The upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D has been spotted at multiple European stores. The new chip should set you back around €556, assuming these listings are correct.
PC21, a French retailer, and Inida from Luthuania have added AMD’s unreleased chip to their catalogues, listed at €556.27 and €557.31, respectively. Though they are located in different countries, the asking price is pretty much identical, which could indicate that it’s the true and final one. If so, this would make 9800X3D about €55 more expensive than its predecessor, Ryzen 7800X3D. For reference, you can find the latter for €498, which is already higher than the €399 it held for months. Unfortunately, this excellent value disappeared as stocks began dwindling in preparation for the 9800X3D.
Under current pricing, the 9800X3D must be at least 12% faster to simply be on par with the 7800X3D in price/performance. To make it worth upgrading to, this percentage must go up to 20% at least. A tall ask as rumours talk about 8% uplift in games and 15-17% in multi-threaded apps. However, since eight-core X3D chips are mostly sought-after by gamers, the latter isn’t that impactful anyway.
While AMD may further optimise the chip utilisation via firmware, chipset, or OS updates, we don’t see it crossing the 20% mark in gaming. But hey, there’s still overclocking for those who dare. Yep, you heard that right; for the first time, 3D V-Cache processors are expected to have an unlocked multiplier, opening the way for advanced overclocking. But that’s not all; these chips are also rumoured to feature a flipped design, putting the extra 3D V-Cache below the CPU core complex, which may bring additional benefits.
That said, unless AMD pulls a rabbit out of its hat, owners of 7800X3D shouldn’t feel the need to upgrade anyway. I would even argue that unless you are rocking an RTX 4090, any eight-core CPU on AM5 is good enough. Mind you, 9800X3D is probably best for AM4 users looking to upgrade to the current platform. Currently, Ryzen 7 9800X3D is expected to launch on November 7, featuring eight Zen 5 cores clocked up to 5.2Ghz, 104MB of cache, plus a 120W TDP.
With the Ryzen 9000X3D Series being one of the last processors launching this year, it seems that 2024 was quite disappointing for gamers. First, we had the Ryzen 9000X lineup, which didn’t bring much in the way of frame rates, followed by Core Ultra 200K, which couldn’t even beat its predecessors. Hopefully, AMD’s Zen 6 and Intel’s Panther Lake have something better to offer.