buy the newest 3D V-Cache offering, especially when it’s more expensive than its last-gen counterpart.

That’s not to discredit the work that AMD did here. There are some games where the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is significantly faster than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. In Ashes of the Singularity, for example, the chip was around 15% faster. That’s fantastic.

However, there are still some unresolved issues with Ryzen 9000 CPUs as a whole. Black Myth: Wukong provides a window into that, where both the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are outperforming all of the Ryzen 9000 chips. These situations don’t come up often, but my results here show there at least some games where AMD needs to put in a bit more work with its Zen 5 CPUs.

If you want the fastest gaming CPU on the market, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is your answer. There’s no doubt about that. However, the gains over the Ryzen 7 7800X3D aren’t that significant. You’re looking at single digits in most games, which all but disappear at higher resolutions and graphics settings.

Temperature and power

In the previous generation, efficiency was a very strong point for gaming with a 3D V-Cache CPU. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D almost never draws 120W like it’s capable of, and in games, it would barely top 70W. Things are different this time around. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D consumes more power and runs hotter than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but some context is important.

If you look at the Core i9-14900K, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is still wildly more efficient. It, too, is staying under 100W in games, just like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. It’s not as efficient, but that makes sense. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn’t limited by power; it’s limited by temperatures. It’ll hit a temperature wall usually before it hits a power wall, and by redesigning the internals of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, AMD is able to push closer to that power wall.

That’s not to say the Ryzen 7 9800X3D runs cooler because it doesn’t. You can see the results from testing on the temperature front above. There’s a bump here compared to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but it’s not too significant. That’s important considering the Ryzen 7 9800X3D not only has a higher maximum operating temperature but it’s also clocked higher and fully unlocked for overclocking.

Should you buy the Ryzen 7 9800X3D?

If you want the fastest gaming performance, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a slam dunk. More so than previous generations, AMD tightened up productivity performance a lot, and you’re mostly getting the performance of eight Zen 5 cores — despite the additional cache. Compared to previous 3D V-Cache releases, that’s huge.

However, I’m not sold on buying the Ryzen 7 9800X3D if you already have a Ryzen 7 7800X3D. I’m also not sure where the price of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D will end up. Coming in now at $479, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D doesn’t justify that price if the last-gen chip drops down to its historic lows around $350. I don’t know if that’ll happen or not, however.

People coming from an Intel platform or upgrading from an AM4 motherboard don’t need to worry about much. Buy the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. If your setup is a little more recent, however, I would take a good look at prices on previous generations before making a decision.