For about four years now, AMD has offered special “X3D” variants of its high-end desktop processors with an additional 64 MB of L3 cache attached, an addition that disproportionately benefits gaming. AMD calls this “3D V-Cache” because it stacks the cache directly above (for Ryzen 5000 and 7000) or below (for Ryzen 9000) the CPU.
The 12- and 16-core Ryzen chips have their CPU cores split between two silicon chiplets, which has historically made the 7900X3D, 7950X3D, 9900X3D, and 9950X3D a bit strange. One of its two CPU chiplets has 64 MB of 3D V-Cache attached and the other does not. AMD relies on its driver software to ensure that software that benefits from the additional cache runs on V-Cache-enabled CPU cores, which generally works fine. but is occasionally error prone.
Enter the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, a bite of a chip that includes 64MB of 3D V-Cache on both processors, without the hybrid arrangement that has defined the other chips until now. This gives the chip a total of 208MB of cache: 16MB of L2 cache, 32MB of L3 cache built into each of the two CPUs (for a total of 64MB), and then another 64MB chunk of 3D V-Cache per die. In total, AMD says the new chip should be up to 10 percent faster than the 9950X3D in games and other applications that benefit from the additional cache.
