AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Processor Review - All of the gaming goodness without compromise

TweakTown's Rating: 95%

The Bottom Line

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the gaming champion, and unlike previous X3D chips, it performs well under all types of workloads.

Pros

• It's THE gaming CPU
• Strong all-round performance
• Power efficiency
• Full overclocking support

Cons

• $479 for eight cores isn't what you'd call cheap

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications and Pricing

After the launch of the AMD Ryzen 9000 series of CPUs, it was inevitable that we'd see at least one V-cache-equipped Zen 5 chip. That time is here, with the launch of the highly anticipated Ryzen 7 9800X3D. With Intel taking a black eye following public criticism of Arrow Lake's underwhelming gaming performance, AMD sees the 9800X3D as an opportunity to ascend the gaming throne and stay there for the foreseeable future.

The 9800X3D is an 8-core / 16-thread chip built on the Zen 5 architecture. It has an additional 64MB of stacked L3 cache, giving it 96MB in total. On paper, that's the same as the well-received Ryzen 7 7800X3D. However, the 9800X3D is a different beast, as it sees the debut of AMD's second-generation V-cache.

AMD's first-generation V-cache chips, including the 5800X3D and 7800X3D, placed the cache die atop the core complex die (CCD). This led to heat concerns as the cores did not have direct contact with the CPU cooler, which affected previous X3D chips in non-gaming workloads.

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Those concerns are no longer apparent. The 64MB L3 cache die has been reengineered. Now, it's positioned underneath the core complex, giving the CPU cooler direct access to the CPU cores. With heat being less of a concern, AMD was able to increase the base and boost the clock speeds of the 9800X3D significantly. The 9800X3D can now run at frequencies much greater than the 7800X3D, giving it a substantial performance boost. The result is a chip with all of the gaming goodness we've come to expect from X3D chips but with few compromises.

The 9800X3D can be considered a 9700X with a higher TDP, higher clock speeds, and more L3 cache. A 120W TDP is still very competitive, and even taking into account the 162W PPT limit, it's still far less than what we got used to with runaway PL2 levels from the higher tier 13th and 14th Gen chips.

The 9800X3D has a base clock of 4.7GHz and a boost clock of 5.2GHz. That's 500MHz and 200MHz higher than the 7800X3D and 900MHz higher but 300MHz lower than the 9700X, respectively. That should allow the 9800X3D to outperform both chips significantly in heavily threaded workloads. But seeing the 9800X3D's boost clock at just 5.2GHz appears to be conservative.

In addition to higher clock speeds, the other significant 9800X3D update is the ability to manually overclock via the multiplier. The 5800X3D and 7800X3D had untapped potential beyond their default settings, and that barrier is now removed.

The 9800X3D is drop-in compatible with all AM5 motherboards after a BIOS update. That gives AMD an advantage over Intel's Core Ultra 200S series when it comes to overall platform cost. Of course, those upgrading from older systems will still require the purchase of a new motherboard and memory, but AM5 is now well established, and affordable B650 and even A620 motherboards are compatible with the 9800X3D. AM5 has the advantage of guaranteed support from AMD for at least another two years, whereas Intel has not confirmed whether its next-generation desktop CPUs will be compatible with LGA 1851.

Currently, there is no word on whether we'll see more Ryzen 9000X3D CPUs, but given the staggered launch of X3D chips from previous generations, it's likely we will see other SKUs at some point. Given the 9800X3D's clock speed uplift, a 9950X3D with dual V-cache tiles could be quite the monster all-around CPU, while a 9600X3D would surely be a favorite among more budget-conscious gamers.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D's MSRP is $479 US, $30 higher than the original 7800X3D launch price.

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The Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Test System

Ryzen 7 9800X3D

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The 9800X3D's package is similar to that of the 7800X3D. It's not a large package, as desktop Ryzen CPUs no longer ship with a cooler.

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Is it even possible to describe a CPU as good-looking? There is some intangible badass look about it. Maybe I've been doing this for too long.

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The backside offers 1718 socket pads, the same as all AM5 CPUs.

Test System

The key components of our test system were an ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 2x16GB DDR5-6000, and an MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super graphics card.

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero - Buy from Amazon
• GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux - Buy from Amazon
• OS Storage: Teamgroup T-Force Z540 2TB - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex Titanium 850W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro - Buy from Amazon

Benchmarks - Rendering and Encoding

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench is a long-standing render benchmark that Intel and AMD have relied on to showcase their newest platforms during unveilings. The benchmark has two tests: a single-core workload that utilizes one thread, or 1T, and a multi-threaded test that uses all threads, or nT, of a tested CPU.

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The nT Cinebench test shows just how much the 9800X3D benefits over the power-limited 9700X. It's 15% faster. Compare that to the regression experienced by the 7800X3D over the admittedly less power-constrained 7700X.

Blender

A rendering application like Blender is just one of many reasons a user will consider a high-core-count CPU. We use the Whitelands demo file and record how long it takes to render the image.

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A rendering time of 839 seconds is another solid improvement over AMD's other 8-core chips. Of course, if you're doing lots of rendering and encoding, you'll want more cores or a powerful GPU. Rendering and encoding are also Arrow Lake's strengths. Still, it's good to see the 9800X3D can no longer be considered a one-trick pony.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a simple-to-use video encoding and transcoding application. Here, we convert a 4K movie trailer to 1080p. The results below show the average FPS, where a higher result means the task will take less time to complete.

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Again, the 9800X3D's base clock advantage comes to the fore, as it easily outperforms the 9700X. Again, for all the talk about Arrow Lake being lackluster, even the 245K is very strong in encoding and rendering tasks.

Benchmarks - File Compression and Memory Latency

7Zip

7Zip is a commonly used free file compression and decompression app. It's susceptible to memory speed and latency changes and scales with the number of CPU threads.

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It's another solid result for the 9800X3D. Not bad at all for a 16-thread chip.

AIDA64 Memory Latency

Memory latency is an area that's traditionally favored Intel and its monolithic designs. AMD's chiplet architecture and the Infinity Fabric link inevitably add some latency in comparison. A nanosecond or two here or there is not noticeable, but more significant margins, particularly when the memory is frequently accessed, will result in more undesirable and cumulative idle cycles.

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This is a curious result. Though the 9800X3D's memory latency is nowhere near as high as that of the 285K and 245K, it is behind that of the other 9000 series chips, and notably the 7800X3D. However, its overall performance seems to be offset by higher clock speeds. Memory latency can significantly impact gaming performance, but it matters less due to that voluminous L3 cache. Fewer memory accesses are what V-Cache was designed for.

Benchmarks - PCMark and 3DMark

PCMark 10 Productivity

We'd love to use our PCs purely for leisure, but some of us have to work, too! The PCMark 10 productivity test performs a series of tests using office productivity applications.

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This is another curious result. Some of the subtests are more memory agnostic than others, and it's likely that these subtests do not benefit from the extra cache. The 9900X and 9950X's higher clock speeds also give them a leg up.

3DMark Time Spy Extreme

Time Spy Extreme is losing favor as a graphics benchmark in favor of Speed Way and Steel Nomad, but its CPU test is still a good measure of multi-core performance.

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The Time Spy Extreme CPU test shows a solid improvement for the 9800X3D over the 7700X and 7800X3D.

Benchmarks - Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is brutal on graphics cards, but when things like ray tracing are removed, it becomes more sensitive to CPU and memory performance differences.

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Here, our RTX 4070 Ti Super is still quite GPU bottlenecked. It serves as an example of how virtually all modern CPUs are sufficient for gaming in such scenarios. Still, a little bit of CPU grunt makes enough difference to put the 9800X3D at the top of the list. The minimum frame rate looks good too.

Far Cry 6

Far Cry 6 is an example of a game that exhibits CPU bottlenecking with powerful graphics cards.

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Bang! The 9800X3D is miles ahead.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn can achieve high frame rates with powerful graphics cards when using the' favor performance' preset.

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Horizon Zero Dawn loves cache. The 9800X3D is well in front again.

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition

Metro Exodus received an update that improved DLSS support, enhanced ray tracing features, and variable rate shading, among other things. Still, with a powerful graphics card, it is affected by CPU and memory performance at 1080p, though less so with a card like the RTX 4070 Ti Super.

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It's becoming clear that the 9800X3D is a gaming monster.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

I'm a big fan of the Borderlands series and really enjoyed playing Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. At 1080p with the high preset, our RTX 4070 Ti Super still somewhat limits it, so the differences here are not as large as you'd see with an RTX 4090.

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The difference from top to bottom here isn't as dramatic as some of the other games we tested, but the 9800X3D still leads the pack. The 1% low result is a different story. It's much better.

F1 22

F1 22 is not a particularly demanding title, and it doesn't need a high-end graphics card to enjoy smooth frame rates. We tested at 1080p with high settings.

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The 9800X3D is again at the top of the list, making it six from six. Though we can't test 100 games, we're not going out on a limb by saying the 9800X3D is the best gaming CPU you can buy right now.

Benchmarks - Power Consumption and Temperatures

Power

The 9800X3D has a 120W TDP and 162W maximum socket power (PPT) limit. It's impressive that AMD could increase the base and boost clocks of the 9800X3D without resorting to crazy power levels. Intel's 13th and 14th Gen CPUs were on the wrong power consumption trajectory, though their idle power consumption characteristics were underrated.

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Though the peak result doesn't provide the full context of a CPU's efficiency under a variety of workloads, a full load reading of 150W is a good result for the 9800X3D, considering its strong performance.

Temperatures

It goes without saying that temperature results heavily depend on your cooler's capabilities, case airflow, and ambient temperature. We aim to maintain a constant ambient temperature of 22 degrees Celsius for temperature testing.

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A peak temperature reading of 83 degrees isn't what you'd call a stellar result, especially when compared to the thrifty 9700X, but it's still well within the capabilities of decent coolers. Stacked dies inevitably add heat, but given the 9800X3D's much higher clock speeds compared to the 7800X3D, an extra eight degrees is not unexpected.

Final Thoughts

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a gaming powerhouse with none of the weaknesses of prior X3D chips. It delivers the excellent gaming performance we've come to expect, but its high clock speeds mean it doesn't give up performance in non-gaming applications.

When it comes to gaming, X3D chips have tended to be a bit hit-and-miss, depending on the game. Many didn't benefit from the extra cache, while some performed better with higher clock speeds. To use a cliché, now you can have your cake and eat it too. The 9800X3D's 500MHz boost clock uplift over the 7800X3D, and the IPC gains from the Zen 5 architecture mean it's a gaming monster across the board.

The 9800X3D is equipped with second-generation V-cache. The repositioning of the cache die under the CCD means it's easier to dissipate heat than prior X3D chips. AMD will now let you overclock it just like all the other 9000 series CPUs, so even if the boost clock is a little conservative compared to the 9700X, it can be manually increased. Enthusiasts will love that.

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Gaming aside, the 9800X3D leaves the power-constrained 9700X in its wake under heavy loads thanks to a massive 900MHz increase in the base clock. Even though its maximum boost clock is still 300MHz lower than that of the 9700X, the latter cannot hold high all-core boost clocks under heavy loads. The 9700X's advantage is only slight under lightly threaded loads. We see it in the Cinebench single thread and PC Mark productivity test results. That's the 9800X3D's only noteworthy handicap, but it will matter little, given its strengths.

The 9800X3D's TDP is higher at 120W vs. 65W for the 9700X. Its maximum socket power of 162W is still a historically competitive number and one we're sure gamers won't mind. The 9800X3D is not the coolest running chip, but it's acceptable compared to Intel's 14th-generation chips and AMD's own 7000 series chips.

The 9800X3D's MSRP of $479 is $30 higher than the 7800X3D's launch price, but a check at Amazon shows the 7800X3D has actually increased to around $479 since it was released in April 2023. In contrast, the 7700X has seen significant price cuts. It can be found for under $330. A $150 price premium over the 7700X is substantial, but for gamers looking for the best gaming CPU on the market, it's a price many will pay.

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In conclusion, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is in a class of its own when it comes to gaming. However, it's important to remember that its benefits will only apply to those using high-end graphics cards or if you're looking to push hundreds of FPS in competitive shooters. Beyond gaming, it's a strong all-rounder, too. That couldn't be said of prior X3D chips, which gave up too much performance outside gaming.

Intel's 13th and 14th Gen chips remain viable gaming options. Arrow Lake chips are far less impressive in that regard, though they excel in creative and heavily threaded tasks. Which chip or platform you opt for will depend on various factors, including your budget, partnering components, and workloads. There's no substitute for more cores when it comes to creativity tasks. A 285K or 9950X are better options (albeit more expensive) under those kinds of loads.

Never mind that noise. If you're a gamer first and foremost and want a highly capable multi-tasking chip as a bonus, the 9800X3D is the best chip there is.