Processors

At CES 2026, AMD formally announced the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU for PC gamers, pushing the clock speed up to 5.6 GHz, a notable increase over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 5.2 GHz. Naturally, it also features AMD's 3D V-Cache technology, which has proven to be highly effective at boosting gaming performance.

During our time with AMD at CES, we got a closer look at the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, literally, as we saw a delidded version of what looks to be a retail-ready sample of the CPU. Per our image above, you can also see the single CCD below the central I/O die.

As for the underlying hardware, it features 8 Zen 5 cores with 104 MB of cache. The TDP rating remains the same as the baseline Radeon 7 9800X3D model at 120W. Based on the company's internal benchmarks, the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is about 27% faster at 1080p gaming than the Intel Core Ultra 285K.

AMD has officially unveiled the new replacement for the best-in-slot gaming CPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, as the company has unveiled a new selection of CPUs at CES 2026.

The CPU AMD is now putting forward as its fastest gaming-focused CPU to date is the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a refresh of the Zen 5 architecture that comes with very similar specifications when directly compared to the 9800X3D, but with performance metrics that exceed it. According to AMD the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a 8-core 16 thread CPU that features a 5.6GHz boost clock, 104MB cache (L2 + L3), and a 120 TDP.

The only difference between the 9850X3D and its predecessor is the boost clock total, with the 9850X3D being 0.4GHz faster than the 9800X3D's maximum boost clock of 5.2GHz. The remaining specifications are exactly the same, but given the increase in boost clock we can expect modest gains across both single and multithreaded tasks. Leaked performance testing between the two CPUs indicates an approximate 5% performance gain with the 9850X3D.

AMD has just introduced its new Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor at CES 2026, offering up to 60% more gaming performance than Intel's far more power-hungry Core Ultra 9 285K.

The new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is now the (new) fastest gaming processor on the planet, with AMD also announcing the best gaming and creation processor -- the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D. AMD provided some in-house benchmarking comparing its new Ryzen 7 9850X3D against the Core Ultra 9 285K, where it comes out on top across the board.

The 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 5 processing power comes with a beefier 5.6GHz CPU boost clock speed, the same 104MB of L2+L3 cache and 120W TDP, and on the current AM5 socket. The biggest difference between the 9800X3D and 9850X3D is the clock speed increase (5.2GHz versus 5.6GHz) giving it an even bigger edge over the 285K.

When it comes to picking up a CPU purely for PC gaming, AMD's Zen 5-powered Ryzen 7 9800X3D with its 3D V-Cache technology is widely considered the best choice if all you're looking for is maximizing your frames. Well, at CES 2026, AMD has officially confirmed that the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is coming, and it will indeed be faster than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

The configuration for the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D remains virtually the same, aside from the CPU Boost Clock increasing to 5.6 GHz from 5.2 GHz on the baseline Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The rest of the specs remain unchanged, as the CPU still sports 8 Zen Cores with 16 Threads, 104MB of cache, and a 120W TDP rating.

As part of its CES 2026 presentation, AMD confirmed that the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is on track for a Q1 2026 release; however, no pricing was given. That said, we should expect it to launch with a higher price than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's $479 USD MSRP.

AMD has kicked off CES 2026 by pulling the curtain back on a new family of processors designed to power the ambitious exponentially evolving future of artificial intelligence software.

Team Red gave details on the new AMD Ryzen AI Max and AI Max Pro series processors, which will be coming in the form of five SKUs. At the top of the list is the AMD Ryzen AI Max+, which sports 16 cores 32 threads with up to 5.1 GHz max boost clocks, 80MB of cache, 50 peak TOPS, 40 graphics cores, and 60 TFLOPS. The Max+ will be coming in three SKUs, the 395, 392, and 388.

The Ryzen AI Max has two SKUs, the 390 and 385, with the 390 being the beefier out of the two with 12 cores and 24 threads, a boost clock of 5.0GHz, 50 TOPS, 32 graphics cores, and 48 GPU TFLOPS. AMD is also touting the Max+ series of the processors to have 1.4x faster AI performance in tokens per second, 1.8x faster at multitasking, 1.8x faster at content creation, and 1.6x faster at gaming.

At CES 2026, AMD announced a new lineup of client processors, including the Ryzen AI 400 Series, which will power a wide range of laptops and even desktops this year. Building on the success of the Ryzen AI 300 Series, these CPU, GPU, and NPU chips are Copilot+ and AMD ROCm-ready with the integrated AMD XDNA 2 NPU offering up to 60 AI TOPS of performance.

The 60 AI TOPS is only available in the flagship Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 model, which includes 12 Zen 5 Cores with 24 Threads, a Max Boost clock speed of 5.2 GHz, 36MB of Cache, and 16 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units. AMD notes that the integrated Radeon GPU features an impressive GPU Boost Clock speed of 3.1 GHz, which should deliver faster gaming performance than previous generations.

As part of its announcement, AMD provided benchmark results and performance comparisons between the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (which is also a 12 Core 24 Thread processor but with 55 TOPs) and the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V running at an efficient 30W.

Intel's new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs were unveiled at CES 2026 today, the first AI PC processors fabbed on its new in-house Intel 18A process node, designed and manufactured on American soil.

The new Panther Lake CPUs are a big moment for Intel in many ways, with one of the major ones being that Intel Foundry fabbed the new Core Ultra Series 3 processors on US soil, a big win for the semiconductor arm of Intel against TSMC. The new Intel 18A process is the most advanced semiconductor process ever developed and manufactured in the United States.

The compute die, which houses the CPU and NPU, is fabbed on Intel 18A, but the IO and GPU aren't -- they're either fabbed on TSMC or possibly on the Intel 3 process node (especially for lower-tier SKUs). This detail was released through leaks in October 2025, but now Panther Lake is (nearly) officially here.

Intel has launched its new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026, packed with its heavily upgraded Arc B390 integrated GPU that provides RTX 4050 levels of gaming performance.

The new Arc B390 inside of the new Panther Lake CPUs is providing up to 77% more gaming performance over the integrated GPU inside of the Core Ultra 9 288V "Lunar Lake" CPU, and up to 53% faster AI versus the 288V.

The first foray for Intel's new GPU architecture is the Arc B390 inside Panther Lake, with the flagship Arc B390 providing some rather kick ass performance over its predecessors, and more importantly, its competitors.

Intel has officially released its new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026, its first processors fabbed on its in-house Intel 18A process node, designed and manufactured on American soil.

The new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors will be powering over 200 designs from its partners, with Intel saying that its new Panther Lake CPUs will be the "most broadly adopted and globally available AI PC platform Intel has ever delivered".

Intel's new Core Ultra Series 3 mobile processors will include new Core Ultra X9 and Core Ultra X7 processors with powerful CPU and GPU performance.

Intel will reportedly have four SKUs of next-gen desktop Nova Lake CPUs with bLLC (Big Last Level Cache) with differing core counts, ready to fight AMD's super-popular X3D processors.

The flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 series "Nova Lake" CPU for the desktop will feature up to 52 cores and 288MB of bLLC cache, while the Core Ultra 7 chip will feature up to 28 cores and 144MB of bLLC cache. It wasn't long ago that we were reporting on leaks that only Intel's new unlocked K-series Nova Lake desktop CPUs in the "Core Ultra 400S" family would feature bLLC cache.

In new rumors from @Haze2K1, we're hearing that Intel will have four SKUs with bLLC but one of them will feature a different core configuration. The four SKUs in question will feature two dual compute tile models which will be part of the Core Ultra 9 family, and two single compute tiles that will be ready for the Core Ultra 7 family.

AMD will be launching its next-gen Zen 6 CPUs next year, but after that -- and after Zen 7 -- we've got the new Zen 8 and Zen 9 processors that some juicy new leaks have just provided us with purported codenames of AMD's future-gen Zen chips.

In a new video from leaker Moore's Law is Dead, we're hearing that Zen 8 is codenamed "Penelope" and Zen 9 is codenamed "Nemesis" and that both new CPU architectures will be on AMD's next-gen AM6 socket. AMD's upcoming Zen 6 processors will debut on AM5 extending the lifespan of current motherboards, while Zen 7 is also expected to debut on AM5 before AMD moves onto the newer AM6 socket for Zen 8 and Zen 9.

We should expect to see Zen 8 and Zen 9 processors launching sometime 2029-2030 and 2032-2033, respectively, both on the new AM6 socket and we should also see PCIe Gen6 and DDR6 memory support, but hopefully the DRAM shortage has worked its way out of the system by then.

Samsung Foundry is reportedly close to securing a deal to fab Intel 8nm PCH chips, which would be another important semiconductor contract win for the South Korean giant.

In a new report from Korean media outlet Hankyung picked up by analyst @Jukan on X, we're hearing that Samsung Foundry is "on the verge" of securing an order for Intel's 8nm chips (PCH or Platform Controller Hub). Full-scale production is expected to kick off next year, with the PCH being a semiconductor that supports the CPU by handling functions like information input/output and device controls inside of computers including PCs and servers.

Intel has reportedly migrated (scaled down) the PCH -- previously fabbed at Samsung's 14nm foundry lines in Austin, Texas -- to an 8nm process, deciding to trust Samsung with semiconductor production again. Samsung Foundry's 8nm production line located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, so PCH production would take place on South Korean soil once again.

Samsung Foundry is reportedly in discussions with AMD to fab its next-gen EPYC "Venice" CPUs on its new 2nm (SF2) process node.

In a new report from Korean media outlet SEdaily, we're hearing that after Samsung Foundry's recent discussions and semiconductor deals with tech giants Tesla and Apple, the South Korean semiconductor giant is looking to secure AMD as a customer on its new SF2 process node.

It's disclosed that Samsung Foundry and AMD are working together on a "next-generation" CPU that is believed to be AMD's next-gen EPYC "Venice" CPUs. SEdaily reports: "the two companies plan to finalize the contract around January of next year after evaluating whether the process can actually achieve the performance level AMD demands. However, the industry believes that production is likely".

Samsung's next-gen in-house Exynos 2600 processor will only be found inside of the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus smartphones sold in South Korea, with Qualcomm handling the rest -- as well as Samsung's next-gen flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra.

In a new report from DigiTimes, we're hearing that Samsung will only use its Exynos 2600 processor in its home market of South Korea, with the report stating that there are yield issues, existing contracts with Qualcomm to use its latest Snapdragon SoC, and residual perception issues with customers all culminating in limiting how much the Exynos 2600 is used inside of its new smartphones.

Samsung is fabbing its new Exynos 2600 processor on its in-house 2nm GAA process node, with the new SoC already in production, but it seems that its use will be super-limited to just the South Korean market. Qualcomm management said during its recent earnings call that it expected to maintain its new 75% baseline share with Samsung for its next-gen Galaxy S26 family of smartphones.

Intel's new flagship Core Ultra X9 388H "Panther Lake" CPU has hit Geekbench 6, where we get some early leaked performance numbers out of the flagship Panther Lake processor.

The new Intel Core Ultra X9 388H processor scores 3057 points in the single-core test of Geekbench 6, and 17,687 points in the multi-core tests. This is a great score when compared against the current-generation flagship Core Ultra 9 285H "Lunar Lake" processor, and it can easily battle AMD's flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU.

AMD's powerful Strix Halo APU has a TDP range of between 45W and 120W, with a default 55W TDP, while the Core Ultra X9 388H has a default TDP of 45W (with an unknown TDP range for now, more details @ CES 2026), but the 285H it will succeed has a 45W to 115W TDP range.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7 9850X3D refreshed processor has been spotted in the wild, running some super-fast DDR5-9800 memory.

The new 9850X3D will retain the 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 5-based CPU power that the 9800X3D has, but with 400MHz more clock speeds @ 5.6GHz over the 9800X3D. It retains its 120W TDP and 96MB of L3 cache, too. This is something we already know, but the new screenshot of the 9850X3D running DDR5-9800 memory is quite exciting.

AMD launched the Ryzen 9000 series CPUs with official support for DDR5-5600 memory, but the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is capable of running DDR5 memory at an incredible 9800 MT/s, meaning AMD is most likely using higher-binned IODs (I/O die) and is ready to have a big battle with Intel and its upcoming "Arrow Lake Refresh" CPUs in 2026, as well as the next-gen Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake" CPUs in late-2026.

AMD's upcoming refreshed Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor performance has leaked out again, with 5% more performance than the 9800X3D, and 20% more performance than the Zen 4-based 7800X3D in new PassMark testing.

The new 9850X3D will retain the 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 5-based CPU power that the 9800X3D has, but with 400MHz more clock speeds @ 5.6GHz, over the 9800X3D. It retains its 120W TDP and 96MB of L3 cache, too. In new PassMark testing, AMD's new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is 5% faster in both single-core and multi-core PassMark tests over the 9800X3D, while it's a much bigger 20% faster than the 7800X3D.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor will be a fantastic upgrade for those continuing on the AM5 platform from a CPU like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, as you'll enjoy higher clock speeds, more performance, and second-generation 3D V-Cache. If you're using the 9800X3D then you will want to skip this upgrade, and maybe fly up to the unreleased Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor in 2026 with dual X3D cache stacks (and 16C/32T of power).

Intel could be fabbing the chips that will go into Apple's new iPhone 21 smartphone in 2028, extending its partnership with Apple beyond just Mac processors.

In a recent report from insider Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that Intel has signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Apple to use its new Intel 18A-P process node, GF Securities analysts Jeff Pu and Evan Lee reiterate their expectation that Intel will indeed make Apple M-series chips on its new 18A-P process node starting in 2027.

However, the GF Securities analysts are now looking further out, predicting that Intel's momentum will continue with a win for Apple's "non-Pro smartphone SoC" in 2028. These new chips would be fabbed on the Intel 14A process node, with the firm expecting "firm visibility" on this huge deal by the end of 2025.

Samsung has posted a new teaser for its Exynos 2600 mobile processor, with the company saying its next-gen Exynos 2600 has been "Refined at the Core". Check out the teaser trailer:

Samsung's next-gen Exynos 2600 processor has been not just "Refined at the Core", but it has been "optimized at every level" and "the next Exynos is coming. It's time to express the exceptional. Coming soon". Personally, I really don't like the PR crap these companies push out, and Samsung isn't the only one, Qualcomm does it massively, AMD, Intel, all of them.

However, underneath... Samsung's next-gen Exynos 2600 processor is being fabbed on the company's new in-house 2nm GAA "SF2" process node. Samsung's new Galaxy S26 smartphones in 2026 will feature the new Exynos 2600 processor, but only the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus variants, while the flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

AMD's rumored Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor looks to be real given that it has been accidentally listed ahead of its release by Team Red.

Of course, that launch remains theoretical until we actually get official confirmation of the Ryzen 9850X3D, but as Olrak highlighted on X (via VideoCardz), there's an entry for drivers and downloads pertaining to this 3D V-Cache CPU on AMD's French website.

It'd be unlikely for this mistake to happen if AMD wasn't planning on wheeling out the Ryzen 9850X3D soon, but we still can't take this as cast-iron proof that the processor is waiting in the wings.