Gaming: Upcoming Amd Ryzen 7 9850x3d Review
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is still as great a gaming processor as its 9800X3D forebear. That's to be expected given they are identical bar the 5.6 GHz boost clock. But while that doesn't deliver much beyond 2% higher performance you're paying in terms of a 40%+ power draw in games.
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Nostalgia is a potent thing in the technology world right now. And I say that as someone with a brand new Commodore 64—a faithful replica of my very first computer—sat beside my desk. AMD is smart enough to understand this, to understand the way the cosy old days tug at the heart strings of PC gamers, especially in a difficult time where the past we yearn for is fully rose-tinted.
So we shouldn't be surprised to see the red team taking us back a decade with its thoroughly nostalgic new CPU, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. It's taking us back to a different time when one processor company was so dominant it could stand to release barely iterative versions of its top processors because it had precisely zero true competition.
Welcome to AMD's very own Skylake era, an era where Intel's gaming processors are so far off the pace AMD can replace the best gaming CPU over a year down the line with a new chip and not actually make any changes beyond a clock speed tweak. Yes, we've waited 15 months for an upgrade to the old Ryzen 7 9800X3D and all we get is a 400 MHz overclock.
In fairness, AMD is only looking to charge you a $20 premium over the original MSRP of the chip that it's ostensibly replacing, in return for what is effectively a bin-sorted, factory-overclocked CPU. In terms of buying a golden sample, that premium really isn't bad. But we know from experience jamming that sort of overclock into your cache-heavy processor isn't going to yield much in the way of tangible performance improvements.
✅ You want the absolute fastest gaming CPU around: It is marginally faster than the 9800X3D and often the 9950X3D, too. ✅ You want theoretically the most reliable 3D V-Cache chip: by virtue of its bin-sorting for the most robust chips for overclocking, the 9850X3D should be the most reliable version.
❌ You care about power draw: the extra thermal load isn't too much of a concern unless your cooler gets shouty, but the 43% higher gaming power draw is not a good look.❌ The 9800X3D remains in plentiful supp
Source: PC Gamer
