AMD makes the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 official — first dual-cache X3D CPU arrives in April, with 208MB cache, 200W TDP, promising modest performance gains

AMD has announced the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, its newest flagship and the world’s first desktop CPU that stacks 3D V-Cache across both CCDs. The CPU comes with a massive 208MB (16MB L2 Cache + 192MB L3 Cache) of total cache to deliver a touted 5~ 10% performance boost over the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. While pricing has not been disclosed, AMD has confirmed that the CPU will be available for purchase starting April 22.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 offers a similar layout as the regular 9950X3D, with 16 cores and 32 threads, with a slightly reduced maximum boost clock of 5.6 GHz. It comes with a TDP of 200W, which is 30W more than the 9950X3D, making it the most power-hungry desktop consumer chip from the company and potentially requiring a more robust cooling solution. As with other Zen 5 chips, the processor retains compatibility with the AM5 platform with support for DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen 5, and Precision Boost Overdrive 2. The CPU will also come in a special monochrome packaging to make it stand out from the rest of the SKUs.

Jack Huynh, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of AMD's Computing and Graphics Group, made the announcement in a video claiming that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 should offer excellent performance in gaming and productivity. While AMD hasn’t shared any gaming benchmarks, expect the CPU to offer up to 7% better performance compared to the 9950X3D in rendering benchmarks such as V-Ray and Blender, and about 5% to 7% faster in content creation benchmarks, including Puget for DaVinci Resolve and Geekbench multi-core. The chip also purportedly offers up to 13% faster performance in AI and simulation, and 8% faster performance in Unreal Engine compilation.

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The announcement aligns with an earlier report from December, where the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 was spotted in a couple of leaked benchmarks. Initial listings suggested the implementation of dual 3D V-Cache, with the CPU scoring 71,585 in PassMark multi-core and 4,716 in single-core tests. In Geekbench, it achieved roughly 3,456 in single-core and 21,062 in multi-core performance. Since the leaked numbers aren’t official, it is best to wait for our full review for a detailed analysis of the 9950X3D2.

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