Information has leaked regarding AMD’s new and highly anticipated Ryzen 9000X3D processors that could make then devastatingly quick and not just in games. Next generation 3D V-Cache will, according to the leak, provide better thermal performance and higher clock speeds, enhancing performance in games as well as other tasks with processors such as the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
The key difference is how the 3D V-Cache – additional fast cache that’s added to the processor and reduces the time it needs to cache out system RAM, in turn reducing latency and improving performance in games – is constructed. For the first time, the 3D V-Cache will be located underneath the eight core CCD (core complex die) and this will have significant ramifications.
Why is this signficant?
In the past, the cache has been added directly on top of one of the eight core CCD. The down side to this is that the cache is sitting on top of a hot-running bunch of cores and as a result, the cores were hampered in a number of areas.
Firstly, the cache could act as an insulator and prevent the CCD from being cooled as effectively as a standard CPU. This meant that 3D V-Cache models have run at relatively high temperatures and AMD has in the past disabled overclocking on them too. Secondly, to keep the temperatures in check, they usually featured lower frequencies to keep voltage and thermals in check and to ensure they remained below thermal limits.
This has meant that while the X3D models have seen extra performance in games that benefit from having added cache, they have usually been much slower than non 3D V-Cache models outside of games. In addition, any drop in frequency could also reduce performance in some games as well. It’s one strength Intel had in the past over AMD, which was to offer decent gaming performance, but also excellent performance in content creation.
With the cache located underneath the CCD according to regular hardware news leaker @9550pro on Twitter (via Videocardz), AMD has likely found that there is increased headroom for higher voltages and frequencies with no 3D V-Cache to get in between the CCD cores and the heatspreader. In short, they will be easier to cool and more open to increased frequencies.
In the leaked information, AMD supposedly claims that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D will have a 200 MHz higher peak boost frequency resulting in around 8% higher gaming performance and 15% higher multi-threaded performance. This could be devastating news for Intel as this would make AMD’s Ryzen 9000X3D models far better all-rounders than they have been in the past.
Why the Ryzen 7 9800X3D might not just be the best gaming processor
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D for example, featured quite poor performance outside of games due to its lower clock speeds, and the Ryzen 7000X3D models still had a sizeable gap in that area compared to the standard models too. The tweaked V-Cache design could see the Ryzen 9000X3D models such as the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D perform far closer to their non V-cache counterparts such as Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 9 9950X outside of games making them perfect for gamers as well as those with mixed use needs.
We already know that they’re likely to be much faster than Intel’s recent Core Ultra 200 CPUs such as the Core Ultra 285K and Core Ultra 245K, but that difference could be even larger than anticipated thanks to the new cache design.
When will the Ryzen 7 9800X3D be available?
AMD has announced that the first of its Ryzen 9000 3D V-Cache models will arrive on November 7th, possibly the Ryzen 7 9800X3D arriving first.
I’ll be reviewing the new processors including the Ryzen 7 9800X3D when they arrive so follow me here on Forbes using the blue button below, Facebook or YouTube to get the latest news and reviews.
