AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D reviews have finally arrived a couple of months after AMD originally revealed these new X3D processors at CES 2025. The two new chips are the 3D V-Cache upgrades for the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X, respectively, the former of which impressed us with excellent synthetic and gaming scores worthy of the flagship title.

The first X3D CPU in the 9000 series arrived at the back end of last year. We’re, of course, talking about the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which right now holds the tile as the best CPU for gaming. Now that 9950X3D and 9900X3D reviews have been published online, we can see that very little competes with them as all-rounder processors – but gaming benchmarks paint a different picture.

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AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

5 /5

Editor’s Rating

How We Review

Specifications

• Cores: 8
• Threads: 16
• Boost clock speed: 5.2GHz
• Base clock speed: 4.7GHz
• L3 cache: 96MB
• TDP: 120W
• Platform: AM5

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9950X3D review & 9900X3D review roundup

The first thing to mention is that the majority of hardware reviewers have stuck to the 16-core flagship 9950X3D – very few have actually reviewed the 12-core 9900X3D. Likewise, we expect the 9950X3D to be the more popular of the two; the alternative has always been in a bit of a strange spot for us. Regardless, let’s check out what reviewers had to say.

TechPowerUp (9950X3D)

Starting with TechPowerUp, one of the best hardware reviewers out there if you’re looking for a comprehensive list of benchmarks. Looking at rendering, the flagship GPU is a step above its non-X3D counterpart, marginally dropping behind Intel’s flagship 285K in Cinebench 2024 scores, though it is at the top of the table in Blender.

As for gaming, 720p tests (paired with the RTX 5090) show that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D remains 6.8% faster on average than the 9950X3D at stock settings; even the 7800X3D is slightly better in some games, such as Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077.

Tom’s Hardware (9950X3D)

Moving on to the Tom’s Hardware review of the 9950X3D, let’s focus a bit more on the pros and cons rather than performance. Giving the flagship processor 4.5 out of 5 stars, they call it a “16-core monster” that offers excellent productivity alongside its gaming boosts from the X3D technology – it’s also fully overclockable like the rest of the 9000 series. The 9950X3D will be priced starting from $699, and this is only the real downside. The price may be worth it for all the extra cores if you’re focused on productivity workflows, but for gaming, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D at $479 (MSRP) remains much better value for money.

KitGuru (9900X3D)

For the 9900X3D, we recommend turning your attention to KitGuru. They’ve posted a YouTube review of the new 12-core model, which includes benchmarks of the flagship to compare against as well. In synthetic benchmarks, the 9900X3D generally sits just above its non-X3D model in multi-core benchmarks, behind Intel’s i7-14700K. As expected, the 12-core chip outperforms the 9800X3D in these kinds of tests.

Moving over to gaming, you probably know what to expect by now. The 9900X3D remains behind the 9800X3D in gaming benchmarks, sitting just below the 9950X3D.

Conclusion

These reviews and benchmark results again reinforce that there’s no need to go for these Ryzen 9 processors if gaming is your primary use case; the extra cash isn’t really worth it. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is more than enough and can even outperform the other two for gaming specifically. If you’re wondering why, it all comes down to the CCD designs. The Ryzen 7 chip has a single 8-core CCD that houses its 3D V-Cache, whereas the Ryzen 9 models are split between two CCDs; 3D V-Cache is housed on just one of them instead of both.

However, for power users doing some more heavy lifting with rendering, streaming, or other intensive workloads, the 9950X3D will be your best bet – the 9900X3D again feels like it’s in a strange middle-ground for us, especially with AMD announcing it will set you back $599.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.