AMD and partners confirm Ryzen CPU with dual 3D V-Cache chiplets is coming but gamers are unlikely to see the benefit

AMD has teased the launched of a new Ryzen processor with two chiplets, each of which will include a healthy dollop of 3D V-Cache.

As reported by ComputerBase, AMD told journalists to "stay tuned" regarding the launch of such a chip. If this wasn't convincing enough, Alienware China has announced a new Area-51 gaming PC with the new chip, which it notes as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2. Furthermore, system builder Systronix has also listed a workstation with the chip.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 will likely deliver 16 cores, 32 threads and 192 MB of total L3 cache.

All of which not only suggests the chip is set to launch, it's happening sometime soon, and it probably should have been included in AMD's CES 2026 announcements. Its absence is a little strange, as AMD had to lean pretty heavily on the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and new Ryzen AI Max chips to (barely) carry the show for gamers. Though this isn't the first time AMD has pulled a product announcement from CES at the last moment; anyone remember the missing RX 9000-series GPUs of last year?

Though is the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 for gamers? You'd think so, considering the abundance of cache on X3D processors as the main driver of their world-class gaming performance. However, there's a reason that existing dual-chiplet X3D chips do not use 3D V-Cache technology on both core clusters.

Until now, only a single chiplet on a dual-chiplet processor (9900X3D and 9950X3D) has more added cache via the chip-stacking technology. Through software, AMD aims to keep game threads to a single chiplet (CCD), to reduce latency from travelling from one CCD to another via Infinity Fabric. So, a 9950X3D may have 16 cores, but games ideally only run on eight—the cores in the CCD with the 3D V-Cache.

AMD knows this better than anyone. Hence why, even as far back as this time last year, AMD said that, while it could make a chip with 3D V-Cache on both chiplets, there wouldn't be much benefit for gamers.

"Such a processor would simply be too expensive and games would not benefit from a second CCD with 3D V-Cache to the same extent as the step from 32 to 96 MB L3 cache for one CCD," AMD said to HardwareLuxx at the time.

That's not to say there's no benefit in some cases, though the performance-per-dollar might be awful as the extra cache is sure to inflate the cost for the already near-$700 Ryzen 9 9950X3D. Gamers would likely benefit more from a 12-core CCD design, like that rumoured for Zen 6—though this has been rumoured for a while now and not yet materialised.

Other applications might make good use of those 16 cores, however, and there are other applications that benefit from having lots of L3 cache close to the cores. That's why AMD does offer server-grade chips with 3D V-Cache, such as the AMD Epyc 9684X with a whopping 1152 MB of L3 cache onboard. This chip costs $14,756—providing you buy 1000 or more to receive the, ahem, discount.

So, is the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 even going to be billed as a gaming product when it arrives? From the look of that Systronix system above, it might find more use in workstations aiming to offer lots of L3 cache for a fraction of the cost of an Epyc chip. Though I'm sure it'll sell to some gamers looking for the best of the best, even if it's in name only with very little actual benefit.