A new rumor suggests that AMD is readying a new flagship Ryzen 9000X3D series processor to provide the best of both worlds for gaming and productivity. While rumors regarding Gorgon and Medusa Point, AMD’s forthcoming mobile and desktop processors that could see individual CCDs with more than 8-cores/16-threads, which are thought to be announced either this fall or winter, continue to occasionally pop up, things have been relatively quiet at the top of the Ryzen 9000X3D product stack following the releases of its Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 9 9900x3D/9950X3D CPUs. Both parts have established themselves as the current must-have CPUs (depending on budget) for gaming, but the 9950X3D provides significant additional productivity options over the 9800X3D with its extra CCD.
While the Ryzen 9000X3D series very notably flipped its design from previous generations, thus allowing higher clock speeds and cooler temps, other specs largely remained the same. For instance, the 9800X3D was still an 8-core/16-thread CPU with 96 MB of L3 Cache. The 9950X3D, while at one point rumored to feature 2x 8-core/16-thread CCDs with 3D V-Cache, ended up launching with only one CCD with access to the 3d cache while bumping that up to 128 MB. Now, according to a hardware info leaker, chi11edog (via VideoCardz), who is known to have ties to board manufacturers, a new king of the hill is on the way.
New Granite Ridge CPU on the way.
— chi11eddog (@g01d3nm4ng0) August 4, 2025
8C/16T/120W/96MB L3 Cache.
16C/32T/200W/192MB L3 Cache. 192MB…🧐🧐🧐
So, if accurate, we could be seeing a new Zen 5 “Granite Ridge” AM5 part featuring 16-cores/32-threads but also with a whopping 192 MB of L3 Cache and 200W TDP. It’s already being speculated that this could be 2x 8-core/16-thread CCDs, with similar specs to the 9800X3D, and each having 96 MB of L3 cache. The rumor also indicates that perhaps another 8-core/16-thread part is on the way, which might be an alternate SKU of the 9800X3D. Clock speeds would play a major role in performance uptick for either of these processors, but if AMD has managed to refine its manufacturing process or utilize better binned parts, each could take the top spots for most sought-after CPUs come the holidays or the new year.
Discussion (15 replies)
Join Discussion →It'll be interesting to see if it is a boon or bane to gaming performance.
I got my hopes up the last time this rumor hit the mill. Not getting my hopes up again.
If it does happen then I'll be extremely happy. As this will probably be one of the best consumer chips for the work I do. Assuming the price isn't ridiculous.
I agree about the last time. . .and also even if it comes out we'll still have to see how well they address scheduling and whatnot. Fingers crossed though but I'd expect this to be ~$800-$900 if it does happen.
I could see 650 maybe 700... I mean what's the markup from a 9950x to a 9950x3d? Google... So top range it's about a 100 dollar markup. So lets call it an 100 dollar premium over the 9950x3d... I'm leaning toward a top end price of 750, 800 at most. Really much more than that and it's just a money grab because they can.
I'm hoping for that price range, 750-800, but rounding out the price of 2x 9800X3D @$449 (current). I know total apples and oranges to this but some marketing folk will think like that.
If the price is closer to $1000 then I'll just continue buying EPYCs.
Honestly for that price if they ALSO double the PCIE lanes it would be worth it but they won't so they reasonably can't. Not to say they won't it just won't have the sell through that they might otherwise expect.
They are REAL close to stepping on thread ripper... really a x3d variant of the thread ripper would be more appealing then they could get away with charging 1500 bucks for the CPU easy.
I kind of wonder if this new SKU will actually be part of the EPYC lineup for AM5 which will make more sense for them to release instead of a Ryzen branded part.
More than a few folks are wondering the same if this might be an AM5 EPYC part.
I don't think it would step on any Threadripper toes. They're not designed for gaming. They don't do well gaming, they're productivity CPU's.
A 16/32 X3D CPU, so long as they can figure out the scheduler, should be a beast at gaming. I just don't see how they'll deal with cross CCD latency.
New update, 9950X3D2 featuring dual 3D cache, and 9850X3D, both with 5.6 GHz clock.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d2-with-200w-tdp-and-ryzen-7-9850x3d-with-5-6-ghz-boost-reportedly-in-the-works[/URL]
I'm wondering what benefit a dual cache X3D chip will offer and how they'll combat inter CCD latency. That was the whole problem with dual CCD parts and gaming. You had to disable one chiplet to get decent performance.
Yeah, definitely some questions in use-scenarios for that one. If true, it becomes even more confusing given the rumors about larger CCD Zen 6 parts inbound.
It is getting confusing for most people. Adding these processors to their line up just adds to it along with all the variants of video cards out there. For someone new to the PC world it can be a whirlwind.
Yea, I'll be curious to see if the dual 3d vcache cpu's are actually better for gaming than the single 3d vcache.
I purchased mine because AMD said there was no point to a dual 3d vcache part because it would not help game performance.