AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D is probably about to lose its crown as the fastest gaming CPU in the world

AMD has seemingly just officially revealed the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D, suggesting that the 9800X3D's days as the fastest gaming CPU in town are numbered. Previously leaked back in October, the new 9850X3D was then rumoured to have exactly the same specs as the 9800X3D, but with a faster clock speed, and although this unveiling by AMD hasn't confirmed these specs, everything points to this being the next in line for the gaming CPU crown.

As our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review proved, that chip has been the best gaming CPU since it launched late last year, and it has remained largely uncontested thanks to poor competition from Intel. We're expecting a new flagship desktop CPU from Intel - the Core Ultra 270K - to be announced early next year, but for now, it looks like AMD might be set to continue dominating game CPU charts for the foreseeable future.

When we say official reveal, AMD hasn't actually made an announcement about the 9850X3D. However, a placeholder has appeared on AMD's website, which was spotted by serial tech leaker, @Olrak29_, over on X. Follow this link to AMD's site, and you'll see that there's a page titled "AMD Ryzen™ 7 9850X3D Drivers and Downloads - Latest Version," which, to all intents and purposes, confirms that this is an official upcoming CPU launch from the company.

The new page doesn't include any specs for the new chip, but a previous leak that also included specs for the rumored 9950X3D2 has given us a glimpse of what to expect.

AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D specs leak

These are the rumored Ryzen 7 9850X3D specifications, as AMD has not officially announced this CPU:

These leaked specs suggest the 9850X3D will include the same 8-core, 16-thread design as the 9800X3D, but its clock speed will increase from a peak of 5.2GHz to 5.6GHz. This modest 400 megahertz speed increase is unlikely to revolutionize your gaming performance, but in theory, it could unlock up to an 8% increase in frame rate in certain CPU-bound situations.

Another crucial appealing aspect of this chip is that its leaked TDP is still only 120W, which is impressively low for such a fast-running chip, and one that's expected to be the best for gaming. However, all these specs are based on a previous leak, and with AMD still not having officially mentioned the 9850X3D, all this information should still be treated as rumor and taken with a grain of salt. We'd be surprised if they turn out to be untrue, but there's always that chance.