AMD’s Ryzen 7 9850X3D guarantees 7% uplift over Ryzen 7 9800X3D – AMD fights itself with ‘new fastest gaming processor’

AMD has made a “refined” model of its Ryzen 7 9800X3D – at the moment the finest gaming CPU you should buy – official. The new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the “new fastest gaming processor,” says AMD, with a 400 MHz enhance in clock pace over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the identical 120W TDP. Overall, AMD claims the Ryzen 7 9850X3D leads its predecessor by a mean of seven% in video games, however regardless of such a small hole, the corporate says the 2 chips will coexist in its lineup shifting ahead.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D doesn’t function any architectural adjustments in comparison with the bottom Ryzen 7 9800X3D, with AMD describing its enhancements “primarily” as a frequency bump. It carries the identical eight Zen 5 cores and 16 threads, simply clocked larger. The new chip can attain enhance clocks of as much as 5.6 GHz utilizing the identical 120W thermal design as the unique mannequin.

*info not but supplied

The chip additionally comes with the identical 104MB of whole cache as its predecessor, 96MB of which is situated within the shared L3 cache from which X3D chips get their identify. Like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D makes use of AMD’s second-gen 3D V-Cache that locations the SRAM chunk underneath the compute die as an alternative of on high, giving the core advanced direct entry to the IHS to ease cooling.

This second-gen X3D design is what allowed the unique Ryzen 7 9800X3D to return with official help for multiplier-based overclocking, which is the most important hurdle the Ryzen 7 9850X3D faces. With first rate thermal headroom on the bottom Ryzen 7 9800X3D, a average overclock is feasible on most chips with sufficient entry to cooling. We’ll must see if that headroom is sufficient to make up the hole between the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 7 9850X3D.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D helps the identical overclocking options as the bottom Ryzen 7 9800X3D, so that you may have the ability to push it even larger – assuming there’s sufficient thermal headroom to take action. You’ll have the ability to entry one-click overclocking with Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO), in addition to use Curve Optimizer and Curve Shaper. AMD helps conventional multiplier-based overclocking on the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, too.

AMD broadly claims the Ryzen 7 9850X3D leads the Ryzen 7 9800X3D by 7% at 1080p, however in accordance with AMD’s personal information, you shouldn’t count on a serious bump in most video games. In Battlefield 6, as an example, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D affords no benefit, and it leads solely marginally in F1 25.

Despite the 7% uplift claims AMD made in a gathering with the press, the real-world common could also be even decrease. As you possibly can see from AMD’s check information, the most important positive factors come from esports titles like Counter-Strike 2 and Rainbow Six Siege which might be particularly delicate to frequency. In different titles, the lead shrinks to a <5% window, with some video games posting equivalent outcomes.

The story is comparable in productiveness purposes, with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D posting the most important leads in frequency-dependent benchmarks like the single-thread tests in Cinebench R24 and Geekbench 6.

For competitive comparisons, AMD claims an average lead of 27% with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D at 1080p over Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K. That’s a smaller lead than expected, as our own CPU benchmark hierarchy currently has the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D sitting 38% ahead of the Core Ultra 9 285K at 1080p. It’s a reminder – though one surprisingly from AMD’s own data – that although 3D V-Cache is very impressive, the benefits of additional cache vary from game to game.

Although AMD’s claims about competitive performance are likely to hold up, the bigger question is how the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will manage to find a foothold with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D still available. Ultimately, it will depend on how prices shake out once the chip is available.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the fourth X3D chip AMD has released this generation, crowding an already dense lineup even further. Although the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the best CPU for gaming, and the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D earned an elusive Editor’s Choice badge in our review due to its prime mixture of gaming and productivity performance, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D didn’t fare as well. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D, with its close proximity to the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D, may also struggle.

AMD hasn’t shared pricing details for the Ryzen 7 9850X3D yet, but it says the chip will arrive in the first quarter of 2026. Although AMD hasn’t provided a more specific release date, Alienware revealed that a version of the Area-51 Desktop will arrive in February with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D.

In this generation, AMD raised the price of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, with the chip launching at $479 compared to the $449 the previous-gen Ryzen 7 7800X3D released at. You can find the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for around $450 now, so hopefully the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will create downward pressure on prices for its current model. It’s hard to say until AMD reveals the MSRP of its latest X3D CPU, however.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D slots into existing Socket AM5 motherboards. If you’re socketing the chip into an existing AM5 motherboard, make sure to grab the BIOS image with the latest AGESA before installation. Both 600- and 800-series motherboards support the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, but if you’re using a 600-series board, double-check the compatibility for your specific motherboard. Although the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will technically work with Socket AM5 motherboards with an A-series chipset or the B840 chipset, those chipsets don’t support CPU overclocking.

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