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 up to 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.
| 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.
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.
AMD broadly claims the Ryzen 7 9850X3D leads the Ryzen 7 9800X3D by 7% at 1080p, but according to AMD’s own data, you shouldn’t expect a major bump in most games. In Battlefield 6, for instance, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D offers no advantage, and it leads only marginally in F1 25.
Despite the 7% uplift claims AMD made in a meeting with the press, the real-world average may be even lower. As you can see from AMD’s test data, the largest gains come from esports titles like Counter-Strike 2 and Rainbow Six Siege that are especially sensitive to frequency. In other titles, the lead shrinks to a <5% window, with some games posting identical results.
The story is similar in productivity applications, with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D posting the largest leads in frequency-dependent benchmarks like the single-thread tests in Cinebench R24 and Geekbench 6.
For competitive comparisons, AMD claims an average lead of 27% with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D at 1080p over Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K. That’s a smaller lead than expected, as our own CPU benchmark hierarchy currently has the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D sitting 38% ahead of the Core Ultra 9 285K at 1080p. It’s a reminder – though one surprisingly from AMD’s own data – that although 3D V-Cache is very impressive, the benefits of additional cache vary from game to game.
Although AMD’s claims about competitive performance are likely to hold up, the bigger question is how the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will manage to find a foothold with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D still available. Ultimately, it will depend on how prices shake out once the chip is available.
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the fourth X3D chip AMD has released this generation, crowding an already dense lineup even further. Although the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the best CPU for gaming, and the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D earned an elusive Editor’s Choice badge in our review due to its prime mixture of gaming and productivity performance, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D didn’t fare as well. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D, with its close proximity to the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D, may also struggle.
AMD hasn’t shared pricing details for the Ryzen 7 9850X3D yet, but it says the chip will arrive in the first quarter of 2026. Although AMD hasn’t provided a more specific release date, Alienware revealed that a version of the Area-51 Desktop will arrive in February with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D.
In this generation, AMD raised the price of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, with the chip launching at $479 compared to the $449 the previous-gen Ryzen 7 7800X3D released at. You can find the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for around $450 now, so hopefully the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will create downward pressure on prices for its current model. It’s hard to say until AMD reveals the MSRP of its latest X3D CPU, however.
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D slots into existing Socket AM5 motherboards. If you’re socketing the chip into an existing AM5 motherboard, make sure to grab the BIOS image with the latest AGESA before installation. Both 600- and 800-series motherboards support the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, but if you’re using a 600-series board, double-check the compatibility for your specific motherboard. Although the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will technically work with Socket AM5 motherboards with an A-series chipset or the B840 chipset, those chipsets don’t support CPU overclocking.
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