AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review: Devastating Gaming Performance 🎮🔥

AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which costs $480, comes equipped with eight cores and 16 threads, along with a new version of the technology 3D V-Cache from the company, which powers games in impressive ways. It is positioned as the fastest processor for gaming on the market, and by a long shot. 🏆

AMD claims this chip is 20% faster than Intel's last flagship and 8% faster than the previous-gen Ryzen 7 7800X3D. However, our testing shows that it outperforms Intel's current flagship, the Core 9 285K, by a staggering 35% on average in our battery of tests. It even beats Intel's fastest gaming chip, the Core i9-14900K, by an equally incredible 30% on average. 🚀

Of course, improvements will vary depending on the title due to the particularities of the technology 3D V-Cache. Still, we recorded a performance incredible that firmly cements the Ryzen 9 9800X3D as the best CPU for gaming. 💪

AMD achieved this feat by leveraging its technology Proven 3D V-Cache, which uses a vertically stacked 64MB L3 cache chiplet to improve gaming performance. To further improve performance, AMD moved the cache chiplet from the top of the processor to the bottom, thereby offering greater thermal headroom. This enables higher clock rates, while the additional cache unlocks the full performance of the Zen 5 architecture. 🔥📈

As we are used to with X3D processors optimized For gaming, not all games will benefit from the technology, and some are even slightly slower (1 to 2%) than the previous generation model. However, the chip significantly improves the low 1% rates even on those titles. Higher low 1% rates will also help when you are limited by the GPU, such as when playing at higher resolutions. 🎯

AMD has now also enabled full overclocking for the 9800X3D, which we have tested, allowing you to squeeze out more performance in both games and desktop work. productivitySpeaking of which, the new design also helps eliminate some of the large productivity penalties that often come with using a gaming-optimized X3D processor, allowing the 9800X3D to match, and sometimes even outperform, a gaming-optimized CPU. Ryzen 9000 octa-core comparable in various productivity workloads. 💻⚡

💥 The Ryzen 9 9800X3D, priced at $480, is AMD’s only release today, and will be available in stores tomorrow. This chip is a salvation for gaming fans 🎮, who faced not one, but two disappointing chip releases this year.

AMD's Ryzen 9000 series, powered by Zen 5, debuted earlier this year with performance gains in gaming unimpressive. However, as you'll see in our recent tests for this review, the latest updates Firmware and a tweak in Windows have managed to squeeze out more performance. Intel also launched its long-awaited Arrow Lake series Core Ultra just two weeks ago, but those chips failed to match the gaming performance of their previous-generation chips. 😟 Unfortunately, there's no obvious solution in sight, which bodes well for a disappointing year for gaming chips.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D completely changes the landscape, bringing to market a premium gaming chip at a reasonable price given its capabilities. This chip fits into existing AM5 motherboards and won't require the expensive add-on components such as high-speed RAM kits, powerful cooling systems, and motherboards needed to extract maximum performance from other chips. range Meanwhile, Intel seems utterly unable to counter AMD's 3D V-Cache technology, even after two and a half years and three generations of chips, since it debuted with the now legendary Ryzen 7 5800X3D. 🔍

Let's take a look at the technology, and then let's move on to the surprisingly good gaming benchmarks. 📈

💻 AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Price and Specifications

He Ryzen 7 9800X3D It features the innovative Zen 5 microarchitecture. Find out more about this technology here. 🧐 This processor is compatible with the Motherboards AM5, and finally AMD partners have the X870E models available on the market. 🎉

The eight-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 9800X3D debuts at $1,480, a $1,430 increase over the launch price of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. 💰 The 9800X3D features a 120W TDP and offers 500 MHz higher base frequencies and 200 MHz higher boost clocks than the previous generation, the Zen 4-powered Ryzen 7 7800X3D. 🚀

The 9800X3D’s 5.2GHz boost is impressive, but it lags behind the direct Zen 5 comparable, the eight-core Ryzen 7 9700X, by 300MHz. However, AMD has compensated with a 900MHz higher base frequency, allowing the 9800X3D to outperform the 9700X in some multi-threaded workloads, as you’ll see in our benchmarks on the following pages. 📊

Like previous generation models, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D does not include a cooler. AMD recommends a cooler liquid of at least 240-280mm (or equivalent). ❄️ The processor maintains the same maximum temperature of 95°C (TjMax), but the new L3 cache chiplet design allows the chip to operate at higher frequencies for longer (improved boost residency), resulting in greater performance gains within the same TDP. 💪

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is fully overclockable: you can adjust the CPU cores, processors, and memory to your liking. While multiplier-based overclocking is available, as we've seen with other Zen 5 processors, most conventionally cooled users will be better off using the Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) auto-overclocking feature. 🔧 We have extensive testing with this feature enabled on the following pages. 🧪

Additionally, AMD has improved memory support to DDR5-5600 from the DDR5-5200 found on the previous-generation 7800X3D. 🖥️

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Architecture

 

In the illustrations above, you can see AMD's original approach with its 3D V-Cache technology. With previous designs leveraging Zen 3 and Zen 4 architectures, AMD stacked an additional chiplet of L3 SRAM directly in the center of the compute chiplet (CCD) to isolate it from the heat-generating cores. 📊 We've covered the details of the first generation of this technology [here](#). AMD used technology Hybrid Bonding to connect the cache chiplet to the underlying compute chip. This increased cache capacity to 96MB, improving performance in latency-sensitive applications such as video games. 🎮

AMD placed the chiplet and several structural silicon pieces on top of the compute chip, but as we demonstrated with thermal throttling tests of the Ryzen processor 9 7950X3D, the cache chiplet and structural silicon wafers acted as a thermal blanket that hindered effective heat transfer, essentially trapping waste heat. 🌡️ As a result, AMD limited the effective voltage and frequency range of the chip equipped with 3D V-Cache to control heat generation. Simply put, the chip was getting too hot and therefore had to run slower. 🐢

 

AMD has now placed the cache chiplet under the die to alleviate thermal challenges, placing the compute die closer to the thermal interface material, IHS, and eventually the CPU cooler. This improves the amount of performance computing that AMD can squeeze out of the 120W TDP envelope, and also improves boost residence/duration. However, this brings a new set of challenges — this design requires AMD to route power and TSV signals for the entire chip through the underlying L3 cache chiplet. 🔥💻

The new L3 cache chiplet is based on the same process node optimized for 7nm SRAM that AMD used in the previous two generations of 3D V-Cache technology, in a technique that AMD now calls its 3D V-Cache technology. “Second Generation 3D V-Cache” (a bit of an odd branding choice, as this is actually the third refinement of the technology.) As before, AMD thins both the L3 cache chiplet and the 4nm compute die (N4P) to meet standard processor package Z-height requirements. 💾🔧

AMD uses the same hybrid copper-to-copper junction with a 9-micron bump pitch to join the two dies together. The chiplet now spans the entire bottom of the compute die, thus eliminating the need for the structural silicon shims. AMD is not sharing the L3 cache chiplet size or transistor density, but the compute die measures 70.6 mm², making it sure bet that's the size of the cache chiplet too.

This is much larger than the 36mm² L3 cache chiplet used for the Zen 4 X3D models, despite the use of the same process node and the same 64MB L3 capacity. AMD likely has a lot of 'empty' silicon in the cache chiplet that is simply there for structural support, without the need to add separate shims. 🛠️📏

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

 

3D V-Cache Technology

Row 0 – Cell 0	“New” 2nd-Gen 7nm 3D V-Cache Die	2nd Gen 7nm 3D V-Cache Die	First-Gen 7nm 3D V-Cache Die	4nm Zen 5 Core Complex Die (CCD)	5nm Zen 4 Core Complex Die (CCD)	7nm Zen 3 Core Complex Die (CCD)
Size	36mm^2	36mm^2	41mm^2	70.6 mm^2	66.3 mm^2	80.7mm^2
Transistor Count	?	~4.7 Billion	4.7 Billion	8.6 billion	6.57 Billion	4.15 Billion
MTr/mm^2 (Transistor Density)	?	~130.6 Million	~114.6 Million	121.81 MTr/mm^2	~99 Million	~51.4 Million

 

🌟 Naturally, AMD has to feed more power and signal through the TSVs on the L3 cache chiplet, which now acts as a sort of interposer, all the way to the compute die. 💡 AMD mentions that the power TSVs are distributed across the SRAM die to feed the compute die. computing which is located above. 🔋 The additional power TSVs are distributed in areas not used for other functions (presumably as more cache storage), which should at least partly explain the larger size. 📈

 

AIDA L3 Cache Latency Measurements — Ryzen 7 9800X3D

Memory Latency – Tom's Hardware	DDR5	CUDIMM DDR5	L3 Latency
Ryzen 7 9800X3D	78.5 ns (DDR5-6000)	n/a	13.2ns
Ryzen 7 7800X3D	73.4 ns (DDR5-6000)	n/a	12.8 ns
Ryzen 7 9700X	69.4 ns (DDR5-6000)	n/a	11.3 ns
Core Ultra 9 285K	94.1 ns (DDR5-5600)	91.9 ns	16.6 / 15.8 ns
Core i9-14900K	79.1 ns (DDR5-5600)	N/A	21.8 ns

 

AMD mentions that accesses to the chiplet L3 cache incurs the same four-cycle penalty as the previous generation. 🕒

We measured an increase in L3 latency of less than a nanosecond compared to the previous generation equipped with 3D V-Cache, such as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which is within the expected variability. 📊

AMD claims that bandwidth between the processing core and the L3 chiplet is similar to the previous generation, at 2.5 TB/s, although bandwidth varies with clock speeds. 📈

Now, access to both the memory Both the primary and I/O must go through the L3 cache chiplet. As can be seen from the measurements above, there is a marked increase in DDR5 latency compared to the standard Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. 🚀

AMD claims there is no increase in I/O latency due to bypassing the cache chiplet. 🛡️ We are looking for more details on this. Naturally, any increase in memory latency is undesirable. However, we expect this to have minimal impact on the performance. performance general thanks to the larger amount of L3 cache which minimizes accesses to main memory in certain scenarios. 🔍