AMD announced its latest X3D chips at CES 2025, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D, further expanding its 3D V-Cache lineup in its Ryzen 9000-series processors.
The two new chips, which replace the current Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 7900X3D processors released in early 2023, are a major step up from the only other Ryzen 9000-series X3D chip, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Unlike the 8-core/16-thread 9800X3D, the 9900X3D and 9950X3D chips will feature 12-core/24-threads and 16-cores/32-threads, respectively.
The flagship 9950X3D will feature a 5.7GHz Boost clock and a massive 144MB L3 cache on a 170W TDP. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D, meanwhile, will feature a 5.5GHz Boost clock and a 140MB L3 cache on a much lower 120W TDP.
While the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the current gaming processor champ, the two newer chips aren’t strictly targeted for gamers like the 9800X3D. The 9950X3D, especially, is being pushed as a creative processor on par with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and Intel Core i9-14900K.
Whether the new chips strike that balance properly remains to be seen, but given how much better the gaming performance of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D was than the higher tier Ryzen 9 7900X3D and Ryzen 9 7950X3D, it’s entirely possible that these latest chips will likewise fall short of the 9800X3D’s gaming prowess while succeeding in other areas like video editing.
A treat for gamers, or a boon for creators?
AMD’s latest chips were widely anticipated for a CES 2025 announcement, so today’s news isn’t much of a surprise, just as comparing these two chips against the current crop of processors is inevitable.
With Intel’s major stumbles with the Intel Core Ultra 200-series desktop processors as well as the lackluster reception of the AMD Ryzen 9000 non-X3D processors, AMD has managed to score the only real win for this processor generation with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
Following up on that chip is going to be tough, and so expectations are naturally pretty high for these new processors. I personally wouldn’t bet on them being better gaming processors than the 9800X3D, but AMD is claiming a roughly 13% better performance over its predecessor for the 9950X3D, and a roughly 10% better performance in creative workloads for the 9950X3D versus the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K.
It looks, then, like the 9950X3D chip will indeed be a more creative-focused chip, and it remains to be seen how much the additional 3D V-Cache helps differentiate the 9950X3D versus the Ryzen 9 9950X, and whether any improved performance is worth the ultimately higher price.
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John.Loeffler@futurenet.com (John Loeffler)
