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Leaked MSI presentation shows that Ryzen 9000X3D may fail to impress

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D sitting on a motherboard.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

AMD’s 3D V-Cache CPUs have been atop the list of the best gaming processors ever since the 5800X3D launched in 2022. It’s no wonder that many gamers are anticipating the 9000X3D lineup, especially because the non-3D Zen 5 failed to move the needle in gaming scenarios. However, according to a new leak from a surprising source, we might not see much of a change going from the 7000X3D to the 9000X3D.

The information comes from a leaked MSI presentation that was reportedly posted by HardwareLuxx following a tour of the MSI factory. The slides appear to have been taken down, but other sources, such as VideoCardz, preserved them for all of us to see. Keep in mind that even though these look like they contain official MSI data, nothing is confirmed until the processors are out and being tested by reviewers.

MSI OC Lab / HardwareLuxx

MSI compared the 9000X3D lineup to its non-3D counterparts, as well as to the previous generation of CPUs. The gaming tests only included three titles, which is not a lot, but the eight-core Ryzen 9000X3D (presumably the Ryzen 7 9800X3D) was anywhere between 2% and 13% faster in these titles. Far Cry 6 showed the biggest 13% uplift, but in Black Myth: Wukong, the CPU trailed behind its predecessor with a measly 2% improvement. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D saw even smaller gains ranging from 2% to 11%.

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The company also ran some Cinebench R23 tests, with both CPUs fixed at a maximum of 5.2GHz. We don’t currently know the maximum clock speeds for the 9000X3D series, but if they’re higher than that, there might be some more performance that will come to light when the CPUs are tested at their maximum frequency.

A leaked slide of 9000X3D performance.
MSI OC Lab / HardwareLuxx

These synthetic tests comparing the chips also turned out fairly similar, with a 9% improvement in single-core for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and a 16% boost in the multi-core test. The benchmark results look a lot better for the 9800X3D here, though, ranging from 18% to 28%. It seems that while its gaming performance might appear lackluster, the synthetic test has gone more than well. We’ve already covered these results before, and now, the leaked MSI presentation appears to be the source behind the numbers.

The biggest problem with these benchmarks might be that the difference between the Ryzen 9000X3D and the non-3D parts seems fairly subtle so far. MSI’s leaked tests show the CPUs very close together, and this includes both the eight-core and 16-core parts.

It’s too early to believe any leaked benchmarks, even though MSI is obviously a credible source, but we cannot know how these results were obtained. However, it looks like we may not see the kind of improvement we’ve seen in the 7800X3D, which was over 20% faster in gaming scenarios.

We’ll have to wait and test the chips ourselves once they’re out. The current prediction is that AMD will announce the Ryzen 9000X3D lineup on October 25, with a November 7 release date for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
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