The Ryzen 7 9850X3D claims a new title as the world’s fastest gaming processor, but it lives in the shadow of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, with a higher price, higher power consumption, and only marginal performance gains.
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For close to four years, AMD has enjoyed an annual cadence of reviews claiming its mainstream, eight-core 3D V-Cache processors are the “world’s fastest gaming processor.” And that’s true. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the best gaming CPU you can buy, and it’s not particularly close when looking at the competition from Intel and AMD’s own non-X3D parts. The new Ryzen 7 9850X3D once again claims the crown as the world’s fastest gaming processor, but unlike in years past, where AMD owned that title with overwhelming force, today, it wins by a technicality.
Launching at $499, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D deals in such thin margins that it’s easy to lose it in the shuffle. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched at $479, and you can find it for around $465 now. The 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D is slightly more, with a street price around $560 now, while the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D maintains its halo product status with a going price of around $670.
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is spiritually similar to Intel’s usual KS releases; a binned chip with higher clock speeds that isn’t meant for mass-market appeal. The difference compared to Intel’s KS releases — and the issue with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D more broadly — is that it doesn’t target the same market. It’s not a halo product; AMD already has that with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. And it isn’t a wholly unique entry, offering only marginal gains over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for a marginally more expensive price and significantly higher power consumption.
Swipe to scroll horizontally AMD Ryzen 9000 'Granite Ridge' Pricing and Specifications CPU Street (MSRP) Arch Cores / Threads (P+E) P-Core Base / Boost Clock (GHz) Cache (L2/L3) TDP / PBP or MTP Memory Ryzen 9 9950X3D $675 ($699) Zen 5 X3D 16 / 32 4.3 / 5.7 144 MB (16+128) 170W / 230W DDR5-5600 Ryzen 9 9950X $520 ($599) Zen 5 16 / 32 4.3 / 5.7 80MB (16+64) 170W / 230W DDR5-5600 Ryzen 9 9900X3D $570 ($599) Zen 5 X3D 12 / 24 4.4 / 5.5 140 (12+128) 120W /162W DDR5-5600 Ryzen 7 9850X3D $500 Zen 5 X3D 8 / 16 4.7 / 5.6 104MB (8+96) 120W / 162W DDR5-5600 Ryzen 7 9800X3D $470 ($480) Zen 5 X3D 8 / 16 4.7 / 5.2 104MB (8+96) 120W / 162W DDR5-5600 Ryzen 9 9900X $380 ($469) Zen 5 12 / 24 4.4 / 5.6 76MB (12+64) 65W / 88W / 105W DDR5-5600 Ryzen 7 9700X $289 ($329) Zen 5 8 / 16 3.8 / 5.5 40MB (8+32) Row 6 - Cell 6 Row 6 - Cell 7
Even if prices remain as they are now (and I don’t suspect that’ll happen), it’s hard to conjure a situation where the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a better choice than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. There are some stand-out games where an extra 400MHz on the boost clock speed offers high single-digit performance gains, but in many games and apps, the gains are in the low single-digits, if there’s any performance gain at all. If anything, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D looks like a way to keep the price of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D from slipping further, lest it finally drop below the $450 mark.
Our extensive benchmarking will paint a clear picture of what the Ryzen 7 9850X3D offers, or more importantly, what it doesn’t. We have test results for productivity, gaming, and power in the pages ahead, so without further ado.
Ryzen 7 9850X3D Pricing and Specifications
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is easy to parse because it’s identical to the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D in all but name and clock speed. Like the original model, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D features a single compute die (CCD) with eight Zen 5 cores, with a 96MB chunk of L3 SRAM placed under the CCD. Placing the SRAM under the compute die gives the CCD direct access to the IHS, improving thermal performance and allowing AMD to offer full multiplier-based overclocking, something that wasn’t possible on older 3D V-Cache chips that have the SRAM on top of the compute die. All Zen 5 X3D chips place the SRAM chunk under the CCD.
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