AMD's X3D chips reign supreme as the most coveted gaming chips on the market, so when a new CPU launches from team red that takes advantage of their innovative 3D V-cache technology, it tends to be a big deal. We were excited at the Fierce office to hear about the launch of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D.

The basic stats of the new processor boast 8 cores, 16 threads, 5.6GHz boost clock speed, 104MB Cache (96MB L3 cache), 120W TDP and utilising the AM5 socket and supporting DDR5 RAM.

AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D

With the 9800X3D holding the current title as the best, dedicated gaming CPU you can buy, the 9850X3D feels like it has a lot to live up to. Although on the face of it, the difference between the two chips seems minimal (a .4 GHz difference in boost clock speed), AMD are claiming a 7% uplift in gaming performance for the 9850X3D over the 9800X3D.

AMD have also claimed that the 9850X3D will deliver excellent productivity gains too, potentially outperforming the Core Ultra 9 285K in certain productivity workloads.

9850X3D9800X3D9900X3D9950X3D
CPU cores881216
Threads16162432
Base Clock Speed4.7GHz4.7GHz4.4GHz4.3GHz
Max Boost Speed5.6GHz5.2GHz5.5GHz5.7GHz
L2 Cache8MB8MB12MB16MB
L3 Cache96MB96MB128MB128MB
TDP120W120W120W170W

We were able to get hands on with the 9850X3D ahead of the launch, benchmarking it in some of our favourite, demanding games and it's fair to say, it's FPS, in-game performance is impressive as you can see in our playtesting videos below:

Who is the 9850X3D for?

The 9850X3D is for gamers who want ultimate gaming performance. Whilst the 9900X3D and 9950X3D are both phenomenal gaming chips in their own right, they also make for excellent productivity system options, but if you aren't streaming, editing or content creating, then you probably want to consider the 9800X3D or 9850X3D and compare them against something like the Ryzen 7 9700X. You'll also get best results if you're pairing this CPU with a high-end graphics card, something like Nvidia's 5080 or 5090, so you'll want to factor that into your budgeting for a system. It also makes a great upgrade option if you're already on the AM5 platform but using an older 7000 series processor, and have been looking to make the move to something to newer. Overall, if you're in the market for a powerful gaming PC and your budget stretches to the 9850X3D, you won't be disappointed in its out-of-the-box performance.

EXPRESS | FIERCE OPULENCE GAMING PC | AMD RYZEN 7 9850X3D | NVIDIA RTX 5080 16GB

  • Lian Li Lancool 217 Wooden Frame PC Case
  • AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D Octa-Core Processor
  • CORSAIR NAUTILUS 240 RS 240mm AIO Liquid CPU cooler - Black
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 16GB Graphics Card
  • 32GB (2 x 16GB) 6000MHz DDR5 RAM
  • 2TB WD Green SN3000 M.2 NVMe Gen 4 M.2 SSD
  • Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX Motherboard
  • 850W Contour GPG850S ATX 3.1, PCIe 5.1 PSU
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