If you're in the process of building out a new gaming PC and you're looking for the best gaming processor, this is it. Right now, the recently released AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D AM5 desktop processor is back in stock on Amazon at its retail price of $489 shipped. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the best gaming processor currently on the market (across both AMD and Intel) and a better choice for gamers than the more expensive Intel Core Ultra 9 285K.
The Gamer's Choice: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU
AMD's X3D series processors are optimized for gaming. In that respect, they bench better than even the most expensive of AMD's standard lineup of CPUs thanks to AMD's 3D V-Cache technology. Although perfectly capable of handling multitasking, rendering, and creation, the limited number of cores means they aren't the ideal processors for those tasks. At its retail price of $489, the 9800X3D is $100 cheaper than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K ($589) and $160 cheaper than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, even though it outperforms both of them in gaming. Unless you're a staunch Intel fan, or you're still on AM4 and don't want to upgrade all of your components, the 9800X3D is the obvious choice for your next PC.
The other two Zen 5 "X3D" chips are out of stock
Alongside the Ryzen 7 9800X3D which debuted first this year, AMD released its two higher-end Ryzen 9 siblings in the Zen 5 "X3D" stack: the 9950X3D which lists for $699 and the 9900X3D which lists for $599. Collectively, these processors represent the best gaming chips across both Intel and AMD. The 9950X3D and 9000X3D are currently out of stock. However, pure gamers should go with the 9800X3D anyway and allocate their funds elsewhere; however, creators with deeper pockets and a penchant for gaming will benefit from the immense performance uplift on the new Ryzen 9 processors thanks to their increased core count and cache.
The Creator's Choice: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU
Creative professionals who also want the best gaming chip on the market shouldn't think twice; this is the CPU to get. The new 9950X3D boasts a max boost clock of 5.7GHz with 16 cores, 32 threads, and 144MB of L2-L3 cache. In terms of gaming, it's only a few percentage points better than than the 9800X3D. However, for productivity use, it easily outperforms the other two Zen 5 X3D chips, and anything offered by Intel for that matter.
The Middleman: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPU
The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is the processor you'd get if you do creative work and like to game, but you have a budget to adhere to and the 9950X3D crosses that line. The new 9900X3D boasts a max boost clock of 5.5GHz with 12 cores, 24 threads, and 140MB of L2-L3 cache. This is the one chip we haven't reviewed yet, but from the specs, it's pretty easy to guess its performance. In terms of productivity tasks and multi-core workloads, it should perform somewhere in between the 9950X3D and 9800X3D. In terms of gaming, we expect it to be a wash compared to the other two.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
