AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D is almost impossible to find right now, but these alternative CPU picks might be a better bet
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Can't find the 9800X3D? You have options. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Building or ordering a custom high-end gaming PC continues to be an increasingly expensive endeavor thanks to ballooning component prices across the board.
![[An AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D in a masculine hand]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/W7pE7vgtLX6wQ7TE4vkLs5-320-80.jpg)
While the GPU takes up the lion’s share of one’s budget thanks to both significant price increases and focus shifting from mid-range to enthusiast-tier options, CPUs still constitute an important component of one’s PC. While GPUs are at the forefront in terms of performance gains, other components have not kept pace, often resulting in bottlenecks that need to be addressed to get the most out of your gaming PC.
![[An AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D on top of its retail packaging]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/426aVTFR24uAZfcTvAqzb9-320-80.jpg)
This is true for CPU-bound titles especially when the highest-end GPUs (such as Nvidia’s RTX 4090) are used and what CPUs such as the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D aim to address. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is an 8-core 16-thread CPU that is indisputably the fastest gaming CPU money can buy currently – that is if you can find it on a shelf physically or virtually.
![[An Intel Core i9-14900K with its promotional packaging]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/pwWtznScyPhjBHDJ3ECpKJ-320-80.jpg)
It marries AMD’s performance gains on the newer Zen 5 architecture with its proven 3D V-Cache enhancements that offer significantly better performance in games that overwhelmingly benefit from the added cache memory in play. AMD’s fastest gaming CPU to date also holds the slightly less desirable crown of being one of the most price-gouged CPUs at the moment with both retailers and PC builders quoting lead times above three weeks to source one on average.
![[An AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor seated into a black motherboard]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VGCcWL5iYNoceZNq5PBwfk-320-80.jpg)
