A while back, it was reported that AMD might launch additional Zen 3 SKUs leveraging the 3D V-Cache technology. It would seem that that rumor is indeed true. Well-reputed tipster @Greymon55 has stated that there will be “several new products” headed to the Zen 3D family next month. There’s no indication of just how many new chips AMD will launch, but if I had to guess we can expect at least two new processors with 3D stacked V-Cache.
The Ryzen 5 5600X3D and the Ryzen 9 5900X3D are the likely candidates to be launched next month targeting the Intel Core i5-12600K and the Core i9-12900KS. The former should sport an additional 32MB of 3D stacked L3 cache for a total of 64MB and the latter an additional 96MB for a staggering 200MB overall cache.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D already trades blows with the Core i9-12900K in gaming workloads, and the next-gen Ryzen 7000 CPUs based on the 5nm Zen 4 architecture are just around the corner. Considering this, I find it a bit odd for AMD to launch an even high-end SKU this late in the cycle. Either way, this is likely just a way to keep existing AM4 users loyal. The Ryzen 5 5600X3D should cost somewhere between $299 and $349 while the Ryzen 9 5900X ought to cost around $549-599.
You may be wondering about a potential Ryzen 9 5950X3D but I doubt its existence. For starters, it’ll run hot, and toasty. Secondly, games don’t really scale that well up to 16 cores, and in most cases, the 5900X is actually faster than the 5950X due to higher clock residency. Therefore, a 16-core Zen 3D part doesn’t really make sense either way you look at it.
