For a few years now, AMD CPUs featuring the ‘X3D' suffix have been the preferred choice for PC gaming fans. The launch of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D had many wondering if AMD could continue this winning streak. According to one YouTuber, the signs are good.

The secret to AMD's success in this area is the 3D V-Cache on the X3D processors. This improved graphical performance for gaming. Intel doesn't have anything like it. According to respected tech YouTuber KitGuru, Intel still doesn't have an answer to AMD's X3D tech.

KitGuru put the Ryzen 9 9950X3D through a thorough set of benchmarking tests. They used a solid set of hardware including an MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard, MSI RTX 4090 Ventus GPU, 32 GB of DDR5 G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RAM and a Crucial T700 1TB SSD.

X3D remains King of gaming CPUs

Moving into the testing phase, things began strong. On the Cinebench 2024 MultiCore test, the 9950X3D hit the top of the chart with a score of 2,383, just beating out the second-place contender, the Intel Core Ultra 285K, which scored 2,370. The 9950X3D was less strong on single-core performance and pure power per dollar. It began to redeem itself in the efficiency stakes, with the Ryzen chips in general, drawing much less than the Intel chips.

However, synthetic benchmarks are not always a reliable indicator of performance, nor what gamers are looking for. So, let’s move on to charts for in-game performance. The X3D processors remained clustered at the very top of the rankings, with Intel CPUs struggling to get anywhere close.

Looking at the average frames per second now. Far Cry 6 1080p, Ryzen 7 9800X3D at top with 258, 9950X3D second with 254. The closest Intel CPU to the top was the Core i9-14900K at 191. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora at 1080p on Ultra pre-set was similar. Ryzen 7 9800X3D at top with 192, 9950X3D in second with 186. The best performing Intel CPU in this chart was the Core Ultra 9 285K with 182.

It should also be noted that as new drivers for the newly-released Ryzen 9 9950X3D come out, performance for these benchmarks will probably improve. The results remain clear. For gaming, Ryzen X3D chips are the way to go. “It absolutely kicks Intel out of the park,” as KitGuru says.

About the Author

Rebecca Hills-Duty

Writing and journalism experience at VRFocus, UploadVR, The Escapist, HTC, PC Gamer, Tech Radar+ and Dexerto. Can sometimes be found playing with retro tech.