Custom PC enthusiasts should be contemplating an upgrade path for their gaming rig around AMD's new "slam dunk" Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor as it blew away Intel's high-end Core Ultra 9 285K in PC gaming benchmarks. These X3D variants of Ryzen desktop chips sport AMD's massive 3D V-Cache that benefits real-time game engines more than productivity apps, which is hardly a difficult choice for gamers, and the 9800X3D is the latest and greatest revision of the reigning champion.
It adopted its title as the best gaming CPU by politely replacing its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and marks a point where entirely overhauling an older system to the new AM5 socket is worth it, at least to those on AMD's Ryzen 5000 Series or anything from Intel's 13th and 14th Gen blighted by an unfortunate microcode bug. There is a generational improvement from the 7800X3D, but you wouldn't notice much difference if you only upgraded from the last-gen equivalent.
