Did AMD just make the Ryzen 7 9800X3D obsolete? — A new CPU threatening its supremacy is on the way

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2025 was a fantastic year for AMD. The company achieved record revenue, secured major AI computing contracts worth billions, and introduced FSR Redstone, a strong competitor to NVIDIA’s DLSS. Adding to their already leading position in CPUs, AMD released the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors.

These new chips build on the success of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the popular processor for PC gamers that came out in late 2024, offering even better performance.

AMD surprised everyone at CES 2026 by adding another processor to its Ryzen 9000 X3D series: the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. This new chip fits between the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the Ryzen 9 9900X, offering 8 cores, 16 threads, and a maximum boost clock speed of 5.6GHz. It also includes a combined 104MB of L2 and L3 cache and has a power draw of 120W.

The 9850X3D is very similar to the 9800X3D; AMD describes it as a refined version with a slightly faster boost clock (0.4GHz). AMD’s testing shows the 9850X3D offers about a 3% average performance improvement over the 9800X3D.

AMD is aiming to release the chip in early 2026, though the price hasn’t been announced yet. Given that the current 9800X3D sells for around $469—slightly below its suggested retail price—I doubt the new 9850X3D will be significantly more expensive, especially since the performance gains are expected to be minimal.

AMD’s new “Gorgon Point” processors aren’t just for laptops

AMD’s Ryzen AI 400 series chips, otherwise known as “Gorgon Point,” have officially been revealed.

AMD has released seven new Ryzen AI processors, ranging from the Ryzen AI 5 430 to the high-end Ryzen AI 9 HX 475. The top-of-the-line Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 boasts 12 Zen 5 cores, 24 threads, a boost clock speed of up to 5.2GHz, integrated RDNA 3.5 graphics, and a powerful XDNA 2 NPU capable of 60 TOPS (trillions of operations per second).

AMD announced that its new chips won’t be limited to laptops; they’ll also be available as standard desktop processors in Copilot+ PCs for both home and business users. These chips are anticipated to appear in various devices, including laptops, desktops, and other types of computers, starting in the first quarter of 2026.

New Ryzen AI Max+ chips have the coveted Radeon 8060S GPU

AMD has expanded its Ryzen AI Max+ line of mobile processors, originally launched last year at CES 2025.

AMD claimed their Ryzen AI Max+ and Max+ Pro processors could outperform an RTX 4090 graphics card. This is due to a unique memory system that allows the integrated GPU to access up to 96GB of system RAM with a very fast data transfer rate of 256GB/s. We saw impressive results when testing the Pro version in our review of the HP Z2 Mini (G1a).

From my analysis, a key drawback of this product line was that to get the really impressive Radeon 8060S GPU – boasting 60 TFLOPS of performance and 40 compute units – you were essentially forced to buy the more expensive 16-core processor. It felt like you couldn’t get the powerful graphics without paying a premium for extra processing power you might not need.

Things have changed with the release of the Ryzen AI Max+ 392 and Ryzen AI Max+ 388 processors. Both include a Radeon 8060S GPU, but with slightly different processing power – the 392 has 12 cores, while the 388 has 8.

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2026-01-06 06:44