Gaming Performance
We are testing only at 1080p, to isolate CPU performance. We are using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition video card with driver version 565.90. All games are being run in their “Ultra” game settings, at native 1080p resolution, and with no ray tracing or upscaling. In some games, we have set the desktop also to 1080p for Windowed/Borderless Window games. Importantly, we are using ALL manual run-throughs for every game here, not a single built-in benchmark was used, these are all manual run-throughs actually in the game, playing the game.
All CPUs are tested in Windows 11 power profile of “Balanced.” Where noted, Intel Arrow Lake CPUs are shown in both Balanced (B) and Best Performance (BP) power profile modes. As you look at the graphs, pay special attention to the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (blue bar) versus AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (light gray bar), to see the generational uplift.
Alan Wake 2
In Alan Wake 2 the new AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is 6% faster than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 4% faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is also a pretty large 24% faster than the Ryzen 7 9700X, which shares the same core/thread count. Therefore, from generation to generation this particular game at Ultra is seeing a 6% improvement in performance with the new AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. At this performance level, it is faster than every other CPU, including Intel’s latest generation. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is 28% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K at its best performance. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is also 16% faster than the Intel Core Ultra i9-14900K.
Black Myth Wukong
Before gasping at the results in this game, be aware that Black Myth Wukong is not the best game for CPU performance testing, it is very GPU-dependent on the Cinematic preset, even at 1080p, and is an outlier. However, we did perform a manual run-through in this game, this is in-game performance, not the benchmark. We thought this game would be relevant due to the popularity, and modern game engine and graphics. In the future, we will most likely drop the quality setting below Cinematic to better show CPU differences.
All of that said, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is 1% faster than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in this game and does eek out overall as the fastest CPU. The Intel Arrow Lake CPUs do quite poorly, by contrast. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is 3% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which for this game at these settings is the largest difference. In the future, dropping the quality settings may help us to detect more differences in CPU performance. Look at this game as an outlier in our data.
Horizon Forbidden West
In Horizon Forbidden West the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is 6% faster than the previous generation Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 9 7950X3D. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is also a pretty big 18% faster than the Ryzen 7 9700X. At this performance level, it is also 14% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and 18% faster than the Intel Core Ultra i9-14900K.
The Last of Us Part I
In The Last of Us Part 1 the new AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is 9% faster than the previous generation Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 7% faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. It’s also a very large 23% faster than the Ryzen 7 9700X. Compared to the competition, it is 14% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and 12% faster than the Intel Core Ultra i9-14900K.