AMD is announcing that its latest gaming-oriented Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors will be available next week. The new chips improve on the 9800X3D, which is widely considered as the best gaming CPU. The new ones feature 16 Zen 5 cores and second-generation 3D V-Cache technology that could help those looking to do more productivity work, such as photo editing or CAD.
The higher end Ryzen 9 9950X3D costs $699 and features 16 cores and 32 threads. Its base clock speed is 4.3 GHz, with up to 5.7 GHz on boost. The chip also features 144MB cache and a TDP of 170W.
In a post on X, AMD’s SVP & GM of Computing & Graphics Jack Huynh claimed that the new chip will be “the world’s best” for both gaming and content creation. The chip could also be used for workstation-level systems, which adds competitive heat on Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K. However, AMD’s new entry version 9900X3D offering costs $599 compared to Intel’s at $589.
AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D will be available to order starting on March 12th. The chips come just a week after the company launched its next generation, highly competitive GPUs: the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT.