AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology is still not fully integrated with its mainstream CPU launches three generations in, but that’s what makes these releases so exciting—they allow AMD to reclaim the CPU throne even after Intel releases its own. Now, the new Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D are coming, and we have a release date.

AMD officially announced the release date and pricing for its highly anticipated Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D processors. The new chips will be launched next week, on Wednesday, March 12th, so you have a little bit of time to get that wallet ready and buy one of these bad boys for your next gaming PC. As a reminder, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D are built upon AMD’s latest Zen 5 architecture.

They are variants of the Ryzen 9 9900X and the Ryzen 9 9950X, but they feature 3D V-Cache, which stacks extra L3 cache for a 3x increase in L3 cache. In case you don’t know why it’s important, a larger L3 cache is beneficial because it acts as a high-speed staging area for frequently accessed data. When your CPU needs data, it first checks the L3 cache. If the data is present (also known as a “cache hit”), it’s retrieved much faster than fetching it from RAM, and it’s loaded much faster into your CPU and, therefore, your screen. More L3 cache means a higher chance of cache hits, reducing the need to access the slower RAM.

This is especially good for games because a lot of data is moved back and forth, and a lot of it is usually just the same data making its way from the RAM to the CPU repeatedly. If it’s cached instead, it will be loaded faster, and it will result in faster-running games, which is the reason why these AMD 3D variants are usually called the best CPUs for gaming in particular. The first 3D V-Cache CPU to hit the market was the Ryzen 7 5800X3D a few years ago, back when Zen 3 was the hottest stuff, so this is now the third generation we’ve seen with 3D V-Cache and it still has its same magical effect to come up with better gaming performance out of a quick tweak. Pretty cool stuff.

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D, which comes with 12 cores and 24 threads, costs $599. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the higher-end model here, though, coming with a whopping 16 cores and 32 threads. The latter is the better CPU in AMD’s whole range because it’s amazing for both regular computing applications (due to the high amount of cores and threads) and for gaming (due to the 3D V-Cache it has inside). But it’s also the most expensive, costing $699—a whopping $100 more than what the 9900X3D costs. With GPUs like the RTX 5090 costing an insane $1,999 (if you can find it at MSRP), this is not the biggest problem in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still a lot of money to pay for a CPU.

These chips are available in China now in a limited quantity, but the larger release for everyone will happen next Wednesday. They honestly look pretty cool, and we can’t wait to see how they perform in the hands of reviewers since reviews will come just one day before, on March 11th.

Source: VideoCardz, Phoronix