We tested the Ryzen 9 9950X3D to see if $150 for V-Cache is worth 5% gains for creators in this all-out Zen 5 CPU

At the beginning of the year, AMD announced the Ryzen 9 9950X3D at CES as "the world's best processor for gamers and creators." The killer selling point for this top-end Zen 5 chip is its appeal to both, as it promises gains in raw productivity alongside its redesigned V-Cache to benefit games and content creation workloads.

However, AMD was always transparent that gaming performance won't change much compared to the already dominant Ryzen 7 9800X3D, unless specific titles can explicitly benefit from the extra cores and threads offered in the 9950X3D.

So, this ultra-high-end Ryzen 9000 desktop processor lands itself in a strange situation.

Sure, it's the most powerful consumer gaming processor on paper, and the productivity boosts should intrigue content creators and indie game developers, but is it worth the temptation of X3D fans who only want to stick to gaming?

Why you should trust us

Why you should trust us

Ben Wilson

My custom-built gaming desktops have always featured AMD processors, with Ryzen chips for recent builds and all the way back to Athlon 64 CPUs when I first started building PCs.

Harish Jonnalagadda

I've been building custom gaming PCs for over 20 years, and other than an early interest in the Athlon XP, I used Intel CPUs throughout. That's changing with the Ryzen 9000; AMD is undeniably in the lead with both gaming and productivity tasks, and I'm thrilled at coming back to Team Red.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D: Price, availability, and specs

AMD is set to add another "Zen 5" X3D desktop CPU to its lineup on March 12, 2025. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D comes nearly half a year after the Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched to a warm reception, and it's built to be the most powerful CPU for gamers and creators.

With a $699 MSRP, it's the most expensive of the Zen 5 chips. That's roughly $220 more than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's MSRP, which can be hard to find.

That's mainly due to the 9800X3D's appeal as the best gaming CPU on the market today. It's the chip I use in my system, and it's the one I recommend to any serious gamers.

So, where does the 9950X3D fit into the Zen 5 lineup with its higher price?

Like the 9800X3D, the new Ryzen 9 CPU comes complete with AMD's proprietary V-Cache technology that stacks L3 cache below the CPU die. This allows the CPU to access the cache — used for fast, frequent, and temporary storage — in a much more efficient and speedy manner.

It's particularly good at improving performance in games, which is a big reason why the chips are so sought after by enthusiasts. Because the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is made for gaming and work, AMD has added a secondary unstacked cache with maximum frequency, boosting performance in creative apps.

Component Specialist

Component Specialist

Cale Hunt

I've been building custom PCs for decades, and I love offering advice to those who want to step into the world of system building.

The L3 cache difference between the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Ryzen 9 9950X is evident; it hits 128MB in the former chip, dropping to 64MB in the latter. The 9950X3D isn't your only 128MB L3 V-Cache option in the Ryzen 9 lineup. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D comes in at a more reasonable $599 MSRP, though it drops 4 cores and 8 threads in the process. It also lowers the TDP from 170W to 120W, lowering heat and energy demands.

All of AMD's Zen 5 CPUs, including the 9950X3D, use the AM5 socket, which has been in use since 2022.

👉 See the best AM5 motherboards for Ryzen 9

Those upgrading from an AMD Ryzen 7000 chip will have an easy path. Anything beyond that, and you'll need to swap your AM4 (or older) motherboard for the AM5 hardware.

Launches March 12

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D | $699.99 at Newegg

The new Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the premiere desktop CPU for gaming and creation. Its 3D V-Cache for gaming is joined by a max-frequency unstacked cache, allowing you to enjoy the best performance no matter the task at hand.

👉 See at: Best Buy | Newegg | Amazon | B&H

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AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D: Zen 5 architecture

AMD is doing things quite differently with Granite Ridge; it's using a new iteration of its 3D V-Cache tech where the L3 cache is situated below the processor, and as a result, the core complex die sits closer to the cooling solution, increasing thermal efficiency.

Basically, the cores have much better heat transfer to the TIM and IHS (which still looks ugly), and the node switch to TSMC's 4nm means there are decent gains with power efficiency and density.

This is how AMD is finally able to deliver fully unlocked designs with X3D models, and the 9800X3D showcased just how big of a difference it makes in daily use as well as gaming.

The 9950X3D builds on this foundation, and although it has a lower base frequency than its predecessor, it is able to deliver much better sustained performance.

AMD is delivering sizeable IPC gains with Granite Ridge and Zen 5, and a key difference with this generation is a two-block ahead branch predictor that basically predicts two code paths ahead, instead of the standard next-block prediction that has been standard on x86.

Although the 9950X3D doesn't include a built-in NPU, it does a much better job with AVX-512 instructions.

The 9950X3D has 16 cores and 32 threads, and the L3 cache has doubled from the previous generation to 128MB. The cache bandwidth itself has increased, with latency coming down.

Like the rest of the Ryzen 9000 series, the 9950X3D uses the AM5 socket, with AMD switching to LGA (LGA 1718) pins this time.

While the 9800X3D had a 120W TDP, the increased core count with the 9950X3D pushes it to 170W, and you'll ideally need an AIO liquid cooler to maximize its potential.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D: CPU benchmarks

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AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D finds itself firmly atop my desktop processor testing hierarchy in multi-core performance, overtaking Intel's now-$600 Core Ultra 9 285K with fewer cores and threads, albeit offset with its higher 170W base TDP. In CPU-centric benchmark tests, the 9950X3D scores the highest so far, shining in burst-processing performance with Geekbench 6 and even sustained stress in Cinebench 2024.

The only test that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D faltered was in CPU-Z, another short benchmark that tests burst processing, where Intel manages to hold its ground. It's not a particularly groundbreaking discovery, but still an interesting metric to compare how each manufacturer excels in particular areas.

The 9950X3D's multi-core performance is around 5.22% ahead of its non-X3D counterpart, while single-core performance is practically unchanged from the Ryzen 9 9900X, which sells for around $550 at Newegg, dropping some of the cost since its late 2024 release.

Gaming benchmarks: Stick with the 9800X3D

After testing three modern PC games with demanding specifications, it became clear that the 1% difference metric was an accurate claim from AMD; there really is nothing between them for the most part.

Again, certain games will be GPU bound while others will thrive on extra CPU performance. However, for a brief cross-section of my usual benchmark testing suite, there is nothing to write home about.

These two chips performed the same for gaming alongside an NVIDIA RTX 4090 Founders Edition and 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM with a Samsung 990 PRO storage drive. Each game was set to their respective 'maximum' graphical fidelity, albeit with upscaling technologies switched off and frame generation similarly deactivated.

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AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D: Competition

AMD already dominates the gaming subcategory of the desktop processor market by offering its Ryzen 7 9800X3D as the best gaming CPU you can buy — if you can find it. A common issue with making such a popular product is that availability is often at the mercy of scalpers and bulk buyers. Thankfully, the 9800X3D is in stock for $479 at Newegg at the time of writing, which is great to see, but I'm getting used to seeing that "out of stock" badge on the daily.

If you're looking for the top gaming processor without losing too much value for your money, the 9800X3D remains king of the hill in that respect. However, if raw performance is what you're craving, then the non-X3D Ryzen 9 9950X currently sells for $544 at Newegg, but you'll miss out on the V-Cache that generally improves gaming performance. Still, $155 is a huge price drop, so it depends entirely on what your daily workload looks like.

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AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D: Should you buy?

You should buy this if ...

✅ You're a game developer with a flexible budget

✅ You can utilize the core/thread count to its fullest

You should not buy this if ...

❌ You're just looking for the best gaming CPU

While the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is technically the most performant X3D processor in its Zen 5 lineup, the specifications inside are so extravagant that most consumers would likely never benefit.

This is a chip for power-hungry number crunching in a gaming environment, harnessed either by a content creator with a seriously complex setup or a game developer who'll constantly switch between their chosen game engine and iterations of their project for testing.

At $699 MSRP, you had better be absolutely positive that you need every inch of the performance on offer here.

Any half-measures would be a waste of cash, especially when the non-X3D Ryzen 9000X chips are gradually coming down in price, and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D remains, without question, the ultimate choice for PC gaming enthusiasts without going overboard.

Make no mistake; the 9950X3D is the high-end chip in AMD's most cutting-edge offerings — there is nowhere higher to go from here at a consumer level, and that should be a clear hint at who really needs it (spoiler: you probably don't.)

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