AMD Ryzen 9800X3D benchmark leaks could disappoint PC gamers – but let’s not rule out this CPU just yet

AMD’s Ryzen 9800X3D processor may not offer the sizeable leap in gaming performance that some leaks have previously suggested, it seems according to some new material shared by German tech site HardwareLuxx (via Tom’s Hardware): namely leaked slides from an MSI presentation.

According to the headline at the top of a gaming comparison slide, the Ryzen 9800X3D (referred to as an ‘8-core Ryzen 9000X3D’ CPU) is 11% faster than its predecessor, the 7800X3D, in Far Cry 6. Gains are far more modest in the likes of Shadow of the Tomb Raider (where the 9800X3D is just 4% faster) and Black Myth: Wukong (a paltry 2%).

The Ryzen 9950X3D (referred to as a ‘16-core Ryzen 9000X3D’ CPU) sees a 13% improvement in frame rates versus its predecessor, the 7950X3D, and a similar uptick as the 9800X3D in the other two games, just 2% in both in this case. (In these benchmarks, the processors were paired with an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card).

Cinebench results are also shared – which we’ve seen previously leaked, in fact – that show the Ryzen 9800X3D offering a big performance uplift on the 7800X3D, being around 18% and 28% faster than its predecessor for single-core and multi-core respectively. The Ryzen 9950X3D isn’t as much of a boost over the 7950X3D, in this case, though, purportedly netting an uplift of 9% and 16% respectively (which is still very good).

Analysis: Reasons to be cautious

Clearly, this has caused quite the stir, as with recent talk of beefy clock speeds for the 9800X3D and other leaks besides, PC gamers have been getting pretty excited about what this processor might be capable of. Particularly in the light of all the disappointment about the gaming performance of vanilla Ryzen 9000 CPUs, and Intel’s new Arrow Lake processors also falling flat for gen-on-gen PC gaming gains.

So, has this new leak poured a whole lot of freezing-cold water on those 9800X3D expectations? Well, yes, in a word, though many of the more realistic PC gamers out there are admonishing the folks who cared to believe the previous buzz around potentially big gaming uplifts for the 9800X3D (especially given some of the shakiness around Ryzen 9000’s launch).

However, let’s not get carried away with this particular leak either, and there are some reasons we should arm ourselves with a bit more skepticism than usual, perhaps, aside from the normal caveats: it’s just a leak, and only one set of testing.

In fact, on the latter point, only three games are run through their paces, so it’s a pretty thin batch of benchmarks. There are some odd choices here, too – like Wukong (a game that’s heavy on the GPU, so not ideal for laying bare the prowess of the processor), and Tomb Raider is seriously old by now. On top of that, the presentation slide for the gaming results has some strange errors included (the headline doesn’t match the GPUs listed with the graphs), and it all feels a bit messy... and therefore more dubious.

As the slides observe, the Ryzen 9000X3D parts are samples too, with better performance expected from the retail CPUs (that said, it probably won’t be much better, given how close to release we are theoretically).

All that said, maybe the Ryzen 9800X3D won’t offer any major gaming leap, but even a modest increase – with better all-round performance – is still worthwhile, and AMD might still adjust pricing to impress, too. While that may seem unlikely, it all depends on how much Team Red wants to recover from its stumbles with vanilla Ryzen 9000, we guess.

We shouldn’t have long to wait to find out how the Ryzen 9800X3D shapes up, as rumor has it that the CPU could be launched very soon indeed.

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