You can forget about AMD Zen 5 16-core CPU with dual X3D cache - it's a fake rumor, we're told

Earlier this week, we heard some chatter about a new high-end (200W) 16-core AMD Ryzen 9000 3D V-Cache processor with two banks of cache, one per chiplet - and apparently this rumor is a fake.

This comes from another leaker - so obviously, we need to take a debunking like this with appropriate seasoning, as we did with the original rumor - but 'wjm47196' on the Chiphell forums (in China) seems pretty certain this is fakery.

As flagged by HXL on X (see the above post, noticed by Wccftech), the Chiphell leaker (who is well-known) wrote: "Fake, there is no such thing." They then elaborated that there may be a new X3D chip for the Zen 5 generation in the works, though.

This would be a lower-end Ryzen 97xx model for the X3D series, presumably the 9700X3D, and it might come out in 2026 as a more affordable option for PC gamers.

As Wccftech points out, the rumored dual cache Ryzen 9000X3D model with 16-cores - and a huge 192MB of L3 cache, or that was the theory - likely doesn't make a lot of sense anyway, as it probably wouldn't deliver much of a performance boost for gaming scenarios (in the order of a few percent, basically). The cost would be an eye-watering affair, too, no doubt, and a new mid-range offering like a Ryzen 9700X3D seems a much more likely next step for AMD.

The good news for gamers is that the current Ryzen 9800X3D - a superb gaming CPU - has been dropping in price lately, and with Black Friday not too far off now, we can expect some seriously tempting deals on this processor later this year.