If you’re looking to make a serious CPU upgrade, right now is a great time to buy either the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D or Ryzen 7 9800X3D. In the last few weeks, prices for AMD’s flagship gaming CPUs have steadily dropped, making them both nearly the lowest price they’ve ever been.
The 9850X3D is the single best gaming CPU around at the moment, and has only been available for three months. However, despite that, it has already seen its price drop significantly, with it currently $41, or 8%, cheaper than at launch. AMD’s latest is still a pricey option, but if you want the best, it just got a lot more affordable.
Meanwhile, the 9800X3D might have been superseded by the 9850X3D, but it’s still the second fastest gaming CPU around, and its price has fallen $59.01, or 12%. That makes it $39 cheaper than the 9850X3D, and although this CPU has been cheaper once before (hitting $409.95 rather than its current $419.99), this is otherwise the lowest price it has ever been.
To get a sense of why you might want to pay over $400 for either of these eight-core gaming CPUs, you can read our 9850X3D review. Despite the impressive performance gains (and great value) of Intel’s latest Core Ultra 270K Plus and 250K Plus chips, the X3D technology in the 9850X3D still makes it comfortably the fastest gaming CPU out there.
Crucially, even if you’ve already got a decent AMD AM5 X3D CPU, such as the 7800X3D, either of these CPUs could still make for a worthwhile upgrade. Not only do they both offer a noticeable step up in gaming performance, but their much faster clock speeds make for decent games in non-gaming workloads too.
The recent price drops (as demonstrated in the chart above) for these CPUs aren’t officially coming from AMD, with no change in the MSRP for either chip. However, retailers have steadily dropped their prices, from the 9850X3D’s recent launch price of $499 and the 9800X3D’s recent typical price of around $450.
Other stores are offering savings right now, but we tracked these price changes on Amazon, with the 9800X3D available there for $419.99, via this link, and the 9850X3D available for $458.99, via this link.
Pricing in other parts of the world will vary, but regions such as the UK also have decent discounts right now, with the 9800X3D down 19%.
