Forget the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, as rumors of AMD's true gaming CPU monster have arrived

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 is a possible upcoming AMD CPU that has been rumored ever since AMD unveiled its first round of X3D gaming CPUs at the start of 2025. This monster of a CPU is believed, like the 9950X3D, to feature 16 AMD Zen 5 CPU cores and be partnered with extra 3D V-Cache, but instead of just one 3D V-Cache die, it would get two, making it the ultimate version of AMD's current AM5 CPU tech.

We spoke to AMD about the chip nearly a year ago, with the company explaining that while they could make a 16-core CPU with 3D V-Cache for all cores, they "don't think there's a massive market for it" but that they will "do some internal analysis." However, fresh rumors are now pointing to such a chip existing, with some news outlets hinting at having been briefed about the upcoming chip, and subsequently, the model name has appeared in marketing material from two gaming PC manufacturers.

The initial report comes from tech news site ComputerBase, which, following a briefing with the company, posted on X that "AMD just told us […] Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 stay tuned." While far from a definitive 'yes' from the company, this strongly hints that the chip could finally be in the works.

Meanwhile, both Alienware and Sytronix have subsequently posted marketing materials mentioning the chip. Alienware posted on Weibo a video about its new Area-51 desktop PC now being available with AMD CPUs (which is actually a big deal, as we were impressed by the company's Aurora R16 PC, but it was held back by using Intel Core Ultra 200 CPUs), with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 mentioned in the description.

Sytronix pulled a similar move with a post on its website detailing the specs of its new workstations, with the 9950X3D2 listed, showing it having 16 cores and using an "X3D2 architecture."

Both posts have now been amended, with the Alienware post now just saying the machine features "the latest AMD Ryzen processors and second-generation 3D V-Cache technology" while the Sytronix page has been updated to show the 9950X3D, rather than the 9950X3D2.

It is perfectly possible that both the latter incidents were just typos and that the former "stay tuned" hint was little more than a brushing aside of the question. However, to have three sources each mention the chip in such quick succession (over the course of two days) is a stronger indication than we get from many leaks and rumors.

Exactly what the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 specs are is entirely speculation, but if it hits expectations, it would have the same setup as the 9950X3D, using two Zen 5 CCD compute dies that each contain eight CPU cores alongside a single IO die, creating the classic three-chip look of an AM5 chip as seen below. However, where the 9950X3D and other 9000 series X3D chips then sandwich a single 3D V-Cache die underneath one of those CCDs, to give eight cores access to an extra 64MB of cache, the 9950X3D2 would have a second 3D V-Cache die underneath the second CCD, giving all 16 cores access to a larger shared cache.

There's certainly a lot of excitement around what sort of performance a 9950X3D2 could provide, even if AMD's senior technical marketing manager of consumer processors, Donny Woligroski, has already said to us that "we know it's only going to be a couple of percent difference" while being a very costly chip to produce. But some gamers just want the best, and it's looking like they might finally be about to get it.