This is the Holy Grail of gaming CPUs, combined with AMD's top graphics card, a 4K gaming combination that would cost you over $1,200 to buy the two parts separately if you were putting this build together yourself.
As mentioned, the beating heart of this build is the excellent 9800X3D CPU. This 8-core, 16-thread beast is not quite the fastest gaming CPU on the market (it was recently dethroned by the 9850X3D), but thanks to its much more modest power draw, it remains our top pick for the best CPU for gaming on the market. As you can see, it shines in our benchmark testing as one of the fastest chips on the market, perfect for any 4K title you can think of.
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(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
The standout feature of the 9800X3D is the 3D V-cache, the 96MB of which reduces how often your CPU has to fall back on your system's RAM, drastically improving frame rates.
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is AMD's flagship GPU, featuring 64 RDNA 4 compute units and a generous 16GB of VRAM, specs akin to Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, with performance to match. As you can see in our 4K testing suite, the RX 9070 XT performs significantly better than the RX 9070 and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070, lagging behind the 5070 Ti and the 4080. While you won't get access to Nvidia's popular DLSS technologies, this is still a very capable and popular graphics card, currently worth $800 in the current market.
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The supporting cast of this build is also quite generous in the circumstances. You get 32GB of DDR5 RAM worth at least $400-$450, and a 2TB Gen 4 NVMe SSD worth $250. To keep everything running, there's a 1000W power supply and ARGB liquid cooling to keep your processor nice and cool. The motherboard is a mid-range B850 model.
For your troubles, you'll also get a free copy of Onimusha to play on your new rig, a freebie with a list price value of $69.99 at Newegg.
There's no denying this PC would have been cheaper even just a few months ago, but this is a very respectable build in the current market.
Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
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