AMD Ryzen 9800X3D overclocking potential shown: CPU hits jaw-dropping 6.9GHz, exceeds 1,200 fps in Counter-Strike 2

• AMD’s Ryzen 9800X3D has been overclocked to 6.9GHz with liquid nitrogen
• This is the first X3D CPU that can be overclocked and it’s very impressive
• It reached 1,260 fps in Counter-Strike 2 and over 1,500 fps in Valorant

AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D is hitting the shelves later today, but the processor is already in the hands of expert overclockers being pushed to its limits – hitting nearly 7GHz for clock speeds and reaching outrageous frame rates in games and scenarios where the CPU is pushed hard.

In case it escaped your attention, one of the interesting points about this new 3D V-Cache CPU is that it’s unlocked, so can be overclocked – which wasn’t possible with previous generation X3D chips. (Its clock speeds are also faster, all of this thanks to the 3D V-Cache being situated underneath the CCD – the die containing the processor cores – allowing for better cooling, compared to the cache being on top where it was located previously).

Wccftech reports that the General Manager of Asus China, Tony Yu, has shared a huge overclock of the Ryzen 9800X3D on Bilibili where the chip was running from 6.7GHz all the way up to 6.9GHz with liquid nitrogen cooling across a battery of tests.

Naturally, an Asus motherboard was used, with the ROG Crosshair X670E Gene playing host to the CPU – and an Nvidia RTX 4090 on hand as the GPU in the gaming tests.

In those gaming benchmarks, Yu ran Counter-Strike 2 at 1080p (max graphics settings) and hit 1,262.9 frames per second (fps), which is pretty incredible. That’s almost as quick as the Core i9-14900K, which as Wccftech points out, managed to peak at over 1,300 fps – but there’s a huge difference in power usage for these processors.

The Ryzen 9800X3D hit that frame rate at around the 100W mark, with the Intel CPU guzzling way more power – it can reach 360W or so in normal (albeit heavy) usage, let alone with exotic overclocking. Also, the 14900K was running at way faster clocks of 7.5GHz to 8GHz.

Valorant was also used to run the Ryzen 9800X3D through its gaming paces and the CPU averaged close to 1,100 fps at 1080p resolution (again with maxed out settings), reaching over 1,500 fps at times.

The Ryzen 9800X3D also took a Cinebench R23 run where the CPU achieved a score of 30,513, over a third faster than Wccftech’s own result when using PBO (overclocking using Precision Boost Overdrive, of course with normal cooling, not the exotic methods employed here).

Analysis: Gaming excellence with efficiency in spades

It’s seriously impressive that the Ryzen 9800X3D can achieve these frame rates at clock speeds of around 15% lower than Intel’s Core i9-14900K, and at a power usage which is way, way, lower – at 100W, AMD’s chip is really pulling out some stops here.

This is a really efficient chip for overclockers, in other words, and capable of coming close to matching the 14900K when engaging in all-in exotic overclocking with the likes of liquid nitrogen (while keeping the system stable enough to play a game, albeit for a brief period of time only, no doubt).

These kind of overclocks don’t have any real-world application, of course, but they do show that more standard overclocking (with robust air, or liquid cooling) has a great deal of potential in getting a lot more out of the 9800X3D – something the rumor mill has already let us know. There’s also that ‘X3D turbo mode’ we keep hearing about to consider as well.

Interesting times, then – the Ryzen 9800X3D is looking pretty strong (our full review is imminent, by the way), and rumor has it that stock levels will be plentiful. Although the slight fly in the ointment is that price hike of just over 5% AMD has applied compared to the MSRP of its predecessor.

The Core i9-14900K remains the absolute fastest gaming CPU out there, and it’ll be a bit cheaper than the 9800X3D, at least going by prices at the time of writing, as there are some big discounts on the last-gen Intel flagship right now (as part of early Black Friday deals in some cases). But the trade-off is a much heavier power drain with the 14900K as already noted. (Plus, perhaps, worries about stability too – though Intel has put those problems to bed now, the specter of them likely remains in the back of the gaming public’s collective mind).

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