The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D has been spotted in a benchmark leak, marking the first time the widely anticipated chip has apparently appeared out in the world being tested. The 16-core flagship gaming CPU of AMD’s Zen 5 Ryzen lineup is expected to offer specs similar to the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, but with a slight boost in all-round performance.
With our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review showing this chip to be the current absolute best gaming CPU around, there’s a lot of reason to be interested in what a 16-core chip based on AMD’s latest technology can do. Previous 16-core X3D variants, such as the 7950X3D and 5950X3D, haven’t been as fast when it comes to gaming, due to the way the X3D cache is configured. However, there’s speculation that the new 16-core chips could use a different X3D configuration, which may untap their gaming performance.
This AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D leak comes from a benchmark for the game Factorio, with the result shown on the FactorioBox benchmark website. It clearly shows the full name of the processor as having been used for the top-scoring benchmark run, though no other specs of the chip are listed, so we can’t confirm the amount of L3 cache or clock speed of the chip.
Clicking on the benchmark result shows the test was run with a slightly ludicrous 256GB of 6,000MT/s RAMm and was run on a 64-bit version of Windows via Steam. Outside of that, though, no details are given about the system.
As for the benchmark result itself, the 9950X3D does top the chart, with the likes of the 9800X3D and 14900K following behind. However, this benchmark also puts the 5800X3D ahead of any other Intel chip, so it obviously has a strong AMD X3D bias. Moreover, the benchmark does note at the top of its page that “results vary depending on CPU clock, memory clock, memory timings, etc., so take these numbers with a grain of salt.”
Ultimately, the performance suggested here isn’t particularly relevant. However, the reveal of the full name of the chip is a big deal, with this being the first time we’ve seen it fully named on a benchmark run.
As for what else we can expect from the chip, it will almost certainly use the Zen 5 architecture, as other 9000 series CPUs, and we can expect it to use the new 2nd-gen version of 3D V-Cache, which has the cache sitting under the CPU core die, rather than on top of it like with earlier versions of 3D V-Cache. This change is what has allowed the 9800X3D to run at higher clock speeds than the 7800X3D, and it could open up the performance taps of the 9950X3D too.
If that’s all that is different about the cache on the 9950X3D, it’s unlikely to outpace the 9800X3D for gaming performance. That’s because the 16-core X3D chips use two CPU core dies, but only stack the extra 3D V-Cache die on one of those CPU core dies. This means eight of the cores don’t have speedy access to the 64MB of 3D V-Cache, and there can be latency issues for data being passed from one CPU core die to another.
If the 9950X3D uses two 3D V-Cache dies, or has the single die somehow better shared across all 16 cores, it could unlock more performance. However, this is all speculation for now.
The rumor is that AMD will be unveiling the 9950X3D and possibly a six-core 9650X3D at the CES trade show in January 2025, so we won’t have too long to wait to find out the exact situation. For now, though, the 9800X3D remains the top CPU of the moment, and is likely to still be a top choice even if the 9950X3D does manage to slightly edge it on overall performance.
While we wait to find out exactly what the 9950X3D has in store for us, though, why not check out our Intel Core Ultra 265K review, to see how Intel’s very latest gaming CPU stacks up against the competition?