Review: AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU

For at least the past year, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D has been the best CPU for high-end gaming, and it wasn’t particularly close. Thanks to its additional cache, high boost speed, and refinement over several generations of Ryzen chips that came before, it’s been an easy pick for anyone with the budget looking for the right balance of efficiency and speed.

AMD’s follow-up, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, is technically faster, but you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart when you’re actually gaming. As a result, I don’t see any reason for existing 9800X3D owners to upgrade, but you might as well grab the 9850X3D instead if both are at full price. Regardless of which chip you buy, you’ll be extremely impressed with the performance and ease of use.

The Setup

Photograph: Brad Bourque

When you stack the specs for the chips next to each other, the only difference is a 5.6-GHz max boost clock, compared to the older chip’s 5.2-GHz boost. In reality, it’s likely these are actually the same underlying chip, with AMD “binning” them by testing cores for reliability and speed, then sorting them into SKUs based on how they perform. It’s a common practice, but usually we see it across several SKUs and wider ranges rather than just one small bump late in the release cycle.

The BIOS and chipset drivers weren’t publicly available during review time, so AMD also sent along an Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, a very well equipped motherboard with plenty of dedicated heat sinks and features for overclocking. Also included was a 32-GB dual channel kit of 6000 MHz G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo memory, as well as a Samsung 9100 Pro SSD. The gaming results are using the Nvidia RTX 5080 FE that I reviewed on its release last year. The motherboard might be a little fancier than most folks need, but otherwise I think it represents a pretty reasonable system I’d put together given the CPU.

Photograph: Brad Bourque

With a 360-mm AIO cooler, the Corsair Nautilus 360 RS, the chip was flipping between 79 and 80 degrees Celsius during the most demanding benchmarks, well below any fears of thermal throttling, although definitely on the high side. During mixed use, I was hovering between 59 and 65 °C, so my fans weren’t even working that hard. I imagine most AIO coolers shouldn’t have any issue keeping the heat in check. The good news is that we’re still on the same AM5 socket that AMD has pledged to continue supporting for at least another year, and there are plenty of examples of great motherboards and coolers to go with it.

One big draw for either chip is overclocking, and AMD has continued to make that process as painless and straightforward as possible. Even totally inexperienced overclockers should feel comfortable at least pressing the “Auto” button in Ryzen Master, which will show you the recommended changes, including to your memory speed, walk you through committing them in the OS and BIOS, then restart and run a stress test. There are several presets you can use, as well as a full manual mode, and multiple profiles with sharing support. Ryzen Master has come a long way over the years, and it feels more modern and approachable than Intel’s XTU.

Performance

While the 9850X3D is a gaming chip, it’s worth taking a quick look at some synthetic benchmarks first to see how it stacks up against the 9800X3D. In a Cinebench R23 single-core test, that extra boost clock stands, with the newer chip scoring 2,240 compared to the older chip’s 2,138, just shy of a 5 percent higher result. The multi-core test was even less dramatic, with the 9800X3D at 22,972 and the 9850X3D at 22,982, which is to be expected considering how similar the chips are.

via Brad Bourque

Introducing the gaming side paints a slightly clearer picture. In older 3DMark benchmarks, again using the RTX 5080, the difference in scores was extremely minor, with wider margins in newer benchmarks. Time Spy, for example, saw under a one percent increase, while Speedway was closer to 10 percent.

via Brad Bourque

When it comes to actual gaming benchmarks, there’s a difference, but in practice you aren’t going to notice it. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of my go-to games, because it’s a popular title that’s also quite demanding, and the in-game benchmark means it’s very consistent. At 1440p, with the settings on ultra and ray tracing on, but path tracing off, the 9800X3D delivered 69.61 FPS compared to the 9850X3D’s 71.19 FPS, about a 2 percent difference.

via Brad Bourque

None of the other major games I tested, including Marvel Rivals, Arc Raiders, and Counter-Strike 2, showed any noticeable difference either. Particularly with a matching high-end GPU, we’re talking about a 3 to 4 frames-per-second difference when already over 120 fps. I'm not sure even the most persnickety gamer would be able to tell them apart while actually playing the game. Both are able to easily support 1440p gaming at a high refresh rate, at least when paired with an equally high-end GPU.

If you’re already equipped with a 9800X3D, there’s zero reason to upgrade to the 9850X3D. You simply won’t notice a difference, even in demanding games. As I write this, the 9800X3D is readily available for $470, and the 9850X3D will cost only $30 more at launch. Given the option, and assuming both are at retail, you might as well get the better chip, but a free game or a moderate discount on the older chip would easily win me over. I'd be extremely happy with either processor, and I wouldn't lose sleep over a few fps difference.