Pros & Cons
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- Potent CPU performance
- Impressive gaming performance
- Reasonably priced
- 128MB L3 cache
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- Biggest gains are in niche scenarios
- Not much faster than 9950X in CPU workloads
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Specs
| Base Clock Frequency | 4.3 |
| Bundled Cooler | None |
| Core Count | 16 |
| Integrated Graphics | AMD Radeon Graphics |
| Integrated Graphics Base Clock | 2200 |
| L3 Cache Amount | 128 |
| Lithography | 4 |
| Maximum Boost Clock | 5.7 |
| Socket Compatibility | AMD AM5 |
| Thermal Design Power (TDP) Rating | 170 |
| Thread Count | 32 |
| Unlocked Multiplier? |
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is arguably the most tantalizing entry in AMD’s line of 3D V-Cache processors to date. Cache is essential to modern processors, but exactly how much you need is debatable, and dependent on what you're doing at the moment. The additional cache within AMD’s 3D V-Cache processors increases performance only by a relatively small amount in most scenarios, with a more prominent bump while gaming under certain conditions, and that’s still true with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. The key to the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s appeal is getting this additional cache, and its accompanying performance bump, at a reasonable price: $699.99, just $50 more than the Ryzen 9 9950X. For all that, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D earns our Editors' Choice award for gaming CPUs.
Specs Compared: A 9950X Chip With 3D V-Cache
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a near twin of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X in almost every detail. Both processors, based on AMD's "Zen 5" architecture, feature 16 CPU cores that can maintain a top speed of 5.7GHz. The CPU cores in both are also built on TSMC’s 4nm manufacturing processors, while a separate I/O die, produced on a 6nm process, holds an AMD RDNA 2 integrated graphics processor (IGP).
The key detail that sets the Ryzen 9 9950X3D apart from the Ryzen 9 9950X is the presence of a dedicated SRAM chip that functions as 64MB of additional L3 cache for the processor. This addition pushes the total amount of L3 cache up to 128MB, and depending on the circumstances, this can have its benefits. We’ll look closer at this in benchmarks, but first, I should go over a key point about the Ryzen 9 9950X3D that arguably makes it the best AMD 3D V-Cache processor to date.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)First, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D implements the second generation of 3D V-Cache technology, which places the SRAM chip beneath one of the core complex dies (CCDs) that hold the CPU cores. First-gen designs placed the SRAM on top of the CPU cores instead, which caused the CPU cores to run hotter and limited performance. This change overcame this issue, enabling AMD to maintain clock parity between the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)Second, the price of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is essential. Most 3D V-Cache processors have carried a relatively steep premium of around $100 or more. For example, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched at $479.99, making it $120 more expensive than the similar Ryzen 7 9700X, which retails for $359.99. That price increase makes the Ryzen 7 9800X3D overly costly, in my opinion, especially as the Ryzen 9 9900X is available at $499.99 and has four additional cores.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)The Ryzen 9 9950X3D doesn’t have this same troubling differential, though. At $699, it is just $50 more than the $649 Ryzen 9 9950X. As these are essentially the same processors with just one notable difference, this pricing feels more reasonable for what you get. You also won't find a faster AMD processor at that price point for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D to compete with, which likewise helps the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s situation.
Test Setup and Competition
I tested the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D on a Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master motherboard with two 16GB sticks of DDR5 RAM set to operate with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s max official RAM speed of 5,600MHz. A Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD liquid CPU cooler manages processor temperatures. The test system also houses a 1TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD and a SilverStone Hela 1650R Platinum ATX 3.1 power supply rated to support 1,650 watts. For graphics, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 sits in the system for all tests.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D's main competitor is the 9950X. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is also a viable alternative to the Ryzen 9 9950X3D from a pure CPU-performance perspective, but if you are a gamer, the Core Ultra 9 285K is a harder sell. The Intel chip's lower price helps, but as you’ll see later, it’s not an optimal gaming PC option.
Synthetic and Content Creation Benchmarks
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D traded blows with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K in synthetic CPU benchmarks and content creation tests. The Ryzen 9 9950X performed roughly the same as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, but it fell a little behind in most tests, such as Cinebench 2024, Blender, and HandBrake.
The Core Ultra 9 285K outpaced the Ryzen 9 9950X3D in Cinebench 2024 and POV-Ray 3.7, while the two tied in HandBrake. The 9950X3D made up for this in Blender, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere Pro. In most cases, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D was much faster than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, except in Adobe Photoshop, where some sort of bottleneck pressed the three AMD chips’ scores together.
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Low-Settings Gaming Benchmarks
Gaming performance is one of the selling points of AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology, though what you get out of this varies broadly depending on circumstances. You can easily post hundreds of frames per second in almost any game when playing with low graphics settings using the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090. It’s specifically here that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D can show how that added cache helps it outperform the Ryzen 9 9950X.
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D tended to place first in most of these tests or tied with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. The one exception was in Black Myth Wukong, running at 4K, where the Ryzen 7 9800X3D didn’t perform quite as well. The Ryzen 9 9950X and the two competing Intel CPUs lagged pretty far behind the 3D V-Cache-powered competition.
High-Settings Gaming Benchmarks
If you own an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 and run games with reduced graphics settings, you certainly can get a rather significant performance boost from a CPU with 3D V-Cache. However, this advantage isn't quite as substantial if you run games with higher settings or have a less powerful graphics card.
The Time Spy Extreme benchmark doesn’t tell us much, but it shows the Ryzen 7 9800X3D to be behind due to its lower general CPU performance. In F1 2024, the 3D V-Cache processors showed an impressive performance lead while running the game with the Ultra High graphics preset at 1080p. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D led the Ryzen 9 9950X here with a 30% performance advantage, but this disappeared when the resolution increased to 1440p or 4K.
Cyberpunk 2077 essentially showed the same scenario between the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the 9950X that I observed in F1 2024. Black Myth: Wukong, however, didn't produce any real difference in performance between the 9950X3D and the 9950X.
The Core Ultra 9 285K also caught up to the Ryzen 9 9950X3D in Black Myth: Wukong, but its performance in all other gaming tests speaks for itself. The Core Ultra 9 285K can run games; it just doesn’t do it as well as the AMD competition.
While the Ryzen 9 9950X3D showed it could outperform the Ryzen 9 9950X under the right conditions, you should remember that this won’t happen everywhere or with every GPU. The added cache can help the CPU keep the graphics card fed with data and generate frames when the GPU has spare capacity available, like when the settings and resolution are turned down.
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the 9950X will more often come into a tie when the paired graphics card lacks this extra capacity, like while gaming at higher resolutions with higher graphics settings.
Power and Thermals
I use a Kill-A-Watt wall meter to measure the power consumption of the test system as a whole. The peak power consumption of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D was relatively close to the 9950X and Core Ultra 9 285K, leaving no room to criticize any of the three for their performance in this area. The AMD CPUs did demonstrate notably higher idle power consumption. Still, as these use a different motherboard from the Intel CPUs, it is difficult to isolate this to the CPU alone.
Thermally, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D stayed slightly cooler than the Ryzen 9 9950X. In order to make its 3D V-Cache processors, AMD had to make some changes to the CCD attached to the SRAM. This has traditionally involved pushing down the power draw to help keep the temperatures down, a tactic that appears to be working well here.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
AMD's fierce Ryzen 9 9950X3D delivers a small step up from the Ryzen 9 9950X in CPU performance and a bigger leap in certain gaming scenarios. For discriminating gamers, that justifies this 16-core chip's slightly steeper price.