Is The Top-Selling Processor On Amazon Really Worth Buying? Here's What Users Say

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Amazon customers shopping for desktop computer processors have consistently kept one product in high demand. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D not only tops the best-seller list for CPUs, but also ranks as the most wished for. At first glance, it's easy to wonder why Amazon customers are so set on this CPU. At $479 as of this writing, it's not the most affordable processor on offer from AMD, nor is it the most powerful, with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D sitting above it.

What the Ryzen 7 9800X3D has going for it is a reputation as a gaming powerhouse, even without overclocking the CPU. Released in late 2024, it delivered eyebrow-raising performance and quickly earned stellar reviews from several trusted outlets. Many called it the best gaming CPU on the market. As a result, it has become the "no-brainer" recommendation for anyone looking to build a powerful gaming PC. It may not be the best choice for every build, but if gaming performance is all you care about, it's likely at the top of your wish list.

However, the 9800X3D is now nearing its first birthday, an eternity for computer parts. Has the hype helped keep this processor popular past its shelf life, or is it still a superstar? We combed through what users and reviewers had to say to find out. Here's what owners of Amazon's best-selling CPU have to say about it.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is popular because it's an excellent gaming CPU. The "3D" in its name means that it's equipped with AMD's 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache technology, which stacks a small amount of memory below the CPU die. The chip can store some data there instead of relying entirely on the system's much slower dedicated RAM. Think of it like being able to check the time on your watch instead of your phone. Your phone is much more powerful, but digging it out of your pocket takes longer.

Users prefer the 9800X3D for gaming, even compared to the more premium Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which is a productivity-oriented chip. Professional testing backs that opinion, with Gamers Nexus finding the 9800X3D neck and neck with its more expensive sibling in gaming benchmarks, though it struggles to keep up in Blender rendering, Chromium compiling, and other tasks that rely on multi-threaded performance. The 9800X3D is a Goldilocks chip for gamers, as spending more for the 9950X3D provides no extra performance for them. However, unless you have one of the most powerful GPUs on the market, many users consider the older Ryzen 7 7800X3D a decent option that will still perform admirably in most games.

It's not all kittens and sunshine for this fan-favorite processor, though. Users have reported several instances of catastrophic failure on the 9800X3D, especially on ASRock motherboards. The failure rate doesn't seem overly high for other brands, but it's still worth noting.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is clearly one of the best gaming CPUs currently available, but is it right for you? If you don't play video games, you may want to look elsewhere. Half a grand is a lot of money, and if the rest of your PC can't take full advantage of the CPU's power, the costs likely outweigh the benefits. Although it's amazing in games, users running the 9800X3D note that there are better options from both AMD and Intel for productivity workloads. You can either save money by getting a cheaper processor or choose one with more threads to handle large multitasking loads.

Additionally, there are other AMD CPUs that users recommend for PC builders on a budget, including the Ryzen 7 7800X3D — last year's best AMD CPU for gaming — and even the Ryzen 5 7600X. The 9800X3D may be king of the hill, but it's more than what most systems need. It's the most future-proof option if you plan to hang on as long as possible before upgrading, but even those comparatively less powerful alternatives far outclass the processors found in the average gaming PC today.

Ultimately, the 9800X3D is the go-to CPU for anyone building a powerful gaming PC, and it has earned its chart-topping position on Amazon. However, there are alternatives to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D even for gamers, and those who don't care about gaming should look at the productivity-focused offerings from AMD and Intel.

This article is not a product recommendation or review, and neither AMD nor any affiliated party was involved in its production. This article's goal was to offer a look at the relative value of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming CPU due to its high sales. We based our overview of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's value and worthiness primarily on user opinions and reviews from user sources like Reddit, which we cross-checked with data and reviews from trusted sources in the PC hardware space.