AMD is reportedly already working on a budget X3D gaming CPU based on its latest Zen 5 architecture. According to the latest word from the rumor mill, the new AMD Ryzen 5 9600X3D has six cores, rather than the eight expected on the 9800X3D, but will still have the same 64MB stack of 3D V-cache to improve gaming performance.
AMD’s 3D V-cache has proved to be a winner when it comes to gaming frame rates, as we found in our Ryzen 7 7800X3D review. This chip is still the best gaming CPU we’ve tested, but it’s been out for well over a year now, and it was only in the last few weeks that the six-core Ryzen 5 7600X3D was announced as a cheaper option. This time, however, it looks as though there could be a budget AMD X3D chip out even sooner.
This latest rumor comes from tech leaker Hoang Anh Phu, who also correctly called the launch of the Ryzen 5 7600X3D weeks before it was officially released. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Hoang Anh Phu (username @AnhPhuH) firstly implied the eight-core Ryzen 7 9800X3D would be coming out in early November, using emoji number blocks to create the model number of the CPU. This clashes with previous rumors that the chip would be arriving in late October, but the difference is only a few days – it’s looking increasingly like this timeframe will see the new chip being released.
However, Hoang Anh Phu then followed up with another post, saying “R5 was also planned from the beginning along with R7 & R9,” where we assume R stands for Ryzen. If this is true, then it would mark a different strategy for AMD’s X3D chips from before. With Zen 4, the company released the 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X3D and 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D first, with the eight-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D being released a few months later.
The latter has turned out to be a much more popular chip, though. Not only is it cheaper, but it also doesn’t have the latency issues of the other chips, as all eight of its cores have access to the extra 3D V-cache. On the other chips, only six or eight cores can directly access the cache, leading to latency problems if a game hands a thread to a core that can’t access the extra cache.
This time, it looks as though AMD has learned a valuable lesson. Not only are we expecting the 9800X3D to be among the first chips to be released, but it also looks as though there’s going to be a Ryzen 5 chip, likely to be called the 9600X3D, being planned at the same time. Given that you don’t need more than six cores for most games, even now, this cheaper X3D CPU looks like it could be a real winner for gamers looking for a budget gaming CPU, if it has the right price.
Of course, all this is just rumor and speculation right now, and none of this information has officially come from AMD, but I’d love to see a new six-core X3D gaming CPU coming out soon, especially if it has decent worldwide availability, unlike the 7600X3D, which is only available in a few specific countries at certain retailers.
If you’re thinking about assembling a new system based one of these new gaming CPUs, check out our full guide on how to build a gaming PC, where we take you through every step of the process from start to finish.