In the fight for the title of “globally fastest gaming processor”, AMD shows no intention of giving up. During CES 2026, the company officially presented the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a direct upgrade of the existing 9800X3D model. AMD says without hesitation that “the world’s fastest gaming CPU just got even faster.”
In terms of specifications, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is very similar to the 9800X3D model. It is based on the same Zen 5 architecture and uses the second generation of 3D V-Cache technology. The key difference is in the operating clock, which has been increased by 400 MHz and now reaches a maximum of 5.6 GHz. The TDP remains at 120 W, and support for the AM5 platform and existing AM5 motherboards is retained.
Ryzen 7 9850X3D brings a higher clock speed, Zen 5 and an even greater advantage in games
The processor has 8 cores and 16 threads, 32 MB of L3 cache, as well as an additional 64 MB of X3D shared cache for processor cores. With 8 MB of L2 cache, the total amount of cache reaches an impressive 104 MB.
In optimized multitasking and multitasking applications, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D delivers a 2 to 9 percent performance boost over the 9800X3D. Compared to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, AMD claims an advantage of up to 32 percent in the same operating scenarios.
The biggest jump was achieved in games. According to AMD’s data, the 9850X3D is an average of 7 percent faster than the 9800X3D, while compared to the Core Ultra 9 285K it achieves up to 60 percent better performance, with an average advantage of 27 percent.
The new processor will hit the market in the first quarter of 2026, and will be available through OEM configurations, retail, as well as within finished desktop computers. The price has not yet been officially announced, but it is expected that the difference compared to the 9800X3D will not be large, given that both models will be sold in parallel, reports VideoCardz.