If you're thinking of jumping on the AMD bandwagon for your next upgrade, now is certainly the right time to do so. Alongside the Ryzen 7 9800X3D which debuted earlier this year, AMD has just released its two higher-end Ryzen 9 siblings in the Zen 5 "X3D" stack: the 9950X3D is available for $699 and the 9900X3D is available for $599. Collectively, these processors represent the best gaming chips across both Intel and AMD. Pure gamers should go with the 9800X3D and allocate their funds elsewhere; creators with deeper pockets and a penchant for gaming will benefit from the immense performance uplift on the new Ryzen 9 processors thanks to their increased core count and cache.
Note: Processors are going in and out of stock (mostly out of stock, unfortunately).
The Creator's Choice: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU
Creative professionals who also want the best gaming chip on the market shouldn't think twice; this is the CPU to get. The new 9950X3D boasts a max boost clock of 5.7GHz with 16 cores, 32 threads, and 144MB of L2-L3 cache. In terms of gaming, it's only a few percentage points better than than the 9800X3D. However, for productivity use, it easily outperforms the other two Zen 5 X3D chips, and anything offered by Intel for that matter.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Review by Jacqueline Thomas
"The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D might be the most powerful gaming processor on the market right now, but that doesn’t mean it has a de facto lead on every other chip on the market. Most people will have no problem getting by with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which just so happens to be much much more affordable at $479. Instead, the 9950X3D is geared towards gamers that both play games and use creative apps like Photoshop and Premiere, the latter of which sees a 15% performance improvement over the 9800X3D. For a pure gaming PC build, though, you’re probably better off saving that extra $220 for a better graphics card."
The Gamer's Choice: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU
AMD's X3D series processors are gaming optimized thanks to AMD's 3D V-Cache technology. However, since all three CPUs have the 3D V-cache loaded onto a single CCD, you get roughly the same gaming performance across all three chips. The minor differences are mostly due to the difference in clock speed. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D boasts a max boost clock of 5.2GHz with 8 cores, 16 threads, and 104MB of L2-L3 cache Although perfectly capable of handling multitasking, rendering, and creation, the limited number of cores means they aren't the ideal processors for those tasks. However, this is an absolute monster of a processor for gaming, especially at this price point.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review by Jacqueline Thomas
"The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is extremely powerful in games, which makes it easier to recommend than other recent processors like the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K or Ryzen 9 9900X. Especially if you’re building a rig with a powerful graphics card, the 9800X3D is going to be the best way to get the most performance out of whichever GPU you pair it with."
The Middleman: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPU
The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is the processor you'd get if you do creative work and like to game, but you have a budget to adhere to and the 9950X3D crosses that line. The new 9900X3D boasts a max boost clock of 5.5GHz with 12 cores, 24 threads, and 140MB of L2-L3 cache. This is the one chip we haven't reviewed yet, but from the specs, it's pretty easy to guess its performance. In terms of productivity tasks and multi-core workloads, it should perform somewhere in between the 9950X3D and 9800X3D. In terms of gaming, we expect it to be a wash compared to the other two.
AMD is on a hot streak with its new CPU and GPUs
If you decided to hold off on Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs to see if AMD's new offerings were up to snuff, then you made the right choice. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards are the new mid-range champions of this generation. Both cards offer phenomenal performance while undercutting their Nvidia competition in price. The Radeon RX 9070 starts at $550 and the 9070 XT starts at $600 (although it turns out that manufacturers are hiking the price again). Chect out our Radeon RX 9070 GPU review and Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU review for our benchmarks.
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