AMD is lining up its next flagship CPUs, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Ryzen 9900X3D, built on the Zen 5 design. The company is expected to unveil them at CES 2025 in early January, with a full rollout planned for the end of the month. These processors are aimed at gamers and professionals who run demanding workloads, offering a combination of hefty cache and solid multi-core performance to improve responsiveness in modern titles and data-heavy tasks alike.
On paper, the 9950X3D delivers 16 cores and 32 threads, backed by a total cache of 144 MB, a substantial increase over the standard 9950X’s 80 MB. The 9900X3D brings 12 cores and 24 threads, with 140 MB of cache compared with 76 MB in the non-3D model. The standout feature of both models is the 3D V-Cache technology, which enlarges the cache by stacking additional layers, paired with an unlocked multiplier that invites overclocking for enthusiasts seeking extra headroom.
In practice, the CPUs use two chiplets, but only one includes 3D V-Cache. This arrangement required adjustments to the Windows scheduler so that games can run on the cache-rich cores while the remaining cores handle background tasks. Additionally, motherboard vendors have introduced X3D Turbo mode, a setting that can disable SMT and the second chiplet to squeeze out additional gaming performance.
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D will extend the 3D V-Cache family, which already gained traction after the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. These new models are positioned to offer a balance between gaming frame rates and multi-core productivity, appealing to users who want strong single-thread performance alongside better parallel workloads. Pricing and exact specifications have not been disclosed. By comparison, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D was released at $479, about 48,000 rubles.
Another 30 minutes of actual inZOI gameplay has been cut