AMD has revealed the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D at CES 2025, two top-end gaming processors featuring Team Red's 3D V-Cache technology.
These processors follow the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D that launched back in November 2024, but with more cores, more cache, and a higher clock rate. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread monster of a processor with 144MB of cache, which should make it one hell of a gaming chip.
AMD claims that these new processors boast up to 64% better gaming performance than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, and up to 54% faster than the last-generation AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D. This is likely due to 3D V-Cache tech, which allows AMD to print its cache in a layer below the actual CPU cores, lowering latency dramatically, and giving it room for more cache than would otherwise be possible.
I'll have to wait to get these processors in the lab to see how well they actually perform, but given how fast the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is, it's safe to say that these are going to be a perfect fit for a high-end gaming PC.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D will be available sometime in the next few months, though AMD has not shared pricing information quite yet.
3D V-Cache?
Cache is incredibly important for gaming performance. Your CPU stores the data it needs to access most quickly in the cache, and with how big modern PC games are, you can never have too much fast memory. The only problem is, because it's located on the CPU itself, there isn't room for gigabytes of capacity. Instead, you'll typically see modern CPUs with a few megabytes of cache available. The 3D V-Cache on these X3D processors allows AMD to offer nearly double the cache of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K.
This extra cache capacity can directly lead to better gaming performance, as there is less data that needs to be offloaded to system memory, or RAM – which is significantly slower.
Just like the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the 9950X3D and 9900X3D also offer improvements over their previous-generation counterparts. This is mostly due to where the cache is located on the processor. With this generation, AMD moved the cache to a layer beneath the CPU cores, rather than above them. This means the CPU cores, which typically get much hotter under load, are directly under the metal lid of the processor, which means more direct contact with your CPU cooler. This leads to lower CPU temperatures, which ends up meaning better performance through Boost.
Keep in mind that I need to test these processors before I can actually recommend them, but they do look like they're going to be some of the best gaming chips on the market, especially if they're priced appropriately. Of course, AMD hasn't shared pricing information, so we have no idea if these processors are actually going to be a good value for the money yet. Only time will tell.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
