AMD's latest release, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, has fought its way straight to the top of the best gaming CPU and is available to purchase starting today (November 7, 2024) if you want the best processor for pure gaming in your PC, then I'm sure you've already been keeping an eye on this CPU beast.

Thanks to AMD's 3D V-Cache technology, the 9800X3D is designed for pure gaming capabilities. The large cache increases performance, and along with some design changes to the CPU, including moving the cache chiplet under the chip to reduce the thermal isolation of previous designs, the computing chip is now closer to the thermal interface material (IHS) and with the The greater thermal headroom results in 500MHz higher base clocks and 200MHz higher boosts than the previous generation Zen 4-powered Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D features eight cores and 16 threads and has a TDP of 120W. The RRP for this new CPU is $480/£450 and should be available from all major technology retailers from today. In our detailed test of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the processor beat the competition, beating Intel's current-generation flagship Core 9 285K CPU by an astounding 35% on average in our test suite.

Gaming performance benchmark chart

In our benchmarking chart, you can see the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's average performance in our 13-game test suite on High/Ultra at 1080p compared to previous-generation AMD CPUs and Intel's competition. The results showed a significant improvement over other available processors.

Where to buy AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D in the US?

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has a release MSRP of $480, a small increase over the release price of the previous 7800X3D. Currently, the 9800X3D may not be available at all retailers. However, we will monitor and update the following tables over the next few days as the processor becomes more readily available.

Where to buy AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D in the UK?

For our readers in the UK, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D should be available from the following retailers.