Taking Our First Look at the Ryzen 7 9800X3D

The Latest X3D Processor Keeps AMD at the Top of the DIY Gaming Hill

If we were to poll prospective AM5 platform buyers about their CPU of choice, I think that we would hear “7800X3D” a lot. And for good reason. The only problem is that the best gaming processor on AM5 has gone from plentiful and affordable, to expensive and scarce. Thankfully, AMD is releasing its successor tomorrow, November 7, with the 9800X3D offering an improved design – along with (we hope) excellent availability. Unfortunately, the cat has long been out of the bag, and the latest X3D won’t be the absolute steal its predecessors were (at times). Maybe we will again see some sub-$330 USD pricing eventually, but the Ryzen 7 9800X3D launches at $479 USD.

As I sit down to write this, I wonder if it is really necessary to even review the 9800X3D. To me, it’s a forgone conclusion that this will become the #1 recommended CPU for a DIY gaming rig this generation. How many reviews, follow-up reviews, roundups, and general discussion about the X3D series do we need before simply accepting that they are THE gaming processors of this era in PC computing? Intel lost a lot of ground with their struggles in recent years, and for DIY enthusiasts it seems like processor selection is more a question of which Ryzen, and not AMD vs. Intel. And of course when I write “which Ryzen”, I mean X3D, X3D, or X3D. For gaming, anyhow.

Note: we never received a Ryzen 7 7800X3D for review, and thus it is impossible to do a full, proper review of this new 9800X3D processor right now. This is more of a blog post than a review, with some initial findings and impressions about the new part – which has already been crowned as the king of gaming CPUs based on other reviews that have gone up this morning.

Not much has changed in the specs department compared to the outgoing Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor, with the 9800X3D still an 8-core, 16-thread part with the additional 64MB V-Cache and a 120W TDP. Base frequency is 4.7 GHz, with clocks of up to 5.2 GHz specified (though this is a fully unlocked part and can be pushed further).

A First Look at Performance

After setting up our Ryzen 7 9800X3D testbed using the components AMD sent over (including an ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO motherboard, Samsung 990 PRO 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 32GB G.Skill Trident Z NEO DDR5-6000 CL28 kit), we set to work installing Windows 11 24H2 (everyone’s favorite!) and all of the latest drivers. Out of the box our X870E motherboard was running a BIOS from September, so that was updated to the latest firmware (from October 25) before testing. An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 FE (GRD version 566.03) was used for all testing.

A look at the test setup via HWINFO:

A be quiet! Dark Power 12 PSU powered the system, with an Enermax 360 mm AiO (set to the standard fan/pump profile) used to cool the CPU. On the Intel side of things, we re-tested the Core i9-14900K using the new 0x12B microcode update with the 253W default PL1/PL2 power limits. Speaking of power limits, the Ryzen 7 9700X was set to the new 105W mode. Both the 14900K and 9700X were tested using the same 32GB kit of DDR5-6400 CL32, but AMD sent a new DDR5-6000 CL28 kit with the 9800X3D, so we used that for the new CPU. The results aren’t going be perfect, obviously, and since we never received a 7800X3D the charts feel incomplete, regardless!

Initial findings are rather unsurprising; if you are in a more CPU-bound gaming situation, particularly at 1080p resolution, the Ryzen 9 9800X3D will offer better performance than its non-X3D counterpart.

With demanding, higher-resolution gaming benchmarks, we don’t expect to see much (if any) scaling with these CPUs, and we don’t see any significant difference with Steel Nomad. The first inkling of these AMD parts outpacing the newly-limited Core i9-14900K appear with Time Spy, but if we go back to an older test like Fire Strike the differences become pronounced. It really does take looking at less-demanding workloads to see CPU scaling with a GPU like the RTX 4090, and that’s probably why AMD recommends testing Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080/high:

While the Ryzen 7 9700X was no slouch in this test, its advantage over the Core i9-14900K was offset by weaker 1% lows. The 9800X3D blows them both out of the water, and has much better 1% lows, too.

We can find more good examples of CPU scaling in follow-up content with this new processor, but for now let’s just look at a couple of CPU benchmarks to see if you are giving anything up by going X3D for the gaming performance:

It seems that the 9800X3D has zero downside compared to the non-X3D 9700X, though in multi-threaded workloads one of AMD’s higher core-count offerings would fare much better compared to the 14900K.

One aspect of these X3D parts that stands out is their efficiency, though we will need to run some more tests to have a clear picture of how the X3D stacks up in various scenarios (particularly power draw during gaming benchmarks). It is worth noting that our Ryzen 7 9700X results were achieved using the 105W mode (which should have been the limit all along), and the X3D will have higher power draw with its 120W TDP. In fact, this 9800X3D can be pushed even higher given the change in packaging that places the CCD above the 3D V-Cache for the first time.

Closing Thoughts

It is tedious to throw out all previous benchmark data, flash all boards to the latest BIOS versions, erase all SSDs, clean install the latest Windows build, install the latest drivers, and start running benchmarks from scratch. But, with all of the changes that we have seen in the past few months, there is no other way to provide accurate results. Intel’s latest microcode, paired with the actual enforcement of power limits by default for the first time, changes performance. AMD reversing course and allowing a 105W mode for the Ryzen 7 9700X changes performance. X3D Turbo Mode will likely change performance. But nothing changes performance more this generation than 3D V-Cache, as I have now personally verified with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in the few tests presented here (and more that didn’t make it into this post).

This project is just beginning, as we will be working on more in-depth CPU review content in 2025, with some of the results recorded in the past week becoming the basis of a new set of results. We do have an LGA1851 board now, so these results will be added, but borrowed X3D parts and old results aren’t going to cut it (the FNW Tiki system with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D we tested in 2022 was returned). I think it’s about time to open the wallet (sigh) and actually buy some parts to avoid incomplete articles like this. But enough complaining!

Bottom line, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a very impressive part, worthy of the accolades, and an example of AMD firing on all cylinders as Intel sputters and stalls.