New AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming CPU will be out in just a few weeks, says leak

You reportedly can't overclock the successor to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but the new chip is apparently coming before the 9900X3D and 9950X3D.

AMD’s first Zen 5 gaming CPU with 3D V-cache is due to be released in just a few weeks, according to the latest leak. Unlike the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which came out a few months after the 7950X3D and 7000X3D, the new AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is reportedly going to be the first Zen 5 X3D chip to be released into the wild.

If it’s true, this strategy makes perfect sense to us. Even now, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is still the best gaming CPU we’ve reviewed, thanks to its great performance for the price. You don’t need to pay for more than eight cores for gaming, and the 7800X3D’s single-chiplet design means that all its cores have access to the big 64MB stack of extra cache on top of it. Conversely, there can be latency issues with the AMD 7950X3D and 7900X3D, as the cache is only on one of the chiplets, meaning some of the cores can’t access it.

This latest leak comes from Chiphell forum user zhangzhonghao, who has stated that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D “should be released at the end of October.” According to the post, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D won’t be released at the same time as the 9800X3D, as “they will have some new features.” Could the latter chips be getting 3D V-cache on both chiplets this time? We’ll have to wait and see.

However, in another post in the thread, zhangzhonghao claims that all three of these X3D CPUs will be coming out this year, saying that the information came from AMD at a Gigabyte conference about its X870 motherboards.

Meanwhile, another Chiphell user, wjm47196, further down the thread, states that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D can’t be overclocked. This isn’t particularly surprising, though, as 3D V-cache doesn’t leave the CPU with a lot of thermal headroom under the heatspreader – the 7800X3D has a locked multiplier to disable easy overclocking too.

Of course, none of this has been officially confirmed by AMD, so don’t take this as the gospel truth. However, zhangzhonghao has good form for AMD leaks on the Chiphell forums. Back in April 2021, for example, zhangzhonghao correctly leaked that all AMD’s Ryzen 7000-series CPUs could feature integrated graphics, unlike their Zen 3 counterparts, which didn’t have a GPU as standard.

Whatever happens, I’m very much looking forward to trying out the new Ryzen 7 9800X3D when it comes out, when it could well be in straight competition with the new range of Intel Arrow Lake processors. If you’re thinking of putting together a new system with one of these chips, check out our full guide on how to build a gaming PC, where we run you through every step of the process.