AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D release date, price, and specs

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is AMD's upcoming flagship gaming CPU, destined to knock the 9800X3D off the top spot in game benchmarks and become the new go-to choice for those building the ultimate gaming PC in 2026. While many details of the new chip have previously been detailed, it's only now the company has confirmed the 9850X3D release date and price, and thankfully, the latter isn't as high as I expected.

As our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review proved, AMD has mastered the art of creating a CPU that doesn't need 20+ cores to become the best gaming CPU you can buy, and that's a trend that will continue with the 9850X3D. Instead, its 3D V-Cache technology is the secret sauce to making these otherwise modest eight-core chips ultra-fast in games. Where the 9850X3D is set to eke ahead of the 9800X3D is thanks to a little extra clock speed, and inevitably, though, that does come with a slight increase in price.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D price is $499, which is just $20 higher than the 9800X3D's launch MSRP. Taking to X on January 22, 2026, AMD's VP & GM of Ryzen CPU and Radeon graphics, David McAfee, unveiled the 9850X3D price, noting that, "The world's most advanced gaming processor just got faster."

Previous rumors had suggested the 9850X3D price could be as high around $550, so seeing the new chip come in at under $500 is a bonus. It still makes this a very expensive option for an eight-core CPU - AMD's own 9700X is just $300 - but the company's X3D chips have always demanded a significant premium, both because of the extra manufacturing difficulty and the huge impact the tech has on gaming performance.

AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D release date

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D release date is January 29, 2026, as revealed by David McAfee on January 22. This puts the release of the company's latest flagship chip at 14 months after the 9800X3D.

AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D specs

These are the Ryzen 7 9850X3D specs:

As these specs show, the 9850X3D really is identical to the 9800X3D, other than having a slightly higher peak clock speed. The 9800X3D tops out at 5.2GHz, but the 9850X3D pushes on to 5.6GHz, which in theory could result in a 7-8% increase in frame rates.

Otherwise, this is the same eight-core, 16-thread chip based on AMD's current Zen 5 CPU architecture and fitting in AMD AM5 motherboards.

Like that older chip, a key appeal of the 9850X3D will be that its TDP is only 120W. We're used to flagship CPUs packing in the most cores and having ultra-high power consumption, but AMD's 3D V-Cache tech works best when partnered with just eight cores and doesn't need the chip to be clocked within an inch of its life.

We'll be testing the 9850X3D in the coming days to see just whether that extra few MHz really makes a difference, and if you should earmark this new chip for your system, or whether you might be better off opting for a considerably cheaper chip.