The fastest gaming CPU could get a supercharged version soon, as new AMD Ryzen 9850X3D leak pops up

• AMD's Ryzen 9850X3D has been leaked again
• This time there's photographic evidence of the CPU on a BIOS screen
• With all the chatter on the grapevine about this refresh of the Ryzen 9800X3D, it seems likely to arrive soon, possibly with a CES 2026 launch

AMD's rumored refresh of its top gaming processor, the Ryzen 9800X3D, is the subject of yet another leak, with this chip having been a regular on the CPU grapevine of late.

This is the Ryzen 9850X3D, and Wccftech reports that HXL, a well-known hardware leaker on X, posted a photo of an Asus BIOS screen which shows the processor as an 8-core chip with a 5.3GHz clock speed. It's running in an Asus B850 motherboard.

In theory, we're seeing an engineering sample chip being put through its paces, but as with any leak, we should remain cautious – although the photographic evidence presented here is more substantial than previous whispers (with the possible exception of one apparent leak, when a page for the Ryzen 9850X3D was accidentally and briefly posted on the official AMD website in France before being taken down).

There were no spec details provided in that mistake on Team Red's French site, but we've already had multiple rumors all insisting the same thing – that the Ryzen 9850X3D will be essentially the same as the existing 9800X3D, it'll just crank up the boost clock to 5.6GHz.

Analysis: this should be good news for gamers, one way or another

While we don't see that 5.6GHz boost speed in the leaked photo, that doesn't put paid to the idea that the Ryzen 9850X3D will run with that top clock speed. Remember, this is an engineering sample in testing, so any clock speeds are likely to reflect that.

If the Ryzen 9850X3D does indeed reach a boost of 5.6GHz, that will make it 400MHz quicker than the Ryzen 9800X3D. A recent leak showed the 9850X3D being 5% faster than the vanilla 9800X3D in both single-core and multi-core tests in PassMark, but that's hardly an ideal benchmark to judge a gaming CPU by.

The reality is that the extra boost speed will be nice, certainly, but not likely a huge improvement – and at any rate, the influence of the CPU in gaming scenarios varies considerably from game to game (and is dependent on the resolution, too, as the GPU is much more of a factor at high resolutions such as 4K).

Still, the Ryzen 9800X3D is widely regarded as the top gaming processor, and so a refreshed take which is a bit quicker is always going to be well-received as a result. The problem is that when (well, I should say if) the Ryzen 9850X3D arrives it'll likely be selling at a fairly hefty MSRP. And if stock is thin on the ground to begin with, that price could be further inflated by demand or price gouging, potentially.

That said, any initial clamor will settle down no doubt, and there's another positive element to this potential release – namely that a Ryzen 9850X3D would put downward pricing pressure on the Ryzen 9800X3D, so we could get some more tempting bargains with that excellent chip next year, as we saw with the 7800X3D before it. Fingers crossed.

Of course, the Ryzen 9850X3D is still to be confirmed, but it's looking increasingly likely now, possibly debuting at CES 2026 which would be an obvious platform for this launch.

The best graphics cards for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best graphics card
1. Best overall:
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
2. Best budget:
Intel Arc B580
3. Best Nvidia:
Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti
4. Best AMD:
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

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