AMD Ryzen 9950X3D CPU game benchmark leak might seem promising - but don't get excited yet

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D has again been the subject of a leak, and this time, the CPU has been aired in a gaming benchmark - but don't get excited about that part of the spillage.

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AMD Ryzen 9 CPUs represent the top-end of Team Red's 3D V-Cache chips (Image Credit: AMD)

We'll come back to why shortly, but the real news here is that the Ryzen 9950X3D has been spotted in FactorioBox - which is the benchmark database for the game Factorio - and so the processor exists (add seasoning as appropriate), and it's in testing. That's what to focus on here, rather than the actual benchmark result.

Of course, this isn't your typical Ashes of the Singularity or 3DMark gaming-related rumor - Factorio very much isn't the source of your average leak (or indeed any leak we've seen before). Although it's a pretty good game (created by some stand-up devs) going by the reviews (some of which are fanatical about how great it is, notably).

However, while Factorio might be an impressive 'engineering playground' of a gaming experience, sadly the benchmark of the Ryzen 9950X3D tells us pretty much nothing about the prowess of this incoming 3D V-Cache processor.

Facts to factor in about Factorio

As VideoCardz, which spotted the leak, points out, the benchmark database makes little sense, with for example the 5800X3D outgunning the 7800X3D in Factorio. The in-game benchmark is apparently shaky and affected by various other system configuration parameters, plus we don't know if the Ryzen 9950X3D CPU was run overclocked here.

So, while it appears to be a lot faster than the Ryzen 9800X3D as shown in the database - with a score of 655 for the Ryzen 9 CPU, versus 554 for the Ryzen 7 model which has just gone on sale - that has to be taken with handfuls of salt.

Rather than trying to make performance guesses, what this hopefully does show is that the Ryzen 9950X3D is likely to be inbound soon enough, if it's getting to the point where prerelease samples are showing up in benchmarks.

With any luck, we'll be seeing more game benchmark spillage in the near future, if the Ryzen 9950X3D is indeed set to be revealed at CES 2025 as is rumored. AMD has a whole load of new hardware to unveil at the show in January, in fact, if the grapevine is right.

That includes the Ryzen 9900X3D, too, plus new RDNA 4 graphics cards which will doubtless be what the most eyes are watching in terms of the high-profile launches. Well, that and the Strix Halo APUs we've been hearing so much about, although these may be mostly workstation-oriented to begin with, with gaming laptops coming later.