The highly anticipated launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7 9850X3D is just around the corner, officially set to hit the shelves this Thursday, 29th January. However, it seems some early adopters and reviewers couldn’t resist the temptation to put the new gaming champion through its paces. Despite the official embargo, several Geekbench 6 results have surfaced online, giving us a very clear picture of what this refined Zen 5 chip can actually do. There is an option to hide results for your tests, but I guess a fair few people forgot to tick that option.
AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is effectively a factory-tuned version of the already formidable 9800X3D. It sticks with the same eight-core, 16-thread configuration and the second-generation 3D V-Cache design that places the SRAM underneath the compute die for better thermals. The headline change here is the clock speed; AMD has pushed the boost frequency up to a staggering 5.6 GHz, a 400 MHz leap over its predecessor. This takes the number one gaming processor and simply makes it even faster, which we can all appreciate.
Key Features and Specifications:
- Architecture: Zen 5 with 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache
- Cores/Threads: 8 / 16
- Base Clock: 4.7 GHz
- Boost Clock: Up to 5.6 GHz
- Total L3 Cache: 96 MB (104 MB L2+L3 combined)
- TDP: 120W
- Socket: AM5
- MSRP: $499 (Approx. £395)
Breaking Down the Scores
The leaked Geekbench 6 entries show the 9850X3D being tested on a variety of high-end motherboards, including the Colorful CVN B850M and MSI X870E Carbon. In the best recorded runs, the chip managed a single-core score of 3,439 and a multi-core score of 19233. While the single-core performance shows a healthy bump thanks to that 5.6 GHz boost, the multi-core results are surprisingly close to the existing 9800X3D. This suggests that while the chip is faster in bursty single-threaded tasks, this suggests there’s still a TDP limit when all cores are firing. Of course, we’ll be doing our own internal testing for the launch, but you’ll have to wait for the official launch to see those results.
Performance Comparison (Geekbench 6):
- Ryzen 7 9850X3D (Leaked): 3,439 Single-Core / 19,233 Multi-Core (5.6 GHz Boost)
- Ryzen 7 9800X3D (Retail): ~3315 Single-Core / ~18,273 Multi-Core (5.2 GHz Boost)
Interestingly, some leaked multi-core scores for the 9850X3D are actually lower than the 9800X3D. This is likely due to the use of slower DDR5-4800 test benches or early BIOS versions in these pre-release leaks. When paired with the standard DDR5-6000 sweet spot memory, we expect the 9850X3D to maintain a slight lead across the board, but again, this can all change over the coming days, and with various system configurations, as people have had more time to fine-tune the 9800X3D for higher scores.
Tell Me More
AMD’s internal marketing suggests that the 9850X3D will offer roughly a 7% performance uplift in gaming at 1080p compared to the 9800X3D. Most of this gain comes from the increased clock speeds, as the underlying Zen 5 architecture and cache size remain identical. For those already rocking a 9800X3D, the upgrade path might look a bit slim, but for anyone still sitting on a 7000-series or older AM4 chip, this is shaping up to be the definitive gaming CPU for the AM5 platform.
Where to Buy
The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is scheduled for launch on Thursday, 29th January 2025. It is expected to be available at major retailers such as Scan, Overclockers UK, and Ebuyer, with an expected retail price of around £449-£499 including VAT.
