Choosing 9950x3d over 9800x3d for gaming and OC

[Ayush008]

Hello guys n gals

 

Hope u all r doing well

 

Stay safe and healthy 

 

{Remember your opinion is highly valuable for me}

 

As we all know that Amd have launched several enthusiastic cpu's for Gaming purpose. AMD's hard work and dedication have finally lead them to take over Intel, especially their 3d v Cache technology hv suppresses Intel very easily.

 

I have also heard that Amd have launch 9950x3d, which is more powerful than 9800x3d in terms of Cores and 3d v Cache. However, when I saw some benchmarks, I was surprised to see that 9800x3d is still very close and unbeatable in some titles! But it might be some false info. n all.

 

As I know tht many of you have quite depth knoweldge regarding pc stuffs n all so I thought to share this post with all of you.

 

According to your knoweldge and experience please help me, which one should I choose for gaming

 

Plus I'm also looking for overclocking!!

 

 Feel free to share me your opinion.

[podkall]

Gaming only 9800x3D, the charts really explain it themself. If number don't go up even if other number go up, then something else must be going on:

 

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d/19.html

 

 

The 9950x3D still has only 3D cache on one of the 2 CCDs, (each CCD for that CPU has 8 cores for example) Which can sometimes slow the operations down, since if there's data on the other side on the bigger 3D CCD and it's the opposite side CCD that needs that data, there's a slightly bigger latency using that data, compared to when using it's own cache.

 

It's worth checking out the benchmark, because 9800x3D isn't always faster, it's design just allows it to be in 80% of the cases faster than 9950x3D with the minimum setup being enabling PBO and maybe small undervolt.

[OddOod]

28 minutes ago, Ayush008 said:

which is more powerful than 9800x3d in terms of Cores

Correct

28 minutes ago, Ayush008 said:

and 3d v Cache

Much less correct
The 9950X3D has two chips in it, only one of which has the 3D V cache.
Basically it has a 9800X3D and a 9700X which have been glued together with engineering magic. 
Unfortunately, operating systems still can't quite figure out how to seamlessly pick the V cache cores from the other ones. There are mitigations that you can do, but yes, the 9800X3D is still the king of gaming chips. The reason for the 9950X3D is for all the cores which helps in productivity work and little else

The reason that the 98 beats the 99 is mostly down to the fact that the extra cores are sucking power and thus producing heat which interferes with the performance of the actually useful cores. Even if you "turn off" the extra cores, the source of the heat is not directly under the middle of the cooler so it's harder for the cooler to suck that heat away

TLDR, if you game, get the 9800X3D

[cmndr]

CPUs don't matter THAT much for gaming. 

CPUs matter so little that you need to use a $3000 GPU, at ABNORMALLY LOW settings (e.g. 1080p, which is NOT something anyone does in the real world) to see a difference. 

 

There are exceptions where CPUs might matter like MMORPGs or Factorio, but neither of those is "frame rate sensitive" like an FPS title. 

It's arguable that it's worth a little bit more to get 3dVache on a high end build (I wouldn't argue against it), but yeah... if you buy a CPU, you should be looking at CPU/productivity benchmarks and tailoring towards likely use cases, not gaming benchmarks. 

 

-----

 

If your GPU/videocard is more of a bottleneck than a 4090 @4K is in these benchmarks (e.g. you "only" have something like a 4070) - then your results will be VERY close. The fastest CPU in here is basically in the same class as the 3600 from 6 years ago and which sold for $100-150 not long after launch. 

[freeagent]

I would do the 9950X3D over the 9800X3D.

 

After tuning, you should be a few hundred MHz faster.

[Ayush008]

49 minutes ago, podkall said:

Gaming only 9800x3D, the charts really explain it themself. If number don't go up even if other number go up, then something else must be going on:

 

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d/19.html

 

 

The 9950x3D still has only 3D cache on one of the 2 CCDs, (each CCD for that CPU has 8 cores for example) Which can sometimes slow the operations down, since if there's data on the other side on the bigger 3D CCD and it's the opposite side CCD that needs that data, there's a slightly bigger latency using that data, compared to when using it's own cache.

 

It's worth checking out the benchmark, because 9800x3D isn't always faster, it's design just allows it to be in 80% of the cases faster than 9950x3D with the minimum setup being enabling PBO and maybe small undervolt.

Thnx for giving me your valuable time and for explaining so wonderfully.

So acc. to u, for smooth 4k gaming without much stress (specially cpu bond games) which one should I go for?

[Hinjima]

Just now, Ayush008 said:

Thnx for giving me your valuable time and for explaining so wonderfully.

So acc. to u, for smooth 4k gaming without much stress (specially cpu bond games) which one should I go for?

9800X3D.

[podkall]

1 minute ago, Ayush008 said:

Thnx for giving me your valuable time and for explaining so wonderfully.

So acc. to u, for smooth 4k gaming without much stress (specially cpu bond games) which one should I go for?

9800x3D especially if you don't too much other stuff or run stuff in background.

 

You won't need 16 cores much anyway if it's just gaming you do, and maybe non-hardcore multitasking.

[cmndr]

2 minutes ago, Ayush008 said:

Thnx for giving me your valuable time and for explaining so wonderfully.

So acc. to u, for smooth 4k gaming without much stress (specially cpu bond games) which one should I go for?

Doesn't matter. A mid range CPU from 5 years won't "ruin" your experience. 
Anything above that is just a "nice to have" - and to be fair, it's nice to have nice stuff. 

If you're at the point where you're saving plenty of money each month, you don't have major obligations, etc. Get whatever. A 9700x 9800x3D, a u7 265, etc. will all be pretty close. If your system is used to make $$$ (e.g. doing compiling or rendering), an argument could be made for a better CPU.

[Ayush008]

53 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Correct

Much less correct
The 9950X3D has two chips in it, only one of which has the 3D V cache.
Basically it has a 9800X3D and a 9700X which have been glued together with engineering magic. 
Unfortunately, operating systems still can't quite figure out how to seamlessly pick the V cache cores from the other ones. There are mitigations that you can do, but yes, the 9800X3D is still the king of gaming chips. The reason for the 9950X3D is for all the cores which helps in productivity work and little else

The reason that the 98 beats the 99 is mostly down to the fact that the extra cores are sucking power and thus producing heat which interferes with the performance of the actually useful cores. Even if you "turn off" the extra cores, the source of the heat is not directly under the middle of the cooler so it's harder for the cooler to suck that heat away

TLDR, if you game, get the 9800X3D

Thnx @OddOod

For explaining so phenomenally.

However, if I can resolve heat issue through water cooler, will it help to perform better!?

[podkall]

@Agall went from 7950x3D to 9800x3D, so not sure if it's because 9800x3D released earlier than 9950x3D or if it's simply not worth as much over 9800x3D even if there was little bit that could be tweaked to make 9950x3D faster.

 

The thing is, "how much faster" it will really be. For example 4% average slower than 9800x3D, but you get few fps in XYZ games. But is few fps in XYZ games worth spending hundreds of $ more? Probably not.

[Ayush008]

9 minutes ago, cmndr said:

CPUs don't matter THAT much for gaming. 

CPUs matter so little that you need to use a $3000 GPU, at ABNORMALLY LOW settings (e.g. 1080p, which is NOT something anyone does in the real world) to see a difference. 

 

There are exceptions where CPUs might matter like MMORPGs or Factorio, but neither of those is "frame rate sensitive" like an FPS title. 

It's arguable that it's worth a little bit more to get 3dVache on a high end build (I wouldn't argue against it), but yeah... if you buy a CPU, you should be looking at CPU/productivity benchmarks and tailoring towards likely use cases, not gaming benchmarks. 

Thnx 

Will check it 

[Ayush008]

6 minutes ago, podkall said:

9800x3D especially if you don't too much other stuff or run stuff in background.

 

You won't need 16 cores much anyway if it's just gaming you do, and maybe non-hardcore multitasking.

Thnx @podkall for your explanation.

[Ayush008]

6 minutes ago, cmndr said:

Doesn't matter. A mid range CPU from 5 years won't "ruin" your experience. 
Anything above that is just a "nice to have" - and to be fair, it's nice to have nice stuff. 

If you're at the point where you're saving plenty of money each month, you don't have major obligations, etc. Get whatever. A 9700x 9800x3D, a u7 265, etc. will all be pretty close. If your system is used to make $$$ (e.g. doing compiling or rendering), an argument could be made for a better CPU.

No man 

Only for gaming 

[Ayush008]

17 minutes ago, freeagent said:

I would do the 9950X3D over the 9800X3D.

 

After tuning, you should be a few hundred MHz faster.

Thnx @freeagent

However how much faster, only 19/20 difference or huge diff?

[freeagent]

Couldn't tell you.. depends on luck, skill, gravitational pull, etc..

[Somerandomtechyboi]

2 hours ago, Ayush008 said:

Plus I'm also looking for overclocking!!

9800x3d as the 9950x3d is pretty pointless unless you need the extra cores

 

As for cpu overclocking if you want any decent cpu oc youll have to delid and run direct die

 

Ram oc is the only thing worth doing and even then its effects are somewhat neutered due to the extra cache, just get a 6000c30/32 6400c32 or any hynix a die kit and run buildzoid easy hynix timings at 6200 or 6400 depending on how high the uclk goes at 1.3v vsoc

[cmndr]

51 minutes ago, Ayush008 said:

No man 

Only for gaming 

Do you have a 4090 or faster GPU? If not, it probably won't matter TONS unless you have a narrowly defined use case. 

CPU matters for many (not all) gaming applications in the same way that tossing an ice cube into a swimming pool matters for cooling it down... you won't notice. 

 

Both the 9950x3D and 9800x3D are excellent and both will be fine. Even lesser CPUs will be fine. The 5800x3D is still decent, 3+ years later. I expect both the 9950x3D and 9800x3D (and 7800x3D and 7950x3D) to be more than adequate for 3+ years, likely 5+ years. You'll likely want a new graphics card and/or monitor before a new CPU. 

Ranking for gaming experience (for most titles) - 
GPU > Monitor > CPU 

[podkall]

3 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

As for cpu overclocking if you want any decent cpu oc youll have to delid and run direct die

You can do "mini OC" and just undervolt. PBO already does the majority of OCing for you anyway.

[Ayush008]

3 hours ago, podkall said:

You can do "mini OC" and just undervolt. PBO already does the majority of OCing for you anyway.

Actually I don't have any knowledge regarding oc. It's my first time

[Ayush008]

7 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

9800x3d as the 9950x3d is pretty pointless unless you need the extra cores

 

As for cpu overclocking if you want any decent cpu oc youll have to delid and run direct die

 

Ram oc is the only thing worth doing and even then its effects are somewhat neutered due to the extra cache, just get a 6000c30/32 6400c32 or any hynix a die kit and run buildzoid easy hynix timings at 6200 or 6400 depending on how high the uclk goes at 1.3v vsoc

Thnx for giving ur time n effort @Somerandomtechyboi. However, I didn't overclock anything before. So I hv no idea

What you're talking about

[podkall]

7 hours ago, Ayush008 said:

Actually I don't have any knowledge regarding oc. It's my first time

Good, because you don't OC in 2025 that much anymore. It requires research, time and sometimes little bit of money, like for beefy coolers or more powerful stuff.

[PecaCZE]

I am deciding aswell, since I refund my 13900K. If I don´t want to upgrade cpu for few years which one of these should I buy ? I´m pairing with current RTX 3080 which I plan to upgrade in the future. Only thing that scares me is number of cores, can anyone help me ? Do you think that extra 8 cores will help in the future for gaming ? Or both cpu-s that have same performance will get equally worse in the future ? 8 cores is quite minimum already if you want to play latest games for highest settings.

 

By the way I have same question in my own thread, thank you.

[Ayush008]

On 5/16/2025 at 7:04 PM, podkall said:

Good, because you don't OC in 2025 that much anymore. It requires research, time and sometimes little bit of money, like for beefy coolers or more powerful stuff.

Well since how long you're involved in overclocking....I mean u look experienced to me.

 As I'm saving for updating my system since very long due to which I have good budget.

[podkall]

20 hours ago, PecaCZE said:

I am deciding aswell, since I refund my 13900K. If I don´t want to upgrade cpu for few years which one of these should I buy ? I´m pairing with current RTX 3080 which I plan to upgrade in the future. Only thing that scares me is number of cores, can anyone help me ? Do you think that extra 8 cores will help in the future for gaming ? Or both cpu-s that have same performance will get equally worse in the future ? 8 cores is quite minimum already if you want to play latest games for highest settings.

 

By the way I have same question in my own thread, thank you.

No, for gaming you won't need that many cores, and if you don't run many background apss and stuff, it's even less reasons to go for it, unless you have other use-cases that isn't gaming.

 

20 minutes ago, Ayush008 said:

Well since how long you're involved in overclocking....I mean u look experienced to me.

 As I'm saving for updating my system since very long due to which I have good budget.

I don't really OC, but I'm in PC sphere for quite some time, same with these forums. Modern hardware is just good and tuned to run as fast as possible.

 

Most people forgot, but OC has always been a risk to do, you are increasing voltage and clock speeds and hope the part can handle it.

 

The modern hardware might be little more smarter now, but in contrast it probably used to be little more "safe", where there was "room" for OC, but now it's usually the hardware can be close to it's peak performance already.

 

Or sometimes past that, if you know year ago the 13th and 14th gen Intel problems.