AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D vs Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Which is the best gaming CPU?

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D are some of the highest-end gaming CPUs on the market today. They are both designed to deliver the best experiences when paired with some of the latest video cards, making the chips lucrative for high-end and enthusiast players.

However, which is the best X3D processor to buy? The answer can be difficult to determine, given that the chips have varying profiles with surprising differences in performance.

In this article, we look at the cheapest and costliest 3D V-cached processors in the Zen 5 lineup and try to determine which is better.

Note: Some aspects of this article reflect the subjective and personal opinions of the writer.

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The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D are some premium gaming CPUs today

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the flagship offering from Team Red (Image via AMD)

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the Ryzen 9 9950X3D both share AMD's coveted 3D V-caching architecture. Some architectural differences separate them from the regular Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 9 9950X. These changes lie in how the Core Complex Dies (CCDs) are laid out in the processors.

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Specs comparison

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D are quite different from each other despite being from the same Zen 5 generation. While the Ryzen 7 pairs eight cores and 12 threads with a more budget-oriented package, the 9950X3D goes all out with 16 cores and 32 threads.

The costlier chip also has an extra package die with eight cores meant for lower clocks that work with 3D V-cache. The other eight cores are meant to boost higher to enable better multi-core efficiency in CPU-heavy workloads.

The detailed specs of the chips are as follows:

Specification	Ryzen 9 9950X3D	Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Cores / Threads	16 Cores / 32 Threads	8 Cores / 16 Threads
Base Clock	~4.3 GHz	~4.7 GHz
Boost Clock	~5.7 GHz	~5.2 GHz
L2 Cache	16 MB	8 MB
L3 Cache	128 MB	96 MB
TDP	170W	120W
Integrated Graphics	2-core AMD Radeon Graphics	2-core AMD Radeon Graphics
Memory Support	DDR5	DDR5
Overclocking	Yes	Yes
Package Die Count	3	2
Price	~$835	~$399

Pricing is also a big differentiator between the chips. While you can get the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for $399 from stores like Amazon, the flagship 9950X3D costs more than double that ($835). This makes it prohibitively expensive for a large portion of the gaming population, drawing more buyers to the mid-ranger eight-core chip.

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Performance comparison

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D bundles competitive performance in the mid-range (Image via AMD)

Gaming performance depends more on GPUs than the central chip in your system. That said, 3D V-cache has interesting performance characteristics and results in much different scaling than regular CPUs.

We sourced the following numbers from the YouTube channel Testing Games. All titles were tested at 1080p (the most CPU-bound resolution) with an RTX 4090 24 GB.

	AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D	AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024	106 FPS	104 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy	70 FPS	67 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	162 FPS	164 FPS
PUBG	339 FPS	330 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	206 FPS	204 FPS
Marvel's Spider-Man 2	80 FPS	88 FPS
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2	102 FPS	102 FPS
Counter-Strike 2	731 FPS	728 FPS
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2	194 FPS	211 FPS
Starfield	159 FPS	157 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	257 FPS	252 FPS
Ghost of Tsushima	204 FPS	216 FPS

Overall, the costlier Ryzen 9 9950X3D is 0.85% slower than the 9800X3D in the benchmarks above. The 9800X3D takes a lead in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (9.09% faster), Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 (8.06% faster), and Ghost of Tsushima (5.56% faster), which makes it odd, given that the eight-core chip is about half the price of the 9950X3D.

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The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the clear winner in this comparison if you're looking for a gaming-only rig. While the chip is decent at multi-core workloads such as rendering and simulation, the eight extra cores on the 9950X3D (that also clock higher) with the extra cache make it a better fit for power users.

For the majority of gamers and casual users, the 9800X3D offers more than enough computing prowess.