It's been a pretty sad, depressing year for desktop CPUs. Den 5 was cool, literally, but not exciting. And then Core Ultra 200 was interesting but unimpressive. Today, that changes. Behold the blessing that AMD hath bestowed upon us, imbued with second-generation 3D Vcache, higher clock speeds, and more power. The 9800 X 3D somehow tops our gaming charts, and it runs cooler than the X3D chips that came before it. What the heck? That's not usually how that works at all. Is something wrong? That's a good question. It seems like you never had enough energy these days. Get a boost with our sponsor EcoFlow and check out their rapid magnetic power bank. It's got 22 wireless charging and the built-in cable. According to the testing, the iPhone 15 Pro charges to 50% in just 25 minutes. You can learn more at the link in the video description. [Music] While the 7800X 3D came out a year after the 5800 X3D, it still used what AMD

calls first-generation 3D V-cache. So sure, the new chip performed better than the old one, but the big selling point, the 3D V-cache, wasn't all that different physically. AMD piled a bunch of extra cache on top of the chip, threw game games at it, and then generously distributed high fives throughout the office. With the 9800 X3D, though, we're getting something fresh. We're still getting the same number of cores, eight cores with two threads each, and the same amount of cache, 96 megabytes of level three and 1 megabyte of level two per core. But they've gone and they've put all of that juicy 3D V-cache below the core complex die, which contains new Zen 5 processing cores. This change allows for better cooling, which also seems to have allowed AMD to juice those cores a little harder, resulting in a 200 MHz uplift in boost clocks over last gen, and a surprising 500 MHz increase to base clocks. Now, the official TDP has actually remained the

same, but our 9800 X3D is definitely sucking back more power, both in productivity and in games. And what's especially cool to some of you watching this video is that AMD has committed to finally unlock these chips, allowing overclocking. We're going to be looking at four different platforms today: Intel 200 series, Intel 14th gen, AM4 for the savvy gamers who bought into that long live platform, and AMD's 9000 series non-X3D chips. We also threw in a Ryzen 3600X for anyone who's on a slightly older platform and is wondering if it's finally time. And you know what? It just might be. Do you like generational uplift? How do you like them generational uplift? This jump in F123 at 1080p low, it's not quite as big as the leap from Zen 3 to Zen 4, with only about a 5% improvement in 1% lows and about 8% in averages. But for those of you who have been holding

on to AM4. An upgrade is starting to look a lot more enticing. We're talking about a 20% improvement in average FPS and 13% in lows compared to our 5800 X3D. Then there's Stellaris, going from a SIM time of 110 seconds on Zen 3 down to just 92 for Zen 4. That was good, hitting 78 seconds on the new 9800 X3D. That's even better. There is some decent competition from the other Zen 5 chips. Our 9700X isn't too far behind here. But now that we've got all of those IPC gains from the 9000 series alongside 3D V-cache, the true gaming winner is clear, and things look dire for anyone who's trying to compete with AMD. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, look at this. It's all AMD, all X3D at the top, with the newcomer breaking the 400 and 300 FPS barriers in averages and 1% lows, respectively. There are other good options here. The 5800 X3D is still

a great performer, and its value cannot be overstated, especially if you already have an AM4 motherboard. But they've gone end of life, so getting a deal on one might be a little harder in the short term. There are other options, though, and we're going to talk about those a little bit later during our value analysis bit. For now, let's come back to game benchmarks, where Cyberpunk shows similar gains over every other chip, and Intel gets just demolished across multiple generations. I mean, I guess a little more gen-to-gen uplift would be nice to see for the 9800 X3D, but it's clear we're off to a bloody good start and a bloody good continuation. Total War: Warhammer 3 is yet another win. It isn't much better than the 9700X, but it is better. While we've got a few more games where the improvements for the 9800 X3D are certainly less impressive, there's decent improvements to 1% lows in Red Dead.

Redemption 2, particularly over the 5800 X3D. While Rocket League doesn't seem to care much about 3D V-cache, the 9800 X3D actually rocks in this game, crossing 800 frames per second in averages, which puts it right near the top of the list. But here's the thing: for CPU reviews, we test at 1080p low. This tells us which CPU is the best by removing any other system bottlenecks, like the GPU. But it's kind of like comparing cars based on their top speeds. It's good to know, and a faster car is a faster car if that's what you want to spend your money on, but it's not necessarily representative of the daily driving experience for a typical user. So, what happens with our X3D chips when we daily drive them, bumping up the resolution in the in-game settings? I mean, we've got a 490 on the bench; we might want to use our 49 90. And as it turns out, 1080p Ultra and

cyberpunk doesn't give us a huge reason to upgrade to this new CPU. All three of our processors perform well enough, and as we get more and more GPU bottlenecked through 1440p and 4K resolutions, it becomes harder and harder to justify. And yeah, I know cyberpunk is not the be-all and end-all, but out of the four games we tested at Ultra, cyberpunk was actually the one that saw the most improvement. Black Myth: Wukong set to ultra is basically neck and neck across all three resolutions, and so is F1 23, with all three chips within a few FPS of each other. As for Red Dead Redemption 2, even at 1080p, there's really not a lot of justification for this upgrade. If you like to make your games look pretty, which is all kind of a downer. I mean, I was pretty excited, but it could be exciting for those folks out there who don't have a ton of money to upgrade to a new platform with DDR5. Speaking of

It's been a while since I am 5 debuted. So, for funsies, we tried some different memory kits to see if RAM speed is important on our new Ryzen 7. And it is, but not very. Faster memory resulted in more average FPS, 1% lows, or both on the three games we tested, but not by that much, with 6,800 megatransfers per second looking like the sweet spot for value. Coming back to legitimately compelling reasons to upgrade, though, I want to talk about how much better thermals are on this new CPU. Both the 9800 X3D and the 7800 X3D are rated for 120 W TDP, but only the new CPU actually draws anywhere near that amount. In our testing in Cinebench, last gen only draws about 82 Watts on average while reaching 75° C. Our 9800 X3D, thanks to putting the V-cache below the CCD, is drawing up to the full 120 watts while running 7° cooler on average. Now, this testing was done

with a 360 m AIO. But what is clear from looking at these numbers is that you could max this thing out with a modest tower cooler and never worry about thermal throttling. It's also going to be a dream for small form factor builders, and that carries through the gaming as well. In our F123 stress test, we're only using a few more watts on average, but we see another 8° drop. That is flipping wild, and it kills any interest that someone might have had in other CPUs that have been brought about new lower temperatures. Actually, AMD Zone included. But what about the teeny tiny elephant in the room? Let's talk about productivity. While many of you out there are only interested in gaming, many others enjoy computing in a different way. I want to take a closer look at the 9800 X 3D compared to its 9000 series brethren. In Blender, it's a few seconds behind the 9700X and way ahead of last gen, respectable in good compile. It now beats the 9700X but is significantly

behind the higher tier AMD chips. Handbrake, same thing. Photoshop sees the only clear win for the 9800 X 3D, but then Premiere, it's back just above the 9700x prime. Seeve, okay, same thing. Wide cruncher, I think we're sensing a bit of a pattern here. Um, how about seven zip? Uh, yep, okay. Cin bench, oh, this is something a little different. It beats the 9700x in multicore and then Lo es by just two points in single core. Very cool. You know what's not the same thing, by the way? Our new commuter backpack from LTT store.com. Same Great Tech, first design philosophy. I'm going to reach it 5 L smaller. Sign up for a notification today. Anyway, the bottom line is if you were looking at the 9700x as a solid do-everything CPU, this launch might not change that much. I mean, sure, this is objectively the fastest game CPU on the market, and if you want the best of the best, this is it. But bear with me for a second here at

MSRP the 9800 x3d costs a whopping $230 R dues or $150 more than the 9700x. And if you're spending almost $500 on your CPU alone, are you really gaming at 108p? I'm not trying to shame anyone who is. Some of you are probably literally professional Gamers, and you've got your reasons. But for the folks who aren't trying to go pro, a decent 1440p gaming monitor is like 200 bucks these days, and it's probably going to do more for your enjoyment than a shiny new CPU that shaves a little bit off of your frame times. And even for the folks with aging systems, the 5800 x3d, it's end of life, but you can still purchase a 5700 x3d, which is only a little slower, brand new for $200 at the time of filming. That means you could throw in a ram upgrade, a 2 TB m.2 SSD, and a nice meal, and you're still paying less than you would

for this CPU alone. Now, there are other reasons to migrate to a new platform, PCIe Gen 5, for example, that might be a difference maker when Nvidia's 50 Series arrives in the next couple of months. But you should choose based on what a purchase does for you today, not based on what it might do for you later. So, don't get me wrong, the improvements that AMD has made here, especially when it comes to thermals with the second-gen design, are awesome. I mean, it's refreshing to have something to be excited about for a change, and I'm sure these are going to fly off the shelves as gamers make the move to AM5. We're going to have all the CPUs we tested today linked in the description below, but with the pricing being what it is, I think it's worth taking a second look at the rest of the 9000 series or even last gen if there are deals to be had. Either way, it looks like Team Red is going to do just fine over the course of the next year.

after their last launch, I was a little worried that AMD might need to turn into a different kind of chip business, with a whole new website like the one I make for my dog Workshop. In just a few clicks, you can turn your weird hobby into a real business too, thanks to our sponsor Squarespace. We've been using it for years for our own website. It's so easy to get started; even my dog can do it. But Dennis, I can just code the website myself. Can you? Squarespace has tons of beautiful templates, and that's not all. It has everything you need for business, like invoicing, marketing, scheduling, and more. And right now, you can get 10% off your first purchase at squarespace.com LT. If you guys enjoyed this video, hey, maybe you're the kind of person who roots for AMD's success, so why not go watch our Core Ultra 200 series review for more AMD success.

One CPU To Rule Them All - Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review

Linus Tech Tips is a passionate team of "professionally curious" experts in consumer technology and video production who aim to educate and entertain.
