This AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D benchmark leak shows a massive clock speed boost

The new gaming CPU has reportedly been tested in Cinebench and Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail while running at over 5.6GHz, thanks to PBO.

A new AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D benchmark leak appears to show the new gaming CPU running at a much faster clock speed than its predecessor, the 7800X3D. Despite the gaming prowess provided by its AMD 3D V-cache, the latter was held back by its meager 5GHz clock speed. However, this new leak shows a new eight-core Ryzen 9000X3D gaming CPU running at over 5.6GHz.

The AMD Ryzen 9000X3D release date is coming soon now, and the successor to the acclaimed 7800X3D is widely expected to be the best gaming CPU when it comes out, assuming AMD gets the pricing right.

Not only will the chip be based on the new AMD Zen 5 architecture, but the 9800X3D clock speed is also expected to be higher. So far we’ve seen 4.7GHz mooted as the base clock for the new chip, and 5.2GHz for the boost clock, with the latter giving you an extra 200MHz over the 7800X3D.

However, this new leak, which comes from Igor Kavinsky on the Anandtech forums, as spotted by Videocardz, purports to show the 9800X3D running Cinebench and the Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail benchmark with a maximum effective clock speed of 5,687MHz, and a max stated core clock of 5,609MHz, as reported by the Asus ROG-skinned Benchmate software screenshot.

Some parts of the screenshot are blanked out, such as the memory and name of the CPU. However, the CPU-Z screenshot appears to show that this is indeed an eight-core Ryzen 9000X3D chip running with a 55.53x multiplier, and hitting 5,643MHz, while the “ES” suffix in Benchmate denotes that this CPU is an engineering sample. Notepad is also open in the screenshot, where the leaker has typed “9800X3D” as well as “PBO CO + offset + BCLK.”

What this means is that the user has overclocked the CPU’s base clock (BCLK) to achieve this frequency, while also enlisting some help from AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive feature. The latter automatically boosts the voltage available to the CPU, as long as your cooling system will allow it, giving it room to run at a higher clock speed.

Meanwhile, CO stands for “curve optimizer,” an AMD feature that enables you to tweak the curve of the CPU boost clock in relation to voltage. If you have a really potent cooling system and you’re an overclocking expert, then you can use PBO, CO, and a base clock boost to overclock a CPU with a locked multiplier, such as the 7800X3D.

In this case, the results are huge, with the 9800X3D purportedly producing a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,528. As a point of comparison, I recently retested the 7800X3D with the latest motherboard BIOS and Windows update, and it scored just 17,990 in this test at stock speed – that’s a 41.9% performance boost with the new CPU at these settings.

Meanwhile, the Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail benchmark shows a huge result of 62,360 at the Standard (laptop) settings, running at 1,280 x 720 to stress the CPU rather than the GPU. This is a high result, but there’s no detail on the GPU used so it’s impossible to provide a meaningful comparison.

AMD hasn’t yet revealed the specs of the 9800X3D, and this result was clearly achieved with a fair bit of tweaking, but it looks as though there’s room to tweak the new chip if you have the right gear, with the potential for decent boost clocks. Let’s hope the stock boost offers a decent step up from the 7800X3D too.

AMD isn’t the only company bringing out new processors right now, though. If you want to see what the competition has in store, then check out our Intel Arrow Lake guide, where we outline the specs, price, and release date of Intel’s new chips.