In my Ryzen 7 9850X3D review , I called AMD’s latest gaming chip “a 9800X3D in a trench coat.” It was a quip at AMD that, although technically the fastest gaming processor around, the new CPU was only 3.3% faster than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, despite selling for anywhere from $40 to $70 more. It’s a small margin that isn’t worth the extra money, but it’s still a consistent one. Say what you will about the 9850X3D, but it is technically faster than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in games where you aren’t completely bound by the GPU.
But PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) changes that dynamic. For our CPU reviews, we manually disable PBO to keep testing consistent. AMD’s PBO is dynamic and allows the processor to eke out a bit of extra performance when thermal and/or power conditions allow. It’s an uncontrolled variable in our reviews, voids your warranty, and is dependent on silicon and your specific setup, so we leave it off. However, it’s very easy to turn on. And the Ryzen 7 9800X3D with PBO turned on looks an awful lot like the Ryzen 7 9850X3D.
I never expected wonders out of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. It’s identical to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, short of a 400MHz boost in maximum clock speed. It’s possible to hit those kinds of speeds on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, though not without a lot of manual tuning and some luck from the silicon lottery. Unless you’re an overclocking enthusiast with patience and a bit of luck, you shouldn’t expect 5.6GHz out of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, while the Ryzen 7 9850X3D can hit those speeds out of the box.
Although you shouldn’t expect 5.6GHz from the Ryzen 7 9800X3D easily, you can still overclock it with PBO. Turn on PBO, let your motherboard determine the power limits (or turn them off), and add a 200MHz positive manual boost clock override. That’s something just about any Ryzen 7 9800X3D can do, assuming you have a decent CPU cooler . With just an extra 200MHz, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D looks nearly identical to the Ryzen 7 9850X3D in games.
We retested the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and 9850X3D with PBO turned on and a positive 200MHz boost clock override for both CPUs, to see how that impacted gaming performance, efficiency, and clock speeds. In short, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D can make up the thin margin between it and the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. AMD’s latest chip, however, has little to gain from even more clock speed, at least in games.
Before getting into the results, it’s worth reminding everyone that using PBO will void your warranty. We’re technically overclocking here, and that’s not covered by AMD’s warranty. If you’re concerned about that, just buy the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. Look at the extra $40 to $70 as the cost of an extended warranty.
Overclocking the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and 9800X3D with PBO
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
You can do a lot with PBO, and even more if you combine it with tweaking additional settings in your BIOS. I kept everything simple here, mainly because you don’t need to do much to get the Ryzen 7 9800X3D to perform like the Ryzen 7 9850X3D in games. In the BIOS, I turned on PBO to the “Advanced” mode — “Auto” is the default on most motherboards — and set a positive 200MHz boost clock override; the maximum allowed in PBO2. This isn’t a static 200MHz overclock. Rather, it extends the upper bound of PBO to allow up to 200MHz extra if thermal and/or power conditions allow.
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