Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has made serious inroads when it comes to gaming-centric CPUs over the last few years with its X3D offerings representing the best in the market in terms of gaming performance.
This is because of how they are built from scratch to focus on one particular aspect of what CPUs are capable of thanks to their larger, stacked L3 caches: gaming. This is very evident when it comes to the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which is indisputably the king of gaming CPUs, taking the crown from the very capable Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
However, unlike the Ryzen 7 7800X3D which saw its 12 and 16-core siblings launch before its release, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D continues to stand alone on benchmarks as the sold Ryzen 9000 series X3D CPU available on shelves currently.
Related
Deal Alert: This Alienware OLED QHD Gaming Monitor Is Cheaper Than Ever at $250 Off
Gamers looking to transition to OLED gaming have the perfect opportunity with Alienware’s QHD resolution OLED monitor at a $250 discount on Amazon.
AMD’s Ryzen 9 9900X3D And Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPUs
While AMD has announced the Ryzen 9 9000 series CPUs in X3D flavors for both its 12 and 16-core high-end equivalents to the 9900X and 9950X, they have yet to be released to the masses even as a steady flow of information continues from the usual leakers.
This, in tandem with AMD’s own benchmarks, as showcased during CES 2025, indicates that AMD’s core-heavy X3D CPUs, much like their predecessors, focus primarily on users who have content creator and/or streaming needs, in addition to valuing the gaming prowess that AMD’s latest CPUs offer, albeit at a premium.
Related
Get the Lowest-Ever Price for Roku’s Pro Series QLED TV at Under $600
Roku offers its Pro Series QLED TV at a steep, over $300 discount for a limited time, allowing consumers to transition to QLED for much cheaper.
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D And Ryzen 9 9950X3D Geekbench Results: An Impressive IPC Uplift
Public benchmarks first noticed by Twitter user ‘Olrak29_’ show strong performance for AMD’s newest Zen 5-based X3D CPUs versus their Zen 4-based predecessors.
While Geekbench performance claims should not be considered in isolation, they do provide a great starting point as a third party benchmark when it comes to AMD’s newer CPUs, with both Ryzen 9 CPUs offering a sub-15% IPC count gain on single-core performance, even as multi-core gains do not scale as well when comparing them to the 7900X3D and the 7950X3D respectively.
The scaling limitation could potentially be due to issues out of Team Red’s control – AMD’s CPUs have historically required updates from Microsoft and updated drivers at times to improve performance, with Windows Scheduler being fingered as a culprit in some cases.
While it could also be because of AMD’s beta drivers in play for the 16-core CPU or diminishing returns on 12 and 16-core Zen 5 CPUs in multicore benchmarks, performance seems to be in line with AMD’s 9950X and 9900X’s gains versus the 7950X and the 7900X. This indicates that Zen 5 doesn’t offer significant uplift in multi-core benchmarks as the number of cores increases gen-on-gen.
While AMD’s latest CPUs have yet to receive official release dates, with most leakers pointing to Q1 which increasingly points towards a March 2025 launch, they are expected to cater specifically to creators versus the highly sought-after Ryzen 7 9800X3D that remains elusive at most retailers currently.
More
Grab Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Now For $20 Less At Best Buy
Best Buy has discounted Mario Kart 8 Deluxe by $20, making the racing game cheaper.