Let the games begin: after October the battle of the next-gen processors kicks off, so you might wanna hold off on building that new PC

Don’t buy a new PC until after October 25, 2024! Yes, I know that's extremely specific, but I promise, it'll all make sense shortly - as it seems like that date is when we’re going to finally know the truth of what’s in AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D box.

It was leaker HXL on X who recently claimed that AMD’s new chip would be announced on October 25. Now leaker wjm47196, who posts on the Chiphell forum (and whose leaks tend to be true!), corroborates it.

A different rumor shared by leaker Hoang Anh Phu on X argues instead that AMD’s new 8-core gaming CPU will launch in the first week of November or a little later. Either way, these claims place the reveal shortly after Intel’s Core 200K Arrow Lake-S launch. That chip is currently rumored to be released on October 24, potentially just a single day before AMD’s hotly-anticipated 9800X3D announcement.

The competition is heating up (again)

The timing of the potential releases of both AMD and Intel’s next-gen CPUs is perfect, considering they’ll take advantage of the holiday season.

Intel will have a head start in the market, and potentially snap up the first swathe of early adopters. That head start isn’t massive, though, and the Arrow Lake range won’t contain anything like AMD’s new V-cache technology, which makes Team Red's X3D chips superior for gaming performance specifically. Intel recently admitted that its next-gen CPUs will be outperformed by AMD’s 3D V-cache Ryzen 7000 processors.

HXL also recently leaked some Cinebench R23 results alleged to be clock speeds of the 9800X3D. They showed a base clock speed of 4.7GHz and an all-core Turbo speed of 5.2GHz, making it faster than its predecessor the 7800X3D by 500MHz at base clock speed and 400MHz at all-core turbo.

So if you’re in the market for a new PC, stick some duct tape on your old one - for now, at least. Let the old workhorse wheeze along with you until October 25. That’s when the speculated prices and rumored clock speeds will be put to bed and you’ll know whether your next PC’s CPU should be blue or red.

• AMD Ryzen 9800X3D benchmark leaks could disappoint PC gamers – but let’s not rule out this CPU just yet
• Intel announces Core Ultra 200 series desktop CPUs, the first desktop AI processors on the market
• Qualcomm's big chip merge plan paves the way for – wait for it – the return of the Windows Phone