AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review: Killing the competition

I can tell you that CPU benchmarks have had a rough time. The Ryzen 9000 released in August was a disappointment due to relatively meager performance improvements and a software ecosystem that wasn’t ready yet, while the 285K and 245K released by Intel last month saw significant performance drops compared to the 14th generation – despite There’s a really interesting shift in architecture. Thankfully, AMD comes to the rescue with the Ryzen 9 9800X3D.

As you might expect, the 9800X3D is the fastest gaming CPU we’ve ever tested, but you might no That’s what the expectation is a lot of It’s faster in some games than the 7800X3D, 9700X, and 14900K, and it’s a step forward compared to its X3D predecessor outside of gaming.

What I particularly like about the 9800X3D is that it does something different than the 7800X3D and 5800X3D that came before it. Instead of adding an extra L3 cache above the CCD, AMD placed it below this time, a move that should lower temperatures and increase clock speeds. The result is a chip that’s more versatile than its predecessor, while still delivering game-changing performance that makes the X3D chip worth the wait.

To get a proper grasp of the performance levels on offer, we ran the 9800X3D through 11 gaming benchmarks at 1080p, 1440p and 4K, including some of the most demanding single-player games (Dragon’s Dogma, StarCraft, StarCraft, Cyberpunk”)) and multiplayer (CS2, F1 24) versions. Our power analysis and DDR5 testing also come from our recent Intel Core Ultra 200S review.

Before we dive in, though, it’s worth taking a closer look at the specs here – and whether the changes we saw compared to the 7800X3D and 9700X are reflected in our compositing and content creation benchmarks.

In short, the 9800X3D offers a higher base clock speed and more L3 cache than the 9700X, but it’s also worth noting that the 9700X’s TDP has climbed to 120W, compared to the 9700X’s 65W and optional 105W. The boost speed on the X3D chip is still 300MHz slower, but compared to the 7800X3D it’s clear that the new bot tom V-Cache location brings some nice gains – an increase of 500MHz(!) in terms of base clock, in terms of base clock 200MHz added. to push. For context, we only saw a 100MHz jump in the boost clock when going from the 7700X to the 9700X, so the new design is indeed known.

It’s also the most expensive Ryzen 7 X3D chip ever, with an MSRP of $479, compared to $449 for the 7800X3D and 5800X3D – although (possibly intentional) supply issues mean the 7800X3D is nowhere near as cheap as it once was.

All tests were conducted on a fresh install of Windows 24H2 with the latest chipset drivers, BIOS updates, and Nvidia 565.90 graphics drivers installed (so that we could reuse the extensive data collected for the Core 285K and 245K reviews). Resizable BAR and core isolation are enabled on every system.

Our CPU test platform is based on the Nvidia GeForce Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card and Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 CL30 RAM. Each CPU comes with a 1000W+ power supply from Corsair or NZXT, high-end 240mm or 360mm AiO and a suitable high-quality motherboard: ASRock X670E Taichi for AMD Ryzen 7000 and 9000, MSI Z890 Meg Ace for Intel Core Ultra 200S, The Gigabyte Aorus Z790 Master for 12th and 14th generation Intel Core and the Asus ROG Crosshair 8 Hero for AMD Ryzen 5000 – equipped with Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600 CL16, as this platform does not support DDR5 RAM.

Storage duties are handled by a range of PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 SSDs, including the 4TB Lexar NM790 for our AMD Ryzen 9000 system.

Now, let’s turn to content creation benchmarks to better understand the 9800X3D’s progress over its predecessor. Even if you don’t plan to use the 9800X3D for video production or 3D modeling, tests like these lay out the biggest improvements we’re likely to see in gaming workloads and give you a more comprehensive understanding of all-core performance.

Starting with our Cinebench test results, which include the popular R20 and recent 2024 versions, the 9800X3D shows a small improvement in single-core performance (130 vs 134) and a large increase in multi-core performance (1342 vs 1172). 9700X, most likely due to its higher power limit or additional L3 cache. Note that we tested the 9700X at its stock 65W setting, and although a 105W mode is later available, in our 9700X review we saw that it delivered similar performance to the 9800X3D – 136 single channels, 1280 multi-channels.

An even bigger difference becomes apparent when examining the 9800X3D versus the 7800X3D. Here, single-core scores improved by about 20% and multi-core scores by 25% in both Cinebench versions, which puts the 9800X3D’s score between the eight-core 7700X and the 12-core 7900X, which is not bad.

While Cinebench is designed to reflect 3D modeling and animation tasks in Cinema 4D, our Cinebench tests reflect our real-world use case: transcoding Patreon video files to H.264 and H.265 (HEVC). Here we measured the 9800X3D drawing a healthy 259W of power at full tilt, compared to the 9700X’s max of 191W, but the new CPU also delivered an impressive 59.59fps H.264 and 27.44fps HEVC average transcoding frame rate. Admittedly, this is 15% faster than the 9700X, while using 35% more power.

The comparison with the 7800X3D is also impressive, with a 27 percentage point lead in the HEVC test. We’re still some way off the 12- and 16-core AM5 designs, but it’s still an impressive performance for a gaming-centric segment and a testament to the efficacy of AMD’s new bottom cache design.

Now let’s look at the turkey and Yorkshire pudding we tested, the gaming benchmark. We have 11 games in total.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Analysis

• Introduction, test equipment, and content creation benchmarks [this page]
• Game benchmarks: Dragon’s Dogma 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield
• Game Benchmarks: Flight Simulator 2020, F1 24, Forza Horizon 5
• Game benchmark: “Counter-Strike 2”, “Cyberpunk 2077”, “Crysis 3 Remastered”
• Game Benchmarks: Far Cry 6, Hitman
• Strength analysis: “Counter-Strike 2”, “Far Cry 6”, “Forza Horizon 5”
• RAM Game Benchmark: “Cyberpunk 2077”, “Far Cry 6”, “Flight Simulator 2020”
• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Digital Foundry Verdict