AMD has made a “refined” version of its Ryzen 7 9800X3D – currently the best gaming CPU you can buy – official. The new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the “new fastest gaming processor,” says AMD, with a 400 MHz boost in clock speed over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the same 120W TDP. Overall, AMD claims the Ryzen 7 9850X3D leads its predecessor by up to 7% in games, but despite such a small gap, the company says the two chips will coexist in its lineup moving forward.
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D doesn’t feature any architectural changes compared to the base Ryzen 7 9800X3D, with AMD describing its improvements “primarily” as a frequency bump. It carries the same eight Zen 5 cores and 16 threads, just clocked higher. The new chip can reach boost clocks of up to 5.6 GHz using the same 120W thermal design as the original model.
