AMD's Ryzen X3D CPUs have been ruling the gaming charts for almost three years. Ever since the Ryzen 7 5800X3D came out in 2022, AMD's 3D V-Cache propelled its chips to gaming supremacy, and nothing that Intel has put out since then has been able to turn the tables. The latest Ryzen 7 9800X3D turned out to be a whopping 30% faster (on average) than the Core Ultra 9 285K.
While there's no contest between AMD's X3D chips and anything else on the market, they're not perfect for everyone. Unless you have a pretty high-end graphics card, have the cash for these pricey X3D chips, and only care about gaming performance, there are probably better options out there.
Here's exactly why AMD's X3D CPUs are better than Intel's for gaming
If you want a new gaming CPU, there are really only a few options you should consider.
3 You probably don't need all that performance
$479 for a gaming CPU isn't for everyone
Perhaps the simplest reason not to go for a high-end gaming CPU is that it isn't worth the expense — after all, shelling out $479 for a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or around $350 (if you're lucky) for a Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn't an easy decision. Most gamers aren't rocking no-holds-barred gaming rigs with an RTX 4090 or RTX 4080, making a $350+ gaming chip a tough sell. The best gaming CPU is often the one that offers enough performance at a reasonable price.
This is inevitably a Ryzen 5 7600 for the majority of gamers who have a mid-range graphics card on their PCs. The sub-$200 chip can even handle an RTX 4080, barely sacrificing any performance. When you're able to get triple-digit FPS (at 1080p) on, say, an RTX 4070 Ti Super with a budget CPU, the performance gains from moving to a $450+ chip aren't worth the premium. You're not going to "feel" a huge difference going from 130 FPS to 180 FPS.
On a related note, if you're even considering a Zen 4 or Zen 5 X3D CPU, you're probably gaming at 4K, not 1080p. At that point, the FPS differential between a Ryzen 5 7600 and Ryzen 7 9800X3D shrinks to almost nothing. Even if you consider that more people are playing at 1440p compared to 4K, the GPUs on such systems will be unable to extract the most out of a modern X3D CPU.
AMD's X3D chips are certainly incredible products, but they're targeted towards the few high-end shoppers who want nothing but the best. The rest of us should ideally target a 6-core or 8-core non-X3D CPU for our mid-range gaming rigs.
3 reasons the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the best CPU for gamers
Why you should buy the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D for your gaming PC.
2 Prices are out of whack right now
Finding an X3D CPU at the right price is impossible
The more pertinent problem with the Ryzen X3D CPUs right now is the availability. Ever since the Ryzen 7 9800X3D came out, it has been near-impossible to find it in stock anywhere. The supply was insufficient to meet the demand for the fastest gaming CPU in the world. Even if you could find one available, the price was nowhere near the $479 advertised by AMD. Even 3 months after launch, you can't find it below $570.
Unless you're sitting on Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy like a hawk, you're probably going to miss the few narrow restock windows. As for when the price of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D (or the 7800X3D) will return to normal, it's anyone's guess. With the new tariffs on imported tech goods in effect, and supply constraints unlikely to disappear overnight, you would probably need to wait a few months to buy the 9800X3D at or around the MSRP.
If you want to build a gaming PC right away and don't want to pay scalper prices, you can consider the Ryzen 7 7700, Ryzen 5 7600, or Core i5-14600K. If those chips don't sound as appealing, you'll have to wait for the X3D situation to resolve itself.
If you want a new CPU, don't get the Intel Core i9-14900K, get one of these instead
There are better options than the 14900K, both from a stability and a performance point of view.
1 You might not like the productivity performance
Go in with the right expectations
AMD never markets its Ryzen X3D CPUs as anything other than pure gaming CPUs that also have decent multi-core performance, especially the Zen 5 parts. Not everyone, however, keeps up with tech news, reviews, and all the marketing around us. It's certainly possible for some consumers to purchase, say, a Ryzen 7 9800X3D for over $500 and expect it to perform as well in productivity workloads as it does in gaming. And that's a recipe for disappointment.
If Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro are the only programs you run outside of gaming, then the 9800X3D will prove to be a fantastic value. However, in every other multi-core workload, it performs way slower than the cheaper (by current pricing) Ryzen 9 7950X and Core i9-14900K. For the uninformed consumer, it's reasonable to assume that a high-end CPU will deliver high-end performance, no matter what you throw at it. When that doesn't happen, you'll probably consider returning it for something else.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D vs. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K: Which CPU is better for your PC?
Team Red or Team Blue?
Ryzen X3D CPUs are great, but only for the right user
AMD's 3D V-Cache has proved to be one of the best innovations in the PC hardware space in a long time. Intel doesn't have an answer for it (yet), and for the enthusiast crowd, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is currently the holy grail of PC gaming. However, for the vast majority of gamers, there are far better options out there, if value-for-money is the priority. You can enjoy top-tier gaming with your mid-range or high-end GPUs by pairing it with a Ryzen 5 7600 for under $200. An X3D chip will be faster, but the perceived benefits won't justify the premium.