AMD's flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D spotted: boost clocks of over 5.6GHz, 128MB of L3 cache

AMD's flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor will make its grand appearance at CES 2025, but new leaks tease the 16-core, 32-thread X3D beast on CPU-Z, check it out:

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The upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor will have the same clock speeds as their non-X3D counterparts, but with some additional stacks of L3 cache through AMD's in-house 3D V-Cache technology. The flagship AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor will feature 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 power, with CPU clocks of up to 5.65GHz (5650MHz) in its engineering sample (ES) form.

AMD's new powerhouse Ryzen 9 9950X3D will also retain the same 170W TDP rating that the Ryzen 9 9950X has, but with much more case: 96MB + 32MB for a total of 128MB of L3 cache. This is an additional 64MB of L3 cache for the 9950X3D over the 9950X, so it'll be interesting to see the adoption of this new processor (gamers will want to buy the 9800X3D).

• Read more: AMD to launch Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 9900X3D by end of January 2025: only one CCD has 3D V-Cache

AMD will have two Core Complex Dies (CCDs) with each of the CCDs housing 8 cores of Zen 5 + 32MB of dedicated L3 cache (two CCDs = 2 x 32MB L3 cache = 64MB additional L3 cache in total). Meanwhile, one of them will feature an additional 64MB of L3 cache chiplet underneath the CCD to provide 128MB L3 cache, and 144MB of cache coupled with the L2 cache.

Unlike previous generations of X3D processors, placing the L3 cache chiplet underneath the CCD allows the cores to be in direct contact with the IHS for improved cooling, which in turrn, allows the CPU to retain the core clocks while unlocking the path for overclocking the Ryzen 9 9950X3D... not long to wait now, with the reveal at CES 2025 early next year.