AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D To Feature Significant Clock Speed Boost

We’ve known about the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D for a good long while now, and previous leaks and rumors indicated that it would offer a rather significant boost in gaming performance thanks to changes to the 3D V-cache amounts and layouts. Now, a new leak, which purports to show off the official retail packaging for the new CPU, suggests that clock speeds will get a boost over the existing AMD Ryzen 7 78000X3D.

The leak, shared by Moore’s Law Is Dead on YouTube, shows off a supposed retail box for the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D that was sent to AMD’s partners for marketing, and along with that, he claims to have had access to the entire marketing slide deck, which is where the frequency boost information comes from. According to the leaker, the 9800X3D’s marketing material specifically calls out the processor as being “designed for increased frequencies.”

It’s unclear whether this wording in the marketing refers to faster base or boost clocks, but previous reporting revealed that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D would have more overclocking potential than its predecessors, which were generally locked to their stock clock speeds to protect the more sensitive 3D V-cache stacked on the CPU dies. In all likelihood, this likely references both increased base and boost clocks as well as improved overclocking headroom.

It could also be a similar case to AMD’s other 9000 series Ryzen CPUs, which shipped with a 65 W TDP and were later updated to 105 W after it was revealed that the 65 W limit drastically hampered performance improvements compared to the previous generation. AMD even went so far as to say that it would honor warranties for any Zen 5 CPUs that were configured to run at an increased TDP.

In addition to confirming previous rumors about the new X3D CPU being capable of higher clock speeds, MLID also reinforced other rumors that the 9800X3D will be launching as soon as October 2024.

[Editor’s note: Our in-depth review of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is live]