Conclusion
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPUs are the next generation Zen 5 AM5 CPUs launching from AMD with 2nd Gen AMD 3D V-Cache. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D are geared as gaming CPUs with content creation in mind and will be available on March 12th, 2025. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D will have an MSRP of $699, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D will have an MSRP of $599.
As the names suggest, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the flagship CPU, sporting 16-cores/32-threads at up to 5.7GHz with a whopping 144MB total cache (128MB L3) using the new 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache technology, which flips the 3D V-Cache upside down for better clock speeds and thermals. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is next down the line, sporting 12-cores/24-threads at up to 5.5GHz with 140MB total cache (128MB L3) using the new 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache technology as well. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has a higher TDP of 170W, while the Ryzen 9 9900X3D has a TDP of 120W.
Performance
In our gaming-focused review, we put the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D through its paces in a suite of 12 games, focusing purely on the gaming aspect of the CPU. We do need to stress that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is also a great content creation CPU for everything, but our initial review today was focused purely on the gaming aspect of it, we will have further follow-up in the future with synthetic benchmarks. We tested the CPUs at 1080p because this is a CPU review, and we need to compare the CPUs against each other to find out performance and how they differ, this is not a GPU test, and thus we focus on 1080p for this reason.
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D still holds the lead as the faster CPU, outperforming the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D mostly. It is interesting that there are games where they are equal in performance and games where the Ryzen 7 9800X3D does take a more commanding lead. In all instances, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D was on par to faster than the Ryzen 7 9950X3D, but the Ryzen 9 9950X3D did actually beat the Ryzen 7 9800X3D a couple of times by some small percentages. For the most part, both CPUs have similar performance while gaming, which is great to see.
When looking at the previous generation AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, we saw the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D take a very commanding lead in performance. There were some pretty big gen-on-gen performance uplifts with the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D in gaming performance. We experienced anywhere between 10-20% performance uplift from the Ryzen 9 9950X3D versus the Ryzen 9 7950X3D in gaming performance. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D was already a great gaming CPU, but the Ryzen 9 9950X3D improves upon it in every way. It almost seems like a worthy upgrade in fact, if you have money to burn, it might actually be worth the upgrade if you have a fast GPU like an RTX 4090 or RTX 5090.
When looking at performance compared to the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, we find that the new Ryzen 9950X3D offers an impressive uplift in performance thanks to the 3D V-Cache on board. That 3D V-Cache greatly helps the Zen 5 architecture in our results. We saw some pretty huge increases in performance just from this 3D V-Cache, despite the fact that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is running 100MHz lower than the Ryzen 9 9950X in clock speed. We experienced between a 20%-30% performance uplift from the Ryzen 9 9950X3D versus the Ryzen 9 9950X. This came in varying degrees, depending on the game, some had really high differences, and some not as much; it is very game-dependent as usual.
When looking at the performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D versus the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, yeah… no.
Final Points
What is there to say? We kind of knew how this would turn out. AMD is absolutely killing it on the Ryzen side. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is truly the best all-arounder for both gaming and content creation. The 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache is a huge win, even if it is only on one CCD. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D improves upon the Ryzen 9 7950X3D as a gaming CPU by allowing a higher sustained clock speed while gaming and being based on the newer Zen 5 architecture. It seems Zen 5 benefits well from the extra L3 cache for gaming. We have yet to test content creation, but we will get to that in a follow-up. It does seem, though, that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is poised to be the best of both worlds.
If you are building a PC for the sole purpose of being a gaming PC, and you are doing nothing but gaming, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is still the best option for this purpose. If, however, you do more than just gaming with your PC, if you do other things, and still want a great gaming experience, then the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is your best option. It is worth the $50 premium over the 9950X for gaming if you want gaming and you actually want to get work done.
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D will offer the best 16-core/32-thread multi-threading performance, the best single-thread performance, and the best gaming experience you can get, all in one package. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D offers a truly no-compromise experience, you get awesome gaming and the capability for doing more than just gaming on your PC, and when you want to have fun gaming, well, you can do that as well.
