The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D release date has been officially announced, along with the price and specs of the new chip. This eight-core gaming CPU is the first new Ryzen 9000X3D chip to be released, picking up from where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D left off, and our testing shows that it’s massively quicker than Intel’s new Arrow Lake chips in games.
As we just found in our new 9800X3D review, this new AMD chip delivers as promised, making it the best gaming CPU you can buy right now. The new 9800X3D not only has a faster clock speed than the acclaimed Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but AMD has also changed the position of the 3D V-cache chip, meaning it can run cooler. Meanwhile, the move to the new AMD Zen 5 architecture improves its performance further.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D release date
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D release date is Thursday, November 7, 2024, which comes just a couple of weeks after the Intel Arrow Lake launch, and arrives just in time for the holiday season.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D price
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D price is $479, which is $30 higher than the original 7800X3D launch price, showing that AMD is confident it can charge a premium for this CPU, despite it only having eight cores. This is expensive for an eight-core CPU, but it’s worth the money if gaming is your top priority.
Comparatively, the eight-core Ryzen 7 9700X, which doesn’t have 3D V-cache, costs $325 right now, which is significantly cheaper. Meanwhile, the nearest competition from Intel is the new Core Ultra 7 265K, which costs around $400 at the moment, and the Core i9 14900K, which currently goes for around $439.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D specs
These are the Ryzen 7 9800X3D specifications:
| Ryzen 7 9800X3D | |
| Cores | 8 |
| Threads | 16 |
| Peak boost clock | 5.2GHz |
| Base clock | 4.7GHz |
| L2 cache | 8MB |
| L3 cache | 96MB (32MB + 64MB 3D V-cache) |
| SMT | Yes |
| TDP | 120W |
| Socket | AMD Socket AM5 |
Rather than mounting the 3D V-cache chip on top of the CPU cores, as with previous AMD X3D chips, the new 9800X3D positions the 2nd Gen 3D V-cache underneath the CPU cores, and this time the cache chip is the same size as the core chiplet too.
The idea is that this means the CPU cores are nearest to the heatspreader, and the contact plate of your CPU cooler, enabling AMD to keep the CPU cores running cooler and increase the clock speed. The capacity of the cache remains the same, however, at 64MB, meaning the 9800X3D has a total of 96MB of L3 cache.
Speaking of which, the 9800X3D clock speed is 5.2GHz at peak boost, which is 200MHz higher than the 7800X3D’s 5GHz boost clock. Meanwhile, the 9800X3D base clock is 4.7GHz, a 500MHz increase over the 7800X3D. AMD says the 9800X3D will be 8% quicker than the 7800X3D in games, on average. Unlike the new Intel Arrow Lake CPU range, the 9800X3D has SMT enabled, meaning it can execute 16 concurrent threads from its eight cores, rather than just eight.
If you’re planning to build a gaming PC based on the new 9800X3D when it comes out, check out our guide to the best gaming RAM to partner with it, where we run you through all our favorite options right now. AMD says the sweet spot for this chip in terms of price and performance will be 6,000MHz.