Did AMD just make the Ryzen 7 9800X3D obsolete? — A new CPU threatening its supremacy is on the way

There's no other way to say it: AMD had a great year in 2025. With record-setting revenue, multi-billion dollar AI compute deals, and the launch of FSR Redstone as better competition for NVIDIA's DLSS, AMD padded its CPU supremacy by launching the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D.

These chips were more powerful follow-ups to the processor that every PC gamer wants, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which launched late-2024.

Although the Ryzen 9000 X3D lineup seemed complete, AMD has now unveiled the Ryzen 7 9850X3D at CES 2026. It slots into the lineup between the aforementioned Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the Ryzen 9 9900X, featuring 8 cores, 16 threads, a 5.6GHz boost clock, 104MB of combined L2 and L3 cache, and a 120W TDP.

Yes, it's nearly identical to the 9800X3D — AMD says it's essentially a fine-tuned 9800X3D, and only the boost clock is slightly (0.4GHz) higher. According to AMD's own benchmarks, you can expect roughly a 3% average boost in performance from the 9850X3D compared to the 9800X3D.

AMD plans to launch the chip in Q1 2026, but there's not yet any pricing info. Considering the 9800X3D currently costs about $469 ($10 below MSRP), I can't see the new 9850X3D costing much more when the performance difference is so small.

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AMD's new "Gorgon Point" processors aren't just for laptops

AMD's Ryzen AI 400 series chips, otherwise known as "Gorgon Point," have officially been revealed.

There are seven new chips in total, starting with the Ryzen AI 5 430 and climbing all the way to the Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 with 12 Zen 5 cores, 24 threads, 5.2GHz boost clock, 16 RDNA 3.5 graphics CUs, and an XDNA 2 NPU with 60 TOPS of power.

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Rather than being restricted to laptops, AMD says these chips are also arriving as socketable desktop CPUs in consumer and commercial Copilot+ PCs. The chips are expected to arrive in laptops, desktops, and other form factors in Q1 2026.

New Ryzen AI Max+ chips have the coveted Radeon 8060S GPU

AMD has also padded its Ryzen AI Max+ series of mobile processors, which was first introduced last year at CES 2025.

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ and Max+ Pro were touted as being "faster than an RTX 4090" thanks to their dedicated memory architecture that allows up to 96GB of system RAM to be used on the integrated GPU, all with a 256GB/s bandwidth. We tested the Pro version of the chip to great effect in our HP Z2 Mini (G1a) review.

One issue with the lineup was that you needed to splurge on the 16-core chip if you wanted to land the powerful integrated Radeon 8060S GPU with 60 TFLOPS of power and 40 graphics CUs.

That's now changed with the introduction of the Ryzen AI Max+ 392 and Ryzen AI Max+ 388. Both chips feature the same Radeon 8060S GPU, albeit with fewer cores (12 and 8, respectively).

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is still readily available for less than MSRP (about $469), potentially putting the Ryzen 7 9850X3D in a tough spot at launch. At what price would the new chip have to launch to attract buyers? Let us know in the comments below!

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