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© 2025 BBCWorld 1:05am Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025) review: A gaming tablet outclassed by its rivals
At a glanceExpert's Rating
Pros
Maybe the best integrated graphics ever made
Excellent battery life
AMD FSR 3’s GPU AI tricks make all the difference
Strong AI, graphics performance
Performance can be adjusted even higher
Lightweight gaming on the go
Cons
A clamshell laptop would have worked better
Flimsy keyboard tray connector
RGB controls are inConsistent
Battery life plunges while gaming, unsurprisingly
No number pad for lefty gamers
Expensive
Our Verdict
The Asus ROG Flow Z13 may be the best gaming tablet ever made, with the best integrated GPU in history. Still, neither quite measure up to the competition in form or function.
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I’ve never found a “gaming tablet” that left a strong impression on me, and the 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13 hasn’t changed that.
What I was really looking forward to was the debut of the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ (Strix Halo)–a unique processor that combines a powerful CPU with an NPU, a killer integrated GPU, and a massive cache, all for what I hoped would be a bacchanal of gaming and AI applications. Could it hold up? I discovered that it could, but the competition is still better.
Asus has a history of applying innovative solutions to gaming on the go. AMD should certainly celebrate what’s been accomplished here, I just don’t think it works. Yes, the Flow is perhaps the lightest gaming solution outside of a handheld, with a chip inside that has the best integrated graphics ever made. But it all boils down to a good product that falls short of greatness and for a price that should deliver much more.
Asus ROG Flow Z13: Specifications
We’ve seen the Z13 before. Back in 2022, the Flow Z13 paired an Intel Core i9-12900H processor with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti for $1,899 while the 2023 Asus Flow Z13 combined a Core i7-13900H with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. In 2025, AMD convinced Asus that its powerful Ryzen AI Max, relying on integrated graphics alone, could measure up.
RGB is obviously a key feature on the ROG Flow Z13. The keyboard provides a single zone of unified color.Mark Hachman / Foundry
Asus sells the ROG Flow in three different configurations. There’s the $2,099 model with a Ryzen AI Max 390 (12 cores, 3.2GHz) and the $2,299 model with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (16 cores, 3.0GHz). Both include 32GB of LPDDR5X 8000 memory. (We’re reviewing this second configuration, known formally as the ROG Flow Z13 (2025) GZ302EA-XS96.) For those who wish to maximize the available RAM for unified frame buffer memory for use with games and especially AI, there’s a $2,799 option with the Max+ 395 processor and a whopping 128GB of RAM.
All can be directly purchased via Asus or at other retailers.
Model number: GZ302EA-XS96
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor (3.0GHz)
Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X RAM
Graphics/GPU: Radeon 8060S Graphics (integrated)
Display: 13.4-inch (2560×1600) IPS touchscreen with 180Hz refresh rate, HDR and stylus support
Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe PCIe solid state drive
Webcam: 13MP (rear) 5MP/1440p (user-facing, Windows Hello)
Connectivity: 2 USB4, USB-A (10Gbps), HDMI 2.1, microSD (UHS-II), 3.5mm audio jack
Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Biometrics: Windows Hello facial login
Battery capacity: 70Wh (71.5Wh as tested)
Dimensions: 11.81 (W) x 8.03 (D) x 0.51 (H) inches
Weight: 2.65 pounds
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro
Price as reviewed: $2,229
ROG Flow Z13: Design, build quality
I have to be honest. I audibly groaned when I opened up the Asus packaging materials and unfolded the tablet. I’ve always been a bit skeptical of gaming tablets anyway, in part because to me, a tablet is lightweight and portable — the Asus ROG Flow really isn’t. Anything that puts two and a half pounds onto a kickstand means that you’ll really have to place it on a desk.
The 2025 edition of the ROG Strix Z13 gaming tablet has a lot going for it, including decent gaming and AI performance, but the extra mobility of the tablet design doesn’t outweigh its shortcomings compared to a traditional gaming notebook.
That’s not to say that I dislike the ROG Flow Z13’s design. At a maximum thickness of 0.59 inches and 2.65 pounds, the tablet is still light enough to drop into a backpack or carry around the house, although the limited gaming time (more on that later) means that I’d rather watch movies unless it’s connected via the power adapter. That adapter uses a proprietary design to carry the 200 watts, which is more than the AMD chip requires, though the tablet will also accept power through its Thunderbolt ports.
Again, the tablet has its limitations. Can you prop it on your lap? Not really. Placing it in a bed is feasible. Yet again, a handheld PC easily outclasses it in terms of convenience. And yes, the tablet has already plummeted off my lap and onto the floor, as the keyboard’s flimsy magnetic connector couldn’t save it.
Aesthetically, though, the Flow Z13 does fulfill the gamer aesthetic. Like the Flow Z13s before it, Asus replaced a small chunk of the backplate with a mirrored window that becomes transparent under the right lighting conditions, exposing a portion of the motherboard, which is lit via RGB. (Well, sort of — while I tried to use either Windows or the Asus Armoury Crate software to enable the lighting, it only worked randomly.) Even when fully operational, the RGB lighting through that backplate and underneath the keyboard doesn’t feel obtrusive.
The Asus ROG Flow Z13 has a cutout in back that exposes the motherboard behind mirrored glass. It’s supposed to light up via user-controlled RGB illumination, but it was inconsistent at best. Mattias Inghe
The grillwork is aggressive, more like the 2023 backing than the 2022 edition. So is the cooling, though Asus does a nice job running what feels like a substantial volume of air through it without resorting to coil whine. With gaming laptops, the powerful hiss that many fans produce really overshadows the laptop’s speakers, forcing me to use headphones. The ROG Flow sounds substantially quieter under load.
I used the default “Performance” settings that the tablet shipped with, which adjusts the fans to the workload. An additional “Turbo” setting turns the fans to maximum at all times. There’s also a “Silent” mode that spins down those fans, a “Windows” mode that lets Windows’ own power settings take control, and a manual option.
ROG Flow Z13: Display and ports
The Flow Z13 includes what Asus calls its “Nebula” display, a 13.4-inch, 2560×1600 panel that puts out 508 nits according to my light meter, about double what we consider to be the necessary light output. Some of that will be used by the Dolby Vision HDR, which pushes more light to scenes of bright sun, explosions, and the like. Combine that with the 180Hz refresh rate and this is one of the better displays I’ve seen on a laptop, period.
The left (or bottom) button on the ROG Flow Z13 launches a shortcut software panel with links to various controls.Mark Hachman / Foundry
The one drawback? I’m not sure that the Ryzen AI Max’s GPU can keep up. You’ll see the majority of my performance tests focusing on 1080p resolution and maybe 1440p. Playing games at the panel’s 1600p resolution is certainly possible, depending upon the game, but newer graphics-intensive games probably won’t be able to keep up with a 1600p panel at 180Hz refresh rates. On the other hand, future generations might.
Asus also has to thread the needle between serving as a tablet while providing a big, beautiful screen for gamers. As a tablet, you appreciate a broad bezel as “dead space,” a neutral zone to hold the tablet without triggering anything. The bezel is relatively small. Yet, viewed from the perspective of the user, the keyboard blocks out most of the bottom bezel, making the screen appear larger. It works for me.
Gamers expect lots of ports and the tablet delivers on that front. There’s a 10Gbps USB-A port on the right hand side of the tablet. On the left, there are two USB4 ports (the equivalent of Thunderbolt 4), along with an HDMI 2.1 port, and a UHS-II microSD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack. The Asus power plug plugs in here, too.
On the right-hand side of the tablet is a new, dedicated shortcut button, which, when depressed, launches the popout ScreenXpert utility. This doesn’t govern the display. Instead, the app provides touch shortcuts to the Armoury Crate gaming utility as well as other functions like turning the mic off and on.
On the left side of Asus ROG Flow Z13 are a pair of USB4 ports, HDMI, the power input, and a USB-A port.Mark Hachman / Foundry
The two USB4 ports (versus a single USB-C port on earlier models) represents an upgrade over earlier versions of the Z13, though they’re common on other devices. The 2025 model also upgrades users to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Another significant internal upgrade, besides the processor, is the internal battery, which has been increased from 56Wh to 70Wh.
The Asus product page indicates that the Z13 tablet should be accompanied by a ROG Fusion II 300 set of headphones, a SA203H pen with MPP 2.0 support, and a ROG Impact Gaming Mouse, but my review unit didn’t include those. An Asus representative did not respond to a question on whether this was a mistake or not.
ROG Flow Z13: Keyboard and typing
The Asus keyboard remains hit or miss. The ROG Flow Z13 works best on a desk, as the magnetic connector holding the keyboard to the tablet isn’t strong enough to be trusted. The physical connection isn’t the only thing that’s weak, either. I noticed that the keyboard would simply stop on occasion, seemingly randomly, requiring me to detach and reconnect it to re-establish the connection.
Right-handers may disagree, but Asus needs to engineer some solution to enable left-handed gaming.Mark Hachman / IDG
The keyboard uses single-zone RGB backlighting to illuminate the keys, which are surprisingly comfortable to type upon, with solid, springy action. The rubbery keyboard tray doesn’t really sag, either, though there is some noticeable give. That’s a change from earlier versions of the Flow Z13, where our reviews complained that the keyboard tray sagged and bounced.
The large trackpad responds to clicks and gestures as expected, save for a finger’s breadth worth of space along the top. Overall, I’d grade the keyboard and typing experience a solid “B.”
None of the keys appear out of the ordinary, though there is a dedicated key to cycle through the Asus performance modes, from Silent to Turbo.
ROG Flow Z13: Webcam and audio
I was mildly impressed with both the front and rear cameras, enough that I had to double-check the specs. By default, the user-facing camera was set up for 1080p 30 FPS recording, though a quick change in the app’s settings pushed it up to 1440p 30 FPS, its rated maximum. There’s no physical camera shutter, either.
As I normally do, I took a quick selfie with the webcam just to see if you could use it or if you’d need to replace it with one of our top recommended webcams. I think it does a pretty good job, all in all. The rear camera is excellent, too, though does anyone use a rear-facing camera on a tablet for anything these days?
Mark Hachman / Foundry
The tablet’s audio is just good. It hides a pair of 2W speakers inside it, though the lack of distinct woofers and tweeters is noticeable. I’d describe the sound as a lot flatter than rival tablets. I’ve reviewed many of the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet lineup, most of which feature loud, clear speakers that ring out clearly. The Flow Z13’s sound is more like drumming on a mattress.
To its credit, the tablet’s sound quality is clear as the volume is raised and lowered — rival tablets can sometimes devolve into a muddy mess at peak volume. That might be due to the Dolby Atmos audio enhancement.
Some other Asus laptops that I’ve reviewed include some stellar noise-cancelling options, specifically microphones that can filter out rock music or white noise playing in the same room. The ROG Flow Z13 just has an AI noise-cancelling mic with no other options. The best noise-cancelling mics filter out noise from the side and background, and “know” how to filter out the background noise when you begin speaking. The Flow Z13 did great in picking up my voice and also filtering out the background noise when I paused. But it conflated the background noise (a rock song) with my voice once I resumed speaking, which isn’t ideal.
ROG Flow Z13: Performance
Evaluating the performance of the Asus ROG Flow Z13 and its AMD Ryzen AI Max chip inside presents a challenge. Should it be compared to other tablets? To gaming laptops? Or do its unique mix of AI capabilities and graphics performance put it in a class by itself?
Many gaming laptops can run AI workloads, especially when offloaded to the GPU. AMD ends up at a disadvantage here, as its NPU — capable of 50 TOPS, technically qualifying as a Copilot+ PC — just isn’t put to good use by, well, anything. Instead, virtually every “AI” application taps the GPU. That includes apps like Windows Photos and Paint, which simply don’t have the features (such as Cocreator) that a tablet like the 2024 Surface Pro (11th Edition) does. So yes, this is (just) a gaming PC.
As a gaming PC, it’s okay. Recent events have rekindled my love of shooting Nazis in the face, so I spent some happy times playing the recent Sniper Elite games on the tablet. The 2022 Rebellion “Asura” graphics engine isn’t overwhelmingly complex, though there are photorealistic textures and lighting effects. As you’ll see from our gaming benchmark tests, frame rates of about 60 to 100 FPS are pretty common depending upon the settings and the game.
I’d obviously like a little more and traditional gaming laptops will deliver more. The Radeon 8060S and its 40 graphics cores is a marvelous graphics engine, but you can only praise it for so long.
The Asus Armoury Crate app is a great starting point for learning what this Flow Z13 tablet can do.Mark Hachman / Foundry
By the same token, ROG Flow Z13 does run AI applications like AI art generation and LLMs. The issue here is the size of the UMA frame buffer and how AMD allows you to adjust it.
For AI tasks, the tablet uses video RAM (VRAM), which functions like traditional system RAM. While larger LLM models can be more accurate and feel more natural, they can balk if the video RAM isn’t large enough — much the way a normal PC application won’t run without enough memory. Dedicated graphics cards use RAM chips that are soldered down, known as VRAM. In a laptop, however, VRAM may not exist.
Instead, the PC’s conventional memory is shared between the operating system and the GPU, otherwise known as the Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) frame buffer. In an Intel Core laptop, Intel basically divides the available RAM pool in half between the system memory and the frame buffer. AMD allows you to adjust it yourself, allowing for some interesting performance tweaks.
As it turns out, increasing the available UMA frame buffer can dial up performance — quite significantly, in fact. Asus shipped the ROG Flow Z13 with just 4GB of frame buffer and asked us (and presumably other reviewers) to bump it to 8GB. We did so and our tests reflect that setting.
I ran all of our benchmarks on the default Windows “Performance” settings, plugged in. On battery, the Windows settings shift to “Balanced.” However, the Asus Armoury Vault application appears to override them, setting the power to “Performance” by default and to “Silent” when unplugged. Not all of my tests were performed on battery, but those that were show a steep drop in performance. The vast majority of users will want to keep this tablet plugged in anyway.
I liked this aspect. Most laptops and tablets will throttle or slow themselves down to prevent overheating. The Z13 did not, neither on a prolonged CPU test or a GPU stress test. Bravo to both Asus and AMD here.
For the purposes of this testing, I compared the Asus ROG Flow 13 to several gaming laptops like the $1,249 Acer Nitro 14, the $2,299 Asus ProArt P16, the $1,699 Acer Swift X 14, the $1,949 Gigabyte Aorus 16X, the $1,399 Lenovo Legion 5i, and the $3,199 Dell Alienware x16 R2. These laptops aren’t tablets, but they should perform similarly to the Flow Z13. They’re cheaper than what Asus charges, too.
Our gaming laptop tests are based on several standard benchmarks. Our tests cover synthetic and practical tests of the CPU and GPU. One issue is that, to date, gaming laptops aren’t tested with AI in mind.
Our productivity benchmarks use UL’s PCMark 10 as an excellent overall test. The app combines several applications — video calling, photo and video editing, CA, and more — into one overall benchmark with a single score. We’d expect any gaming PC to be able to easily handle most productivity apps and the ROG Flow Z13 does so with ease. You might not have expected it to come out on top, though.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
We’ve traditionally used synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench R20 and Cinebench R24 to evaluate the performance of the CPUs used in the laptop. The R20 benchmark is the oldest, with more entries in our database of laptop reviews. The Cinebench 2024 release is newer, but with fewer comparatives. In either test, the 16 cores and 32 threads within the AI Max+ chip made quick work of both benchmarks.
You’ll notice the performance on battery falling at or close to the bottom of the competition. This is a trend that repeats itself throughout our tests.
Like the Cinebench 2024 test, below, this is a measure of multithreaded performance.Mark Hachman / Foundry
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Handbrake is a real-world application that transcodes a video stream into either a downscaled, smaller file that can fit on a tablet or it can upscale it into a higher resolution format. In our case, we use the test as a prolonged workload, which indicates how well the CPU can handle a longer task. It’s also useful to show off how well the tablet cools itself.
I was rather surprised to see this tablet beat out the competition. Anecdotally, ROG’s tablet seems well suited to cooling off the AI Max+ chip.
It’s also worth noting that I stress tested the CPU itself using a prolonged 10-minute Cinebench run. Frequently, a laptop or tablet will slow the processor down to avoid overheating. To determine whether that happens, we compare the score of a single run with the result of a second run, tested at the end of the 10 minute workout. Surprisingly, the scores were nearly identical, indicating that the CPU isn’t being throttled here.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
We now move into the benchmarks that stress the GPU. Here, we use 3DMark’s TimeSpy test. Though we test with actual games as well, the UL benchmarks try to indicate how well a tablet like the ROG Flow will perform in most games.
One of the questions surrounding the AI Max+ was how well its integrated graphics would compare with the discrete graphics used in other laptops. Historically, integrated graphics performance has been well below a discrete GPU. Here, the Radeon iGPU performs better than you might expect, though the a discrete GPU is better.
The fact that the Ryzen AI Max+ outperforms the first generation Core Ultra doesn’t surprise me, as Intel designed that chip with AI and long battery life as top priorities.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
ROG Flow Z13 performance: Games and AI
Games, though, are the true test of this Asus tablet and its Ryzen CPU. Unlike the synthetic 3DMark test, games take advantage of AMD’s image-enhancement technologies, including FSR 3 and its upscaling and frame generation technologies. These can make all the difference between an iffy, 60 FPS frame rate (often considered the lower limit of a playable game) and the 90+ FPS that a smooth game experience delivers. However, not all games support these.
When I first started testing the tablet, I saw some hitches or stutters when testing 3DMark. But those disappeared in subsequent runs and didn’t appear while gaming.
Our first test is the Eidos game Shadow of the Tomb Raider, dating back to 2018. At the time, this was a top-tier, demanding AAA game with both action and puzzle-solving. We run this test at 1080p using the Highest graphics setting.
AMD’s integrated GPU doesn’t blow away the competition, but at 104 FPS this game is exceptionally playable. It’s also running without AMD’s latest graphics enhancements, including FSR 3.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Metro: Exodus is an even more modern shooter, launched in 2019. While the game supports modern graphics features like ray tracing, our legacy testing turns off those features. Unfortunately, those features would lower the frame rate even further. In this case, the tablet can’t quite handle Metro Exodus by itself.
While 1080p seems adequate in terms of resolution, the Extreme setting is simply too much. You’ll have to dial this game down to something like Medium settings to get the best experience. You can see, too, that the native 2560×1600 resolution of the tablet is far out of reach for this game running on the Asus ROG Flow Z13.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
We’ve recently added Cyberpunk 2077 to our list of test benchmarks, but none of the laptops that I’m comparing the tablet to used the game as a test benchmark. Is Cyberpunk playable on the ROG Flow Z13? Yes, but only under certain conditions.
Cyberpunk offers tons of configuration options, from the traditional Low/Medium/High graphics settings on up to dedicated ray-tracing modes. At 1080p Ultra settings, the game is playable at the 60 FPS most gamers consider the minimum threshold. If you’ve been following our coverage of discrete GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce 5090 and AMD’s latest GPUs, there’s one big takeaway. The latest hardware leans hard on upscaling and frame generation techniques. Cyberpunk supports AMD’s FSR 3 and it makes an enormous difference.
Here’s a summary of what I found, also factoring in the adjustments I made in frame buffer. (The closest resolution to 1440p that the tablet and game offer is 2048×1536. On Ultra with FSR 3 enabled, the game ran at a very playable 106 FPS.) You can see that the performance can vary wildly! Click the image to expand it.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Again, AMD’s AI enhancements make a huge difference. Marvel Rivals felt polished and smooth at 1440p with Medium graphics. Even in the heat of battle, the tablet rendered the game at about 130 FPS. (Marvel Rivals also explicitly supports FSR 3.) Sniper: Elite, a stealth action game, was also perfectly playable at the default resolution (2560×1600) with Medium graphics.
But games aren’t the only reason to buy this tablet. With LLMs (AI chatbots) and AI art programs picking up steam, AMD designed the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ chip with both in mind.
Again, the amount of frame buffer memory makes a significant difference and adjusting it can mean the difference between running a particular model or not at all. Apps don’t always sense the available memory, either, meaning you may be able to run an AI program or model that it insists you can’t. AMD also suffers somewhat on the development side. Apps that might be able to take advantage of the NPU on an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor might not be coded to take advantage of AMD’s NPU.
Fortunately, AMD’s integrated GPU makes up for it. While we haven’t run AI applications on top of a gaming laptop in the past, I did have a few devices on hand to compare to.
All of the below comparisons consist of thin and light laptops, which showcases battery-sipping processors like Intel’s Core Ultra. What this chart indicates is that those laptops aren’t bad for AI, either. The ROG Flow Z13 is superior, but only if it’s configured properly. The AI Max+ processor gets stomped by the competition unless the shared UMA frame buffer is adjusted accordingly.
This is all on wall power, but when the UAM frame buffer is adjusted (the default 8GB on the yellow, and 16GB on the red) it makes a major differenceMark Hachman / Foundry
So for AI tasks, how does the ROG Flow Z13 compare to beefier gaming laptops? Again, I didn’t have a lot of tests to pick from. I went with MLCommons’ client benchmark, which uses the Llama 2 7B benchmark. The test is straightforward. The results show how responsive the CPU/GPU is (measured in time to first token) and the output in tokens-per-second.
Here’s how they match up:
MSI Raider (Core i9-14900HX/RTX 4090): 0.34s TTFs, 74.2 tokens/s
Asus ROG Flow Z13 (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, Radeon 8060S): 1.16s TTFS, 44.4 tokens/s
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio (Core i7-13700H, RTX 4060): 0.93 TTFS, 28.2 tokens/s
The ROG Flow ends up right in the middle. Not outstanding, but again, integrated graphics!
The laptop’s AI art performance isn’t bad, either. Using the relatively ungainly Stable Diffusion XL model (fp16), the laptop took 95.7 seconds per 1024×1024 image. For the less complex 512×512 images, performance climbed to 12.1 seconds per image.
Finally, there’s battery life. Battery life measured on a gaming laptop is far different than on a productivity device. Gamers prioritize performance while an office worker may want to extend their business day into the wee hours.
While gaming on the ROG Flow Z13, battery life was pretty paltry, just an hour and 33 minutes. But when running our traditional video rundown test that loops a 4K video over and over, I saw productivity-like performance of 754 minutes or roughly 12.5 hours. Those are impressive numbers, though less so from a gaming perspective.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Asus ROG Flow Z13: Conclusion
I wouldn’t, no. I’m just not in love with this Asus gaming tablet because I had to haul out an external keyboard or controller just to play with it.
Don’t get me wrong. The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is a good tablet with a good processor inside. But many of our comparative laptops outperform the Z13 for hundreds less and those are at MSRP prices. You’re paying an awful lot to shave pounds off a gaming tablet that runs a bit quieter than the competition. From a performance perspective, a traditional gaming laptop makes more sense.
I’m much more enthusiastic about the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ processor, even though I have some reservations. I couldn’t help but think of the 2022 edition of the ROG Z13 Flow, which could connect to a more powerful XG Mobile eGPU module as a (replacement?) for the integrated GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. The AI Max+ GPU felt big and beefy, especially with the AI enhancements turned on. Other times, it felt like I was playing with AMD’s version of the GeForce MX. For the price, the performance, and the construction, the 2025 edition of the ROG Flow Z13 wasn’t quite what I was looking for.
What am I looking for? A traditional clamshell priced at about $1,799 with either a few more GPU compute units or the clock frequency dialed up a bit. Maybe that’s unreachable in an era of wildly unpredictable tariffs.
© 2025 PC World 0:45am  
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Tested: AMD’s new Ryzen 9 9950X3D absolutely dominates
AMD loves to build to a crescendo. As it’s shown since 2016, when its first Ryzen CPUs launched, the company progresses incrementally but steadily—until Team Red sits all the way at the top.
That time has come for its 3D V-Cache processors, which sport extra L3 cache to boost gaming performance. When AMD released its first variant into the wild, that AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D shot past Intel’s best in gaming—but only gaming. Ryzen 7000X3D chips pulled more even with Team Blue, but still couldn’t pull ahead in some key benchmarks.
But now, with the release of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, AMD can take the crown for best chip for both gaming and productivity tasks. This $699 16-core, 32-thread slots above last August’s Ryzen 9 9950X, which previously served as the company’s premier chip. Accompanying the 9950X3D onto retail shelves today is the $599 12-core, 24-thread 9900X3D.
This outcome seemed likely when the first Ryzen 9000X3D processor dropped last November, with the $479 8-core, 16-thread 9800X3D easily trouncing Intel’s best chips (both current and last gen). But now, as the benchmark numbers show, it’s confirmed.
Because the run-up to this March 12 launch has been stuffed with hardware releases, we on the PCWorld team have only had a short time in our labs to give the 9950X3D a spin. But between my colleague Adam Patrick Murray’s preliminary numbers and other reviews from around the web, the story’s pretty clear—this chip slaps hard, as my boss Brad Chacos said in his 9800X3D write-up.
Let’s dive into the highlights.
(For a longer discussion about the 9950X3D, check out this week’s episode of our hardware show, The Full Nerd, embedded below.)
1. It’s a productivity beast (and still a gaming monster)
For this third generation of 3D V-Cache CPUs, AMD’s top-tier X3D processor fully ties together the best in gaming and productivity performance. Productivity tasks have been a standing weakness for this subset of Ryzen CPUs, even with last gen’s improvements. This time around, no qualifiers are needed.
We’ll start with a look at how the Ryzen 9 9950X stacks up against its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. For productivity, our benchmarks showed improvements as high as 19 percent, with the average about 14 percent:
If you’re a Premiere Pro person, you’ll see the smallest gain compared to last-gen’s best X3D chip—just a little under 5 percent. But for other hefty workloads, you’ll see as much as 11 percent in Cinebench 2024’s multithreaded test, 16 to 19 percent in Blender, and 16 percent in Photoshop.
Meanwhile, in games, our initial benchmarks showed around a 10 percent average across the four titles we ran. While that may sound lackluster, sites with a broader range of games benchmarks show an average closer to 16 percent, with some notable variance between titles.
But how about compared to the 9950X, AMD’s best non-3D V-Cache chip? This new 9950X3D holds even with the 9950X in productivity benchmarks. For concrete numbers, you can pop into Paul Alcorn’s review over at Tom’s Hardware. At stock settings, the 9950X3D shows an average improvement of about 1.5 percent across Cinebench’s multithreaded test, POV-Ray, V-Ray, Blender, Handbrake, and y-cruncher over the standard 9950X, or still within the margin of error. So the two deliver similar content creation performance.
As for gaming, comparing the 9950X and 9950X3D shows the latter coming in with a huge jump in performance at 1080p. (Reminder: Reviewers test at lower resolutions to better evaluate CPU performance, as lower resolutions shift the workload from the GPU to the CPU.) Tom’s Hardware puts those gains at an average of 30 percent across 16 games. It’s a big win.
All in all, if you’ve been looking to get high performance across the board, the 9950X3D is truly AMD’s flagship consumer part—no caveats.
2. The 9950X3D continues the Intel beatdown
As we covered in our overview of the 9800X3D last November, AMD’s mid-range X3D chip put the pain on Intel’s best consumer chip, the Core Ultra 9 285K. My boss Brad Chacos sums it up well here:
“In the four games we tested, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D runs an average of 25 percent faster than the 285K at 1080p resolution. That’s a massive unheard-of gulf, and it’s actually being dragged down by the results in Total War Warhammer 3, which runs similarly on every processor we tested. If you take that out, the 9800X3D runs a whopping 30 percent faster than Intel’s biggest dog. It’s 45 percent faster than the 285K in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing off.”
While reviews across the web show nearly equal performance between the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the mix of superior gaming and productivity performance is what catapults the 9950X3D above other CPUs. In fact, Intel’s current flagship part is not just outdone by AMD’s best parts, but its own last-gen processor, the Core i9-14900K.
The Core Ultra 9 285K only manages to hold its own in select productivity benchmarks, where it ekes just past the 9950X3D—so if you have specific workloads, it could still be the better choice. But for raw numbers, the difference is small when the 9950X3D is left at stock settings—and it pretty much disappears when you flip on PBO for the 9950X3D, which gives it an added boost.
3. But you do pay less for Intel…and the AMD 9800X3D
Intel does have one advantage, which is price. The MSRP for the 285K is $589, or $110 less than the $699 9950X3D. That’s a sizable chunk of cash that could be put toward a better motherboard, nicer power supply, or more RAM.
However, it’s not the only chip with a cost advantage. AMD’s own Ryzen 7 9800X3D sports an MSRP of $479. As an 8-core, 16-thread CPU, it punches hard for its weight, given that its gaming performance is competitive with the 9950X3D and sometimes even beats the more expensive CPU. For its part, the standard Ryzen 9 9950X has a new list price of $549.
So while the 9950X3D doesn’t cost more than its predecessor at launch, you are paying a premium for its high-end performance across the board.
Street price for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D on Newegg on March 11, 2025.PCWorld
As for street prices—as of March 11, the day before the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s launch, the calculus looks like this on Newegg:
$539 – AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
$479 – AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
$445 – Intel Core i9-14900K
$620 – Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
Unless you need the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K for specific productivity tasks that favor Team Blue, those who are predominantly productivity focused will get the most bang for their buck from AMD’s 9950X. Gamers seeking top performance can lean on Ryzen 7 9800X3D, unless they really want to save cash and drop down to the older Intel Core i9-14900K.
Basically, if you want no limits on consumer CPU performance, you’ll pay more for it—but you get plenty for your money.
4. More power, more performance
For Ryzen 9000X3D, AMD tucked the extra L3 cache at the bottom of the die, rather stacking it on top—and that allowed the company to run more electricity through the chips.
Accordingly, this new 9950X3D has a 170W TDP, up from the 7950X3D’s 120W TDP. The additional juice does help its performance, but as you might guess, it boosts overall power consumption, too. At least, during use.
Adam Patrick Murray / PCWorld
When we ran Cinebench R24’s multi-threaded benchmark, the total system power draw rose on average by about 70W, or 27 percent.
But at idle, we saw lower total system power draw with the 9950X3D, which coasted about 10W under the 7950X3D PC. So while this chip is more efficient, it still will take more power.
Adam Patrick Murray / PCWorld
For people who need this kind of performance, that difference in energy use likely won’t hit too hard—even with today’s kilowatt-hour rates. But that plus potential additional heat generated should be considered by buyers, if those are concerns.
© 2025 PC World 0:45am 
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