AMD's Ryzen 7 9850X3D could save you hundreds on your new build during the RAM crisis — CPU tech nearly eliminates the performance difference between cheap and expensive RAM

AMD announced its new Ryzen 7 9850X3D chip at CES 2026, showcasing a 7% performance uplift over the iconic Ryzen 7 9800X3D, one of the best CPUs. What the company didn't show in that presentation is that you don't necessarily need high-speed DDR5 RAM to achieve those gains. In a marketing slide for the CPU obtained by Videocardz, the company says there's only a 1% difference in FPS between DDR5-4800 and DDR5-5600.

This has been true for X3D chips since the beginning because they leverage the extensive on-die L3 cache, which allows the CPU to access RAM less frequently. Managing latency is key in gaming workloads, so the L3 cache is preferred over system memory in most cases. Since the cache is shared across units of the same SKU, it becomes the bottleneck rather than the RAM you have.

When we reviewed AMD's first 3D V-Cache processor, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, we also measured a 1% difference between DDR4-3200 and DDR4-3800. We've documented the same findings over the last couple of generations of X3D chips, including the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D. So, it's great to see the legacy carried forward with the newest entrant in the X3D lineup, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. The leaked AMD slide compares five games, including Cyberpunk 2077, but the most significant gap was seen in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 at just 1.6%, while Red Dead Redemption 2 showed essentially no gains at 0.2%.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

On average, there's a less than 1% difference in FPS, and the company even includes current pricing for 32GB kits at the bottom. According to AMD, the average price for a DDR5-4800 kit is $400, while the DDR5-6000 kit can run you up to $470. Both of those are very generous estimates, as we were able to find a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit for "just" $325.99 on Amazon, though it's CL36. A similarly spec'd CL30 kit is $354 on Newegg.

Given the AI boom and its consequences on the industry, it makes sense for the Red Team to market this point. The chipmaker has never explicitly mentioned it before, but we did in our 9800X3D review when it came out. So, if you have bone-stock DDR5 lying around without EXPO or XMP, the X3D chips will give you the same glorious performance as someone with an overclocked kit.

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