AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review: a gaming dynamo with new, unexpected suprises
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Two-minute review
This generation of processors is a mixed bag at best (and disappointing at worst), so the red team went all out to make sure AMD The Ryzen 7 9800X3D exceeded expectations.
In this regard, the 9800X3D is a huge success, delivering better gaming performance than the 9800X3D. AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D It replaces it, albeit at a slightly higher price of $479/£449.99 (about AU$700). For gamers, though, most are willing to spend a little more to get an average gaming performance boost of about 15%.
The chip is not without flaws, though. It’s not the absolute best gaming processor in terms of frame rates (that title belongs to Intel Core i9-14900K few games, average), but the previous generation Intel While flagships simply increase raw wattage to top it off, AMD’s latest gaming processors use significantly less power to come within 6% of overall gaming performance at the 14900K, a difference that’s very close to the range of variance and test settings Inside, if I were to redo all my tests next week, the 9800X3D would probably beat it outright.
But honestly, it doesn’t need to be. For people who aren’t running creative workloads like video editing, the Intel 14900K is overkill, and the power cost is too high to get the extra 6% in overall gaming performance in synthetic tests. The Ryzen 9800X3D, meanwhile, will give you virtually the same real-world performance at a lower cost, both in terms of MSRP, as well as lower power consumption and indirect savings, such as not having to buy a 360mm AIO cooler to get the most out of the chip .
To that end, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is undoubtedly the best processor For games you can buy right now, it solidifies 3D V-Cache as the second most impressive gaming hardware innovation after AI upgrades, and Intel has no answer for that.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Price and availability
- How much? Its recommended retail price is US$479/£449.99 (approximately AU$700)
- When will it be released? On sale on November 7, 2024
- Where can you get it? You can buy it in the US, UK and Australia
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is available now in the US, UK and Australia, priced at $479 / £449.99 / AU$799 respectively.
That’s a price increase from the Ryzen 7 7800X3D it replaces, which went on sale for $449 / £439 / AU$779. Of course, I’d like to see prices stay the same, but the last generation of chips wasn’t exactly a cheap processor Firstly, both chips are very much aimed at the enthusiast market, and a price increase here isn’t exactly a deal-breaker as long as the performance improvements justify the price increase.
As far as Intel’s current competition goes, performance-wise, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (and Intel Core i9-14900K, for that matter) is $110 / £100 / AU$300 more expensive to get the same gaming performance. As for similar chips, the 9800X3D is about 15-20% more expensive than the competing Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and about 33% more expensive than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X.
Essentially, the 9800X3D is a pro chip aimed at gamers, and while it’s no slouch in terms of performance, at this price it’s really only for those who want the best overall gaming processor and don’t care too much Excellent performance for PC gamers elsewhere. For those who need more than just a gaming chip, other options from AMD and Intel will be better suited for this price.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Specs
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D | AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D |
| price | US$479/£449.99/AU$799 | US$449/£439/AU$779 |
| architecture | AMD Zen 5 (TSMC N4X) | AMD Zen 4 (TSMC N4) |
| core | 8 | 8 |
| Number of threads | 16 | 16 |
| base clock | 4.7GHz | 4.2GHz |
| boost clock | 5.2GHz | 5GHz |
| DDR5 memory support | 5600 MHz | 5200 MHz |
| L3 cache | 96MB | 96MB |
| TDP | 120W | 120W |
| motherboard socket | AM5 | AM5 |
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Features and Chipset
The basic specifications of the 9800X3D are not much different from the 7800X3D. They both feature the same 8-core/16-thread setup as the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, but like the 7800X3D, the 9800X3D has an additional 64MB of L3 cache, while the Ryzen 7 9700X only has 32MB of L3 cache.
The 3D V-Cache in Ryzen 7 9800X3D is redesigned based on the first two generations of AMD X3D chips. AMD calls it the second generation of 3D V-Cache, which fundamentally changes the interface between the 3D V-Cache chip and the main processing chip, solving some of the major problems of the first two generations of X3D chips.
In the first iteration of 3D V-Cache, additional cache chips were stacked on top of the main processing core, but with the second generation V-Cache, the additional cache chips are located below the main chip, allowing the main processing core to Free to connect directly to the CPU cooler.
This is a big deal because the processing core is where all the heat is generated, so having an extra layer of silicon between the processing core and the CPU cooler has a big impact on the chip’s functionality. Heat must be carefully managed, so clock speed must be controlled, and the chip cannot be overclocked.
By moving the 3D V-Cache chip below the main processor core complex, thermal limitations in clock speed and voltage no longer apply, so the 9800X3D is the first 3D V-Cache chip with full overclocking support, available on Ryzen 9000 Same voltage limits as other products in the series product line.
Compared to the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, the 9800X3D benefits from a significantly faster base clock and boost clock speeds out of the box, and overclockers can now tinker with their CPUs without having to worry too much about them damaging the chip (although after overclocking), This is always possible and may void your warranty, so use caution).
Otherwise, the only major change compared to the previous generation is support for faster DDR5 memory, from 5200MHz on the 7800X3D to 5600MHz on the 9800X3D, although both chips support AMD EXPO memory overclocking for faster memory speeds.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Performance
But at the end of the day, all this fancy new technology doesn’t mean much if the chip’s performance doesn’t deliver, and thankfully it does – albeit not universally.
In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D showed very strong single-core performance that was on par with the rest of the Ryzen 9000 series lineup. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D lags significantly behind its Ryzen 7000 siblings due to the need to limit clock speeds to control heat. Ryzen 9800X3D does not have this problem. Likewise, its multi-core performance is not limited and is ahead of the Ryzen 7 9700X across the board.
On the creative side, this isn’t usually something creatives focus on – although there is one exception. If you are a photographer or graphic designer who has done a lot of work in adobe Photoshop Or its replacement, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s extra cache will bring huge benefits to your workflow, even outperforming the Intel Core i9-14900K by several hundred points in PugetBench in Adobe Photoshop.
But for everyone else, this chip won’t do much for you.
On the gaming side, this is where the 9800X3D really shines, albeit with a few caveats. In games where the main CPU bottleneck is game logic, e.g. Total War: Warhammer III or Civilization VIadditional 3D V-Cache will not necessarily help your game performance. In this case, you’re going to want something with the fastest clock to traverse all those AI decision trees or physics calculations before drawing the game frame.
Therefore, Intel’s previous generation (or even current generation) chips have advantages in certain games, such as return (where complex bullet and geometry physics are the main CPU workload) or Total War: Warhammer III (where many individual players need to compute their logic quickly) as these gaming workloads benefit from faster clock speeds.
Where 3D V-Cache really benefits gaming is when data is transferred from the CPU to the GPU, such as texture files or model geometry, and the extra cache memory can keep these smaller but not tiny files in the fastest memory Can hold it. This alleviates the latency introduced when drawing a new game frame, when the CPU has to go back to RAM to get the file because it doesn’t already have the file stored in closer cache memory.
Similar games F1 2023 and Little Tina’s Wonderland Benefit greatly from the additional cache available. For the former, the Ryzen 9800X3D just beat the Intel Core i9-14900K, and for the latter, it was a close second.
All in all, Intel Core has a slight edge given the gaming mix I used to test these chips, but for most people gamerthe processor you’re looking for will most likely be the one that works best with your graphics card in most cases, in which case that will be the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
Overall, performance is on par with best intel processor On average, in gaming workloads, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is already an incredible chip.
But I just can’t accept the fact that the 9800X3D can do this with only 53% of the performance of the Core i9-14900K. Add to that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s impressive single-core and multi-core performance, surprisingly good Photoshop performance, and generation-by-generation performance improvements at very little power or monetary cost, and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is easily the most One of the best processors. The best AMD processors Have done it before.
Should you buy the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D?
| value | While not the most expensive processor out there, it’s not cheap either, and I’m not excited about the price increase. | 4/5 |
| feature | The redesigned second-generation 3D V-Cache delivers higher clock frequencies and unlocks chip overclocking capabilities. | 4/5 |
| Performance | While not all games will benefit from 3D V-Cache, those that do will see significantly better performance at higher quality settings and resolutions. | 5/5 |
| final grade | With better gaming performance, powerful overall performance, overclocking capabilities, and other improvements compared to the previous generation, this is undoubtedly the best processor version this year. | 4.34/5 |
Buy AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D if…
Don’t buy it if…
also consider
- Originally commented November 2024
