AMD declares battle of Ryzen 9950X3D vs 9800X3D for gaming will be a dead heat – so gamers may as well buy the cheaper CPU

An AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D on a desk on top of its retail packaging

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

AMD has been telling us about the gaming performance of the Ryzen 9950X3D
We’re told to expect frame rates that are similar to the 9800X3D
This is despite some nice spec bumps for the as-yet-unreleased flagship for 3D V-Cache

AMD’s flagship 3D V-Cache processor, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, will offer a ‘comparable’ performance for gaming compared to the existing mainstream Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU.

In an interview with VideoGamer, AMD’s Product and Business Development Manager, Martijn Boonstra, said that Team Red expects the Ryzen 9950X3D and its lesser sibling, the 9900X3D, to deliver a “similar overall gaming performance to the 9800X3D.”

In short, there will be some give or take here, with the Ryzen 9 chips being slightly faster in certain scenarios, and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D edging a victory in others.

Boonstra clarified that with those incoming Ryzen 9 CPUs: “There will be some games that perform a bit better (if the game engine utilizes more cores and threads), and some games will perform a little worse (if the game engine favors a 1CCD configuration), but on the whole the experience is comparable.”

The Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D were unveiled at CES 2025 earlier in January, and are expected to be available soon – but pricing is yet to be confirmed. They will, inevitably, be considerably more expensive than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. If you recall, the original MSRP for the 7950X3D was 55% more than the 7800X3D (in the US).

Analysis: An easy choice for gamers, it seems

So, you might be thinking – you only get the same performance from a pricier CPU – what gives with that? Well, remember, this is gaming frame rates we are talking about specifically.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D are designed as dual-use processors, which are excellent for creatives (and can easily cut through other heavyweight tasks), as well as providing great gaming performance. Although given the 3D V-Cache flagship’s spec this time around, some folks might have expected better performance in PC games – though AMD is clearly priming us not to, and this appears to be what this bit of marketing info is all about.

Regarding that spec, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D not only provides 16-cores (and 32-threads), versus the 8-cores (16-threads) of the 9800X3D, but it also has a 5.7GHz boost clock, plus more of that crucial 3D V-Cache (144MB versus 104MB).

However, it seems despite this extra pep, the situation will remain the same as it was with the previous-gen X3D chips, where the 7950X3D and 7800X3D were pretty much the same in terms of gaming performance in the main, give or take a bit. At least, after any CPU configuration gremlins were ironed out, because it’s true that in the past, the 7950X3D could be held back in some situations because it has two CCDs. (This means two separate Core Complex Dies, or chiplets, only one of which has 3D V-Cache – and sometimes a thread for a running game might be shoved over to the second chiplet, causing some latency. This didn’t happen with the 7800X3D as it only has one CCD).

You don’t really need to get into the technical weeds here, though – all you really need to know is what AMD is serving up as a headline here. If you’re gaming, the Ryzen 9800X3D is the CPU for you, purely because it’ll be much more affordable, and gives you about the same performance with PC games as the Ryzen 9950X3D.

However, if you need the best all-round performance, for heavyweight apps as well as gaming, then the Ryzen 9 X3D models are for you. Yes, you’ll pay the price for them no doubt, but it’s likely those initially towering MSRPs will come down considerably as time passes (as happened with the Ryzen 7950X3D).

The other point to consider is right now, the Ryzen 9800X3D remains difficult to find (at or near its MSRP), as it’s very popular. So some PC gamers might look at the new Ryzen 9 3D V-Cache processors when they arrive just so they can pull the trigger on an X3D purchase for their new gaming PC (or upgrade). Depending on where pricing shakes out – as noted, the last-gen flagship’s 55% premium over the Ryzen 7 model represented a pretty steep ask.

Via Tom’s Hardware

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).