AMD has made a “refined” version of its Ryzen 7 9800X3D – currently the best gaming CPU you can buy – official. The new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the “new fastest gaming processor,” says AMD, with a 400 MHz boost in clock speed over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the same 120W TDP. Overall, AMD claims the Ryzen 7 9850X3D leads its predecessor by an average of 7% in games, but despite such a small gap, the company says the two chips will coexist in its lineup moving forward.
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D doesn’t feature any architectural changes compared to the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D, with AMD describing its improvements “primarily” as a frequency bump. It carries the same eight Zen 5 cores and 16 threads, just clocked higher. The new chip can reach boost clocks of up to 5.6 GHz using the same 120W thermal design as the original model.
Swipe to scroll horizontally Row 0 - Cell 0 Ryzen 7 9850X3D Ryzen 7 9800X3D Ryzen 7 7800X3D Cores / Threads 8 / 16 8 /16 8 / 16 Arch Zen 5, second-gen 3D V-Cache Zen 5, second-gen 3D V-Cache Zen 4, first-gen 3D V-Cache Base Clock * 4.7 GHz 4.2GHz Boost Clock Up to 5.6 GHz Up to 5.2 GHz Up to 5GHz Cache (L2 + L3) 104MB 104MB 104MB Process TSMC 4nm TSMC 4nm TSMC 5nm TDP 120W 120W 120W Socket Socket AM5 Socket AM5 Socket AM5 Supported Chipsets A620, X670E, X670, B650E, B650, X870E, X870, B840, B850 A620, X670E, X670, B650E, B650, X870E, X870, B840, B850 A620, X670E, X670, B650E, B650, X870E, X870, B840, B850 iGPU (CUs) * Radeon Graphics (2 CUs) Radeon Graphics (2 CUs) iGPU Clock * 2.2 GHz 2.2 GHz Street Price (MSRP) * $460 ($480) $395 ($450)
*information not yet provided
The chip also comes with the same 104MB of total cache as its predecessor, 96MB of which is located in the shared L3 cache from which X3D chips get their name. Like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D uses AMD’s second-gen 3D V-Cache that places the SRAM chunk under the compute die instead of on top, giving the core complex direct access to the IHS to ease cooling.
This second-gen X3D design is what allowed the original Ryzen 7 9800X3D to come with official support for multiplier-based overclocking, which is the major hurdle the Ryzen 7 9850X3D faces. With decent thermal headroom on the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D, a moderate overclock is possible on most chips with adequate access to cooling. We’ll have to see if that headroom is enough to make up the gap between the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 7 9850X3D.
(Image credit: AMD)
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D supports the same overclocking features as the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D, so you might be able to push it even higher – assuming there’s enough thermal headroom to do so. You’ll be able to access one-click overclocking with Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO), as well as use Curve Optimizer and Curve Shaper. AMD supports traditional multiplier-based overclocking on the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, too.
(Image credit: AMD)
(Image credit: AMD)
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