AMD leak shows Ryzen 9800X3D CPU is 8% faster than 7800X3D in games - this won't go down well

AMD Ryzen 9800X3D leaks just keep on springing - the chip is like a watering can at this point - but the latest one gives us all the juicy details we've been speculating about, performance-wise, in theory straight from the mouth of Team Red.

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The leaked slide in all its glory (Image Credit: VideoCardz)

VideoCardz has turned up a marketing slide from AMD which describes the key points of the Ryzen 9800X3D and that includes the generational gaming boost we'll get, clock speed info, and more.

So, the big one - how much better is the Ryzen 9800X3D going to be compared to the Ryzen 7800X3D for gaming? If this marketing material is genuine, AMD says the new 9800X3D will be 8% faster in PC games (though we don't get to hear the extent of the benchmarking that led to this figure, this is just a headline summary).

AMD describes it as a 'strong' generational boost, but it's going to put the cat among the pigeons for some PC gamers out there. Some of the more optimistic leaks have got folks whispering about 15% to 20%, or even greater gen-on-gen gains for gaming with the Ryzen 9800X3D, and while that did lead to a lot of admonishing for expecting too much, the ideas are very much out there - and 8% will be seen as a definite disappointment.

Prepare for some incoming flak, AMD

We were thinking along the lines of 10%, most likely, ourselves - while hoping it might be more - and to be fair, it's close to that. But 8% somehow sounds distinctly less impressive, doesn't it? Especially with some of the more recent talk about the Ryzen 9800X3D representing the '2nd-generation' of 3D V-Cache, and that 'X3D turbo mode' being set to unleash potential huge boosts.

Interestingly, the turbo mode isn't even mentioned in the slide, but what is mentioned is that the Zen 5 X3D family benefits from "next-generation 3D V-Cache technology" that offers "better thermal performance" than the previous generation, which has allowed the clocks to be pushed up much higher. There'll be 96MB of L3 cache, we're also told.

This is all in-line with previous leaks, and AMD mentions a boost of up to 5.2GHz, as rumored with the 9800X3D (out of the box - the more exciting bit is the CPU can be pushed a lot harder, as we've seen via another piece of spillage). And to be fair, enthusiasts who are really looking to drive their 9800X3D hard can expect some pretty tasty gains.

AMD also trumpets 15% better multi-threaded creative performance levels for the Ryzen 9800X3D compared to its predecessor, and again, this is something we were anticipating based on leaks - and the fact that the boost clock can now be pushed higher with Zen 5 3D V-Cache.

All in all, though, the reality is that there'll be a lot of disappointment around this, or the 8% gaming uplift revelation anyway. But that shouldn't take away from the fact that the Ryzen 9800X3D should still be an excellent gaming CPU. The Ryzen 7800X3D is exactly that already, in fact, and this is 8% better (if this leak, and AMD's benchmarking, is right), which is still impressive - with much better all-round performance, too.

However, with the next-generation 3D V-Cache, sizeable clock speed boosts, and architectural advances for Zen 5, 8% is going to sound pretty hollow to a fair few PC gamers, we're betting. Especially when the 7800X3D was a closing-on-20% leap from the 5800X3D, if you recall.