AMD's new Ryzen 7 9850X3D has a price and release date — it's more affordable than I was expecting, putting the 9800X3D's future into question

As part of AMD's CES 2026 presentation, a new Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor was revealed. Just a couple of weeks after its initial unveiling, AMD has shared pricing and launch date info.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is officially expected to launch at $499, and you'll be able to buy it starting on January 29. It's well worth noting that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is still widely available at $469 and is extremely popular.

I'm expecting there to be quite a bit of noise surrounding the new chip's launch, and not just because 42% of polled Windows Central readers said — at the time of the initial CES unveiling, when pricing wasn't yet known — they're interested enough in the new chip to buy it instead of the 9800X3D.

The 9850X3D looks a lot like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The new CPU is thus being likened by some to a "binned" 9800X3D, which essentially means that it's the older chip with slightly superior tuning.

It's hard to argue with that sentiment when the specs are so similar. Like the 9800X3D, the 9850X3D has eight Zen 5 cores, 16 threads, a 104MB cache, and a 120W TDP. The only major difference is a buff to the chip's boost clock from 5.2GHz to 5.6GHz, which allows AMD to call it the new fastest gaming CPU on the market.

According to AMD's own performance charts, the 9850X3D will push average performance to 27% above the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K when playing at 1080p. The older 9800X3D in the same scenario hits a 24% average, a difference of only 3%. It will be very interesting to see how actual performance differs once reviewers get their hands on the product.

The new 9850X3D arrives using the same AM5 socket as the 9800X3D, making it easy to upgrade. However, the mild performance increase suggests AMD isn't targeting users who already have a 9800X3D.

Regardless, I'm curious to see how the 9850X3D affects the 9800X3D's future. A price difference of $31 isn't a lot, especially if the real-world performance gap proves to be wider than expected.

AMD extends an olive branch for those struggling to find affordable RAM

Part of the magic of AMD's second-gen 3D V-Cache setup — the engineering that delivers such a huge boost when gaming — is that it relies less on high-performance RAM to deliver high frame rates.

AMD reminds us in its press release that the performance difference between DDR5-4800 RAM and DDR5-6000 RAM is less than 1%, tested in more than 30 games. With high-end DDR5 RAM now costing more than most of us are willing to pay, it's just another reason why the 9850X3D (and its other modern X3D siblings) are generally so coveted by enthusiasts.

Assuming we can get our hands on the 9850X3D when it launches, we'll be sure to compare its direct gaming performance with the 9800X3D. I wouldn't mind poking around with the RAM speed claims, either.

Are you happy with the $499 price AMD has set for the Ryzen 7 9850X3D? Let us know in the comments below!

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