Ryzen 7 9850X3D delidded, a closer look at AMD's new gaming CPU

At CES 2026, AMD formally announced the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU for PC gamers, pushing the clock speed up to 5.6 GHz, a notable increase over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 5.2 GHz. Naturally, it also features AMD's 3D V-Cache technology, which has proven to be highly effective at boosting gaming performance.

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During our time with AMD at CES, we got a closer look at the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, literally, as we saw a delidded version of what looks to be a retail-ready sample of the CPU. Per our image above, you can also see the single CCD below the central I/O die.

As for the underlying hardware, it features 8 Zen 5 cores with 104 MB of cache. The TDP rating remains the same as the baseline Radeon 7 9800X3D model at 120W. Based on the company's internal benchmarks, the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is about 27% faster at 1080p gaming than the Intel Core Ultra 285K.

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At CES 2025, AMD confirmed to us that, even though the only real difference appears to be faster clock speeds, both the Ryzen 9800X3D and 9850X3D will live in parallel in the market, and that the difference will be most notable, performance-wise, in esports and older games. The release is on track for sometime in Q1 2026, with pricing still to be announced. Here's a refreshed look at AMD's Ryzen line-up.