AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review

This is the one we’ve been waiting for: the first true gaming chip of AMD’s new Zen 5 processor range. We all knew this Ryzen 7 9800X3D was coming—back when the Ryzen 9000-series CPUs launched in August there was a notable alphanumeric string missing in the list of Ryzen 9 9950X, Ryzen 9 9900X, and Ryzen 7 9700X. This chip was obvious by its omission, as it was by the performance and reception of the mighty Ryzen 7 7800X3D in the last generation. Thankfully we’ve not had to wait as long to see this new cache-heavy gaming CPU land in our lab, coming hot on the heels of the not-so-popular Zen 5 chips.

The 3D V-Cache feature, a tacked-on extra layer of L3 cache essentially designed to improve gaming performance, has now reached its second-generation stage. And, while that does make the Ryzen 7 9800X3D a much better chip, it might also somewhat devalue its position as the de facto processor if you want peak performance from your PC on all counts.

That’s because we finally know what the “really cool differentiator” that AMD was talking about at Computex actually is. The new design of the 3D cache structure has basically taken away most of the compromising factors of adding in a whole other bit of silicon into the now-traditional chiplet design, effectively removing the raw processing downsides. And that could potentially make one of the other expected second-gen X3D chips the one that we really want.

And now I’m wondering if that’s why we’ve seen the Ryzen 7 9800X3D ahead of either the Ryzen 9 9950X3D or even a rumoured Ryzen 9 9900X3D. Certainly in the Zen 4 generation, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D was the first to land, so it’s interesting to note that’s switched around as we move through the 9000-series releases.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D verdict

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a fantastic gaming CPU, there is no getting away from that. And, right now, it’s absolutely the processor that I would recommend anyone aiming for peak PC gaming frame rates to go for. The heart of the 3D V-Cache feature, in its basic ethos, is largely unchanged from the previous generations: More L3 cache gives better gaming performance in most circumstances, and sometimes considerably more.

The effectiveness of dropping a chunk of extra L3 cache into the CPU package was always known quantity, but what sets this generation apart is the fact that the positioning of the cache layer no longer has the negative impact on clock speeds the first gen implementation had. And that means you get the cumulative benefits of the Zen 5 architecture, 3D V-Cache, and the boosted clock speeds of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D to give it the stellar gaming performance it demonstrates.

And sometimes it really is transformative compared to the nearest Zen 5 competitor. Sure, in heavily GPU-bound titles, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus, we’re only seeing single figure performance bumps, but if you look at games which scale well with higher spec CPUs, such as Baldur’s Gate 3, Homeworld 3, and Factorio you can see a far greater performance uplift.

Where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D also demonstrates a gaming performance uplift over its competition, in my review I described it as: “No jack of all trades, but certainly a master of one, and that’s gaming.” Because of the way the extra 64 MB of L3 cache was attached to the top of the core complex die (CCD) that meant AMD had to limit the clock speeds of the chip’s CPU cores, and that limits the processing power of the first-gen X3D silicon across applications other than gaming.

The new Ryzen 7 9800X3D has none of those limitations and improves on the last-gen chip with increased clock speeds, which gives it a lead in both its gaming performance and in more general processing/productivity tasks. Along with that frame rate lead, it’s also mighty efficient when it comes to gaming, too. If you thought Intel’s new Arrow Lake CPUs were power-sippers when it comes to gaming work loads, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D requires even less power to deliver higher frame rates.

It’s a far more rounded CPU, then, though that will be the same with subsequent Ryzen 9000-series X3D processors. Which is going to make it a question of whether eight cores is enough for your needs. Would you actually rather a 12- or 16-core CPU with the same gaming chops, but the productivity power of the top-end Zen 5 chips?

In the end, I expect for most of us gamers, the answer will be that eight high-performance cores will still be plenty. Which means we’re looking at the new best CPU for gaming right here.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D specs

At this point the AMD Zen 5 architecture is a known ‘beast’. We’ve already covered it in depth—and you can read that detailed breakdown 👆 if you want to know more—but suffice to say the improvements are mostly about tweaking the front end, as AMD’s Mark Papermaster says it’s all about being able “to keep the beast fed”.

What the Ryzen 7 9800X3D does differently to the other Zen 5 CPUs, however, is parachuting in a whole extra silicon layer of L3 cache memory. In fact, that’s what AMD did with the first generations of 3D V-Cache chips—it’s maybe more accurate here to say that it laid the foundations of this X3D processor with a whole extra silicon layer.

The novel change with the Ryzen 9000-series of X3D processors is that the extra slice of cache is no longer laid atop the CCD—the chiplet which houses the processing cores—it is now sat underneath and connected with through silicon vias (TSV) to the cores, giving them access to the extra memory as well as direct contact with the heatspreader and therefore closer contact to the CPU cooler.

This was the issue with previous 3D V-Cache implementations, with it being layered on top it created a bit of insulation between the CPU cooler and the hottest part of the chip: the cores. Those then had to be held back in clock speed terms in order to be stable with its cache hat on.

The 3D V-Cache in the Ryzen 9000-series, however, is put down first with the eight-core Zen 5 chiplet laid on top and allowed to run at essentially its full speed. There might be some limitations down to the CCD’s thinner profile—necessary to maintain cooler compatibility—as the Ryzen 7 9800X3D does have the lowest boost clock of all the 9000-series CPUs, but it’s been given the same 120 W power profile as the Ryzen 9 9900X, and is an unlocked, overclockable processor. That should also mean, under Precision Boost Overdrive, you’ll get more sustained higher clock speeds than lower-power chips, such as the equally octa-core Ryzen 7 9700X.

But what’s that extra chunk of L3 cache good for? Essentially it just gives another bit of close-to-the-CPU memory so that when the processor is dealing with loading in lots of game assets it has a better chance of being able to keep that data within the chip package itself rather than having to dip out into the slower system memory to grab that game data. It’s a similar reason Nvidia has given for boosting the L3 cache on its GPUs as opposed to increasing the pools of slower VRAM.

Other than the extra cache, higher TDP, and thinner CCD, the specs are largely identical to the other Zen 5-based Ryzen 7 processor. It’s essentially the same chip, just with the extra cache and power profile tweaks.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D performance

When it comes to gaming performance, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D has the wins almost across the board. The only outlier comes in the form of the heavily GPU-bound Warhammer III benchmark, which I have seen a strange inconsistency with between my otherwise comparable AMD test rig and Nick’s system he used for testing the other Zen 5 processors. It’s the only game where there is such a disparity, and so feels like one we can kind of ignore as a potential example of an X3D failing.

Otherwise it’s just good news for AMD’s latest and greatest gaming CPU. As noted earlier, other GPU-bound games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, only have single digit percentage increases in average and 1% low frame rates over either the Ryzen 9 9900X or Ryzen 7 9700X.

But in Baldur’s Gate 3, Homeworld 3, and our Factorio benchmark you can see what happens when you get a game that both loves high CPU clock speeds and a ton of extra L3 cache to play with. BG3 sees a 35 – 40% bump, HW 3 nets a 22% frame rate increase, and the Factorio update time drops by more than a half.

From other X3D chips we’ve tested, that’s not a huge surprise, but maybe the level of that increase is.

One thing to note here is that we don’t have any comparable numbers for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D from our updated test suite, as AMD recalled our chip and then briefly lost it in transit while shipping it back for comparative testing. Once that’s been pushed through our current test rig in the next few days, however, we’ll update with the latest numbers.

But, comparing to our original review numbers, in raw processing terms, there’s a 17% increase in single threaded performance and a 29% uplift in multithreaded speeds in Cinebench R23.

That tallies with the increased clock speeds and power envelope of the newer chip, and this extra processing grunt is evident in the comparative CPU performance benchmarks between this new X3D chip and the similarly eight-core Ryzen 7 9700X. On those productivity terms, too, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the more powerful processor.

Obviously, you’re looking at a far greater delta between the eight-core X3D CPU and the 12- or 16-core chips, or even the 24-core Intel Arrow Lake processor, the Core Ultra 9 285K. That’s where the upcoming, more core-happy X3D processors will make their mark when it comes to multi-threaded CPU chops.

Speaking of the Arrow Lake silicon, when we were trying to find some positives around that beleaguered CPU launch it’s efficient gaming performance was at least admirable. Well, that’s gone now. In gaming terms, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a far more efficient processor, posting nearly 50% higher frame rate numbers in the Baldur’s Gate 3 power test, but with both a lower power draw and temperature.

As a final note on performance, these figures here are from a new Gigabyte X870E motherboard provided for testing, but I also ran the Ryzen 7 9800X3D through my standard ASRock X670E Taichi setup, with the same RAM, and the only testing differences were within the realms of general testing variance. So, it’s not like you need the latest chipset to be able to get the most out of the new X3D silicon, as a drop-in upgrade for an existing AM5 setup, it’s good to go, maybe just with a BIOS update.

PC Gamer test rig
Motherboard: Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master | RAM: G.Skill 32 GB DDR5-6000 CAS 30 | Cooler: Corsair H170i Elite Capellix | SSD: 2 TB Crucial T700 | GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 | PSU: Seasonic Prime TX 1600W | Case: DimasTech Mini V2

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D analysis

The improved second-gen 3D V-Cache is something of a double-edged choppy thing when it comes to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D specifically. Sure, it’s allowed AMD to bump the clock speeds, taking away most of the disadvantages of the previous generations, but that has also kinda taken away the thing which made the Ryzen 7 7800X3D the easy recommendation of its generation of X3D processors.

It was a single CCD, and therefore there was no need for Windows to have to pick and choose whether the task it was pumping through the CPU was going to need the extra cache of a X3D chiplet, or the higher clock speed of a non-stacked CCD. This was the issue with the Ryzen 9 7950X3D; it was a more compromised processor. If you’re going for a 16-core chip, you want to be able to use all those cores. When you have half your cores as slow cores and half as faster cores, that gives Windows more work to do figure out where to go than strictly necessary.

Theoretically, that’s not going to be the case with the upcoming Ryzen 9 9900X3D or Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with their respective 12- and 16-core layouts likely running at the same speeds. I would still expect that clock speed to be a little below the non-X3D version, as I expect the thinner CCDs might still have some sort of clock speed compromise to them, even if they are closer to the cooler contact. But AMD could potentially stack both chiplets atop a 64 MB L3 cache slice if it wanted to go big.

Though I kinda doubt they will, if I’m honest.

Even if it’s just under one CCD, though, that could still make an affordable 12-core X3D a mighty tantalising alternative to this eight-core ‘gaming’ processor. Sure, that will only be true for those who might do more than game on their PC, and might actually utilise the faster cores and threads for other creative tasks, but it’s still going to have some of us torn between the two chips.

On the whole, I do think most gamers will be absolutely fine with the eight-core, 16-thread setup. Somewhat perversely, however, that means there’s going to be little benefit to upgrading from a Ryzen 7 7800X3D. There will be performance benefits across the board, but likely not enough to warrant you ripping the old chip out and replacing it with another eight-core processor.

And, though the chip at this time is retailing for a similar price to the $479 the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is going to launch at, I can see that dropping down to around the $350 mark around Black Friday and other sales events, which will still make it a very tempting chip for someone building a value-conscious gaming PC around.

AMD has also said there are no plans to phase out the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, either, with Donny Wolligrowski telling us that he “would expect it in the market for a while.” So, it could be a thorn in the side of the new 3D V-Cache chips for a time yet.

Still, if you’re starting from scratch, then this Zen5 X3D chip is the processor that I would want to build my new gaming PC around.