PC enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the release date for AMD’s Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D – its 16 and 12-core 3D V-Cache models that could be the ultimate processors that everyone wants to own for the next year or so, which have more cores than it’s highly successful Ryzen 7 9800X3D released recently to rave reviews. It seems we may finally have a timeline for the actual release date for the rest of the Zen 5 range, but also some potentially bad news about the processors too.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Release Date
Thankfully, that doesn’t come in the form of price tags, which at the moment we have no idea about yet. But first, let’s talk release dates. AMD is planning to have the two processors available by the end of January, meaning that within the next eight weeks the Ryzen 9000 X3D line-up could be complete.
The news comes from well-regarded hardware news leaker Hoang Anh Phu who posted the below on X (formerly Twitter) that the 12C (9900X) and 16C (9950X) will launch in late January (via Videocardz).
This would make sense as AMD could also tie the launch in with a Consumer Electronic Show announcement in Las Vegas in early January. The really big news, though, comes from the next comment in the thread where Hoang apparently confirms the new CPUs will have the same 3D V-Cache configuration as the Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 models.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D cache layout
There have been many rumors about how the extra cache on these processors might configured, with AMD having made major change already with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and it locating the 64MB 3D V-Cache underneath the Core Complex Die (CCD) instead of on top of it. Doing the latter, which it has done with all previous iterations of its 3D V-Cache processors, means there’s a thermal bottleneck and frequencies have to be reduced as a result.
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D, though, located the 3D V-Cache underneath the CCD and AMD was able to drastically increase frequencies as a result. However, with the 12 and 16-core parts, another issue has posed performance problems in the past. The 3D V-Cache has only been assigned to one CCD, but the Ryzen 9 3D V-Cache parts have two CCDs. This meant that the processor was reliant on software and drivers to direct game software threads to the cores with access to 3D V-Cache, effectively known as core parking, but this didn’t always work, leading to a loss of performance in games.
This issue has mostly been resolved, but rumors were that AMD was adding 3D V-Cache to both CCDs. solving that problem. Whether it would add another 64MB chunk to the other CCD wasn’t known, and splitting the cache could potentially reduce the amount available to specific cores too. However, Hoang also claims that there will be no difference in the cache layout and that only one CCD will have access to 3D V-Cache.
From a performance point of view this does make sense, seeing as few if any games utilize more than eight cores, so other than solving core parking issues, it’s unlikely adding extra cache would improve performance and would likely increase costs.
Still, this is still a rumor, but it does seem the most likely course for AMD, which looks set to dominate the desktop CPU market with its Zen 5 3D V-Cache processors for most of 2025 with Intel’s Core Ultra 200 processors proving disappointing plus we may know the release date for its Ryzen 9 9950X3D. I’ll be reviewing the processors when they arrive so follow me here on Forbes using the blue button below, Facebook or YouTube to get the latest news and reviews.
