AMD teased its new Ryzen X3D chips in late October, and the release date has finally arrived. These new, incredibly powerful chips are set to launch on November 7, and we're already starting to see positive reviews roll in, with Hardware Unboxed on YouTube even deeming the chip "a real weapon."
Non-PC gamers might not be as excited about this chip reveal, PCMag says, "if you're starting from scratch, then this Zen5 X3D chip is the processor that I would want to build my new gaming PC around." Most other critics seem to agree.
Here are the top three reasons critics are loving the new AMD Ryzen X3D chips, for both gaming performance and general productivity.
People love its high clock speeds
Not only does the AMD Ryzen 9800 X3D gain 500MHz in base clock speed, but it also now supports overclocking, something The Verge notes is happening "[f]or the first time on an X3D chip."
Compared to its predecessors — the 7800X3D and 5800X3D chips — the 9800X3D features a unique redesign. Eurogamer explains, "Rather than adding on the extra L3 cache above the CCD, AMD has popped it underneath this time around, a move that sees temperatures go down and clock speeds go up."
Put simply, the chip is able to cool itself better and more efficiently, which will help it reach higher clock speeds and deliver "even more impressive results," according to The Verge.
People praise its unreal gaming performance
IGN writes, "Almost across the board, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D outperformed its non-X3D counterpart in gaming." Most impressively, IGN found that, when paired with an RTX 4090 GPU, "the Ryzen 7 9800X3D managed an incredible 240 fps, compared to 163 with the 9700X in the same test." The publication even repeated the test "several times" just to make sure that staggering 240 fps was accurate.
Tom's Hardware says the chip offers "devastating gaming performance," and that it's "the fastest gaming CPU money can buy."
Similarly, PCWorld calls the chip a "gaming legend indeed," saying it "runs an average of 25 percent faster than [Intel's Core Ultra 9] 285K at 1080p resolution." When it comes to Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most graphically demanding games you can play right now, PCWorld says the chip is "45 percent faster than the 285K...with ray tracing off."
Gamers Nexus on YouTube goes as far as to say, "In this current lineup and generational battle between AMD and Intel in gaming, Intel cannot compete right now."
People are impressed by its productivity results
While AMD's 9800X3D chip redesign is ideal for gamers, our sister site Tom's Hardware notes that "the new design also helps to remove some of the heavy penalties in productivity work that you’ll often pay for using a gaming-optimized X3D processor."
Hardware Unboxed on YouTube explains that "the 9800X3D is not a productivity processor," and yet it's "impressively fast in the 7-Zip compression test, roughly matching the [Intel Core i9-]12900K." The decompression test results were equally impressive.
In most productivity benchmarks, the AMD Ryzen 9800X3D falls behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, but its overall productivity performance boosts over its predecessor make it a great chip overall, especially for those who want a chip capable of incredibly strong gaming performance and decent productivity performance with non-gaming tasks.
