At CES 2025, AMD revealed the Ryzen 9 9950X3D for desktop PCs, which the corporate is looking each the “world’s best gaming processor” and the “world’s best processor for content creation.”
On paper, the comparability is brutal: AMD says its new chip is 20 % quicker in gaming than Intel’s Arrow Lake flagship, the Core Extremely 285K.
AMD will ship the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and a second Ryzen 9 chip with v-cache, the Ryzen 9900X3D, to PC makers and prospects starting within the first quarter of 2025. Each of AMD’s new desktop chips outperform the present Ryzen 9800X3D when it comes to clock pace and core rely — and provides consumers extra decisions to fill out their gaming techniques. Keep in mind, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D obliterated the competitors in its evaluate, then instantly bought out.
AMD additionally stated that may carry the X3D structure to laptops with its “Fire Range” lineup of cell processors, too. (We’ve lined that in a separate story.)
Right here’s what AMD is launching immediately:
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D: 16 cores/32 threads, 5.7GHz turbo, 144MB cache, 170W TDP.
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D: 12 cores/24 threads, 5.5GHz turbo, 140MB cache, 120W TDP.
By comparability, AMD launched the Ryzen 7 9800X3D on the finish of October, with 8 cores/16 threads, a base clock pace of 4.7GHz (5.2GHz turbo), a TDP of 120W, and 104MB cache, for $479. What AMD is disclosing immediately lacks a few key metrics: the bottom clock pace and most significantly, the worth. Apparently AMD will launch each of these particulars nearer to the precise availability of the 2 new processors.
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AMD hasn’t modified the design of the Core Advanced Die from the 7950X3D: every of the chip’s two CCDs has entry to the stacked V-Cache, or SRAM, able to pulling information from the cached reminiscence fairly than pulling it from system reminiscence. The opposite die options unstacked cache, working at a most frequency to permit content-creation apps to run as quick as potential. (AMD’s earlier household of Ryzen 7000X3D chips stacked the V-Cache on prime of the CCD; the Ryzen 9000X3D household locations the CCD on prime, stacking the V-Cache beneath it, for higher warmth dissipation and to attain greater clock speeds.)
From a gaming perspective, AMD is assured that its new Ryzen 9950X3D will handily outperform the Intel Core Extremely 285K.
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At 1080p “High” settings, AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D outperforms the 285K by a median of 20 %, AMD stated. That features video games like Black Fable Wukong (a wash) all the way in which as much as Far Cry 6 and Watch Canine: Legion, the place the efficiency hole widens to over 60 %. In comparison with AMD’s older Ryzen 7950X3D, the 9950X3D is about 8 % quicker, once more at 1080p Excessive settings. AMD didn’t use the identical group of video games for every check, nonetheless.
If there was a flaw within the Ryzen X3D’s armor, although, it’s been in productiveness functions. The quicker clock pace that AMD has added to the Ryzen 9 9950X3D ought to assist overcome that, AMD believes, and that enhance was enabled by the corporate’s second-gen v-cache expertise. In functions starting from Cinebench 2024 (primarily similar) to Adobe Premiere (a 14 % benefit to AMD) to Adobe Photoshop (a 47 % benefit to AMD), AMD believes it holds a ten % common efficiency benefit over Intel’s Core Extremely 285K chip.
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Once more, a key consider how these chips will fare can be how AMD ultimately costs them. However primarily based upon the present evaluate of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and the way it’s vanished from retailer cabinets, AMD might have one other pair of winners in its arms.
