AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D – Upgrade to this or a better graphics card ?

Upgrade processor or graphics card

Because the bottleneck depends on resolution and game, we always recommend considering whether upgrading the processor or graphics card is best for you.

If you don’t have a limited budget and can buy both the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and a powerful graphics card, it is of course the best choice, but if you have a more limited budget to work with, you will want to think about it and check tests. To give general rules of thumb and somewhere to start, we can summarize some common scenarios where it may be worth upgrading.

CPU vs GPU

Worth upgrading the processor if you:

Play e-sports in 1080p and want the highest FPS possible. Then pair the processor with a graphics card in at least the upper mid-range, such as the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT.

Have a powerful graphics card, such as the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, and want to get the most out of it in 1080p, 1440p or ultra-wide, where you play both light and heavy-duty games.

Not worth upgrading the processor if you:

Have a slightly older graphics card, but a relatively competent processor. If you have, for example, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with a Radeon RX 5700 XT or equivalent – then you will probably get more performance from upgrading the graphics card.

Primarily play heavy-duty/modern games in high resolutions and aim for eye candy with 60 FPS, where your graphics card still sets the limits.

Although it may not be worth it for you to upgrade to the world’s best gaming processor, it may still be worth upgrading the processor, but that you then allocate your budget differently. For example, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and 9600X also provide very good gaming performance, but at a much lower price. Then you can spend more money on the graphics card and get more gaming performance overall.

The great thing about upgrading to the AMD AM5 platform is that you also get upgrade options, as they have promised support until at least 2027. This means that more models will be released for AM5, just as new models extended the lifespan of AM4. So even if you don’t have the budget to upgrade to both a good graphics card and Ryzen 7 9800X3D right now, you can still upgrade to the platform with a cheaper processor with good courage – so you can upgrade to an even better model in the future.

Which motherboards work with Ryzen 7 9800X3D?

Just like the rest of the AMD Ryzen 9000 series, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is made for motherboards with socket AM5 and supports PCIe 5.0 and fast DDR5 memory. They should work with all motherboards with the new X870 and X870E chipsets right out of the box. If you have a motherboard with X670, X670E, B650, B650E or A620 you will need to update the BIOS, read the motherboard manufacturer’s product page for what applies.

If you are planning to buy a new motherboard with one of the 600 series chipsets, we recommend choosing a model where the BIOS can be updated without the CPU, otherwise you will need a processor from the 7000 series to access the BIOS update. For ASUS, the function is called BIOS FlashBack, for MSI Flash BIOS, for Gigabyte Q-Flash and for ASRock it is just called Flashback.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is made for DDR5 with up to 6,000 MHz, with the possibility of higher via overclocking the memory. We would have recommended checking tests to see at which frequency you get the most performance for your money before choosing the memory, in many cases, for example, 6,000 MHz together with low latency (CL value) can be preferable over the highest possible frequency.

We also recommend choosing memory with AMD EXPO, a technology that gives you ready-made and optimized memory profiles to choose from – which is often the best option for those who do not want to make advanced settings.

Conclusion

In summary, we can happily state that the AM5 platform continues to deliver really fun news for technology enthusiasts, and added value for those who have already bought into the platform. We of course recommend waiting for reviews to see exactly how good this will be, but most of the evidence suggests that the AMD Ryzen 9800X3D will be the best choice for gaming for a long time to come.