AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D should have been a celebrated launch but it's turned into a scalping nightmare. (Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)
Custom PC enthusiasts should be contemplating an upgrade path for their gaming rig around AMD's new "slam dunk" Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor as it blew away Intel's high-end Core Ultra 9 285K in PC gaming benchmarks. These X3D variants of Ryzen desktop chips sport AMD's massive 3D V-Cache that benefits real-time game engines more than productivity apps, which is hardly a difficult choice for gamers, and the 9800X3D is the latest and greatest revision of the reigning champion.
It adopted its title as the best gaming CPU by politely replacing its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and marks a point where entirely overhauling an older system to the new AM5 socket is worth it, at least to those on AMD's Ryzen 5000 Series or anything from Intel's 13th and 14th Gen blighted by an unfortunate microcode bug. There is a generational improvement from the 7800X3D, but you wouldn't notice much difference if you only upgraded from the last-gen equivalent.
So, what's the hold-up? If the 9800X3D already launched on November 7, why is it trending for the worst reasons with stock outages and retailer strongarm tactics otherwise souring what should be an exciting time? Anyone following PC components for a while has likely already guessed, but the same culprits who ruin most launch day thrills are back again: scalpers.
Checking the usual suspects around second-hand marketplaces shows them out in full force, driving up the 9800X3D prices, and, sadly, it's working for them. Protesting with your wallet is a common theme in the gaming community, but some are in danger of being duped into buying from what seems like reputable sellers with risk-free listings -- and I feel your painful resistance to patience, but hear me out.
It's similar to a situation that expectant Xbox Series X buyers faced during its 2020 launch when scalpers caught onto the excitement and decided to force gamers to pay exorbitant amounts if they wanted it right away. The double-edged sword that tends to cut desperate buyers is seller ratings on marketplaces like eBay, with up to 100% favorable reviews making a scalper seem like a helpful middleman just looking to hook you up with your new favorite tech.
However, the ominous small print that often lurks underneath these apparent saviors comes in phrases like "this seller does not accept returns."
There are hints of listings being from obvious scalpers, like someone buying at least four duplicates of the same, highly-anticipated gaming CPU to sell for almost a $200 profit and gouging AMD's intended $479 MSRP. Sure enough, multiple entries asking for $630, $640, and even $700 are an insult to enthusiasts everywhere. Scalper listings should be avoided at all costs to at least teach them a lesson, but gamers are excited and want their tech.
So, if you can't head over to Best Buy, Newegg, Amazon, or absolutely any respectable third-party retailer to buy the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, what are your options for building a modern gaming PC in the meantime? It's especially tricky if you're upgrading from AMD's Zen 3 processors or are migrating from absolutely anything on Intel's side since you'll need a total motherboard overhaul to support the new AM5 socket.
At the very least, you could buy a suitable motherboard for the 9800X3D to pair it with a set of DDR5 RAM modules clocked around the 6000MHz "sweet spot" and substitute a previously-released Ryzen CPU that fits the socket in the meantime. You could even rightfully sell this theoretical stand-in processor as a second-hand unit with impunity or hold onto it as a backup just in case, as long as you sell it for less than MSRP to maintain your PC building karma.
For example, AMD's Ryzen 5 8600G launched with an MSRP as low as $229 and currently sells even lower, with listings for the 8600G hitting $170 at Amazon.com. It's a 6-core, 12-thread APU (SoC) running up to 5GHz with a modest 22MB of L3 cache, so it's comparatively wimpy against the gaming powerhouse specs in the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Still, it's several hundred dollars cheaper and gives you a working machine that you can use to feverishly check for restock notifications.