3 reasons the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the best CPU for gamers

You’ve likely seen the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D touted as the best gaming CPU ahead of its launch and published reviews, but why is this the case, and what makes AMD’s 3D V-Cache so important for gaming? It’s all about that thick cache stack, which allows the processor to store more data on the chip before moving to slower system memory. There are other benefits of an AMD X3D processor, which makes most of them far superior for playing all your PC games.

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More cache, better performance

More generally means more in this case

The CPU typically has three levels of cache. L1 is the fastest and is used first by each core but has the lowest capacity of all the caches. Next up is the L2 cache with slightly more capacity and is used across a core stack but has slower speeds. Finally, we have L3 cache which is the slowest of the three levels and is used by all CPU cores but has substantially more capacity and is completely saturated before the CPU moves to RAM. The more L1, L2, and L3 cache available to the CPU, the less the processor has to rely on RAM. The same goes for RAM and storage — the more memory you have, the less paging will be required.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X has 64MB of L3 cache, followed by 16MB of L2 and 1MB of L1 cache. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D doubles the L3 cache to 128MB. That’s an impressive amount of super-fast memory for storing data for quick access. Whether you’re a fan of Civilization, X4, Stellaris, or Cyberpunk 2077, you’ll see the benefits of using a CPU with more cache and faster per-core clock speeds. It won’t fundamentally alter the way you use a PC and you’ll find Intel processors perform better for productivity, but it’s worth having for running all the latest and most demanding games.

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Excellent efficiency for cooler PCs

You won’t need the best coolers

The Zen 5-powered AMD Ryzen X3D processors improve on predecessor chips by changing where the cache is located. Branded as the second generation of 3D V-Cache, AMD moved the cache from above the Zen cores to below them. This is to address the issue relating to temperatures with previous-gen chips. While they didn’t get too hot, AMD had to limit clock speeds and boosting to stop temperatures from spiraling out of control. This was due to the CPU not directly interfacing with the cooling solution, thanks to the location of the cache.

Migrating the cache to below the cores allows for the direct transfer of heat through the package and onto the CPU cooler from the integrated heat spreader (IHS). With this switch, the 9000 series X3D chips can boost higher and remain at high frequencies for longer. Compared to the 7800X3D, the 9800X3D has a 500 MHz faster base speed and 200 Hz faster boost clock. The same goes for the 9950X3D with a 100MHz base clock speed increase over the 7950X3D. It may not sound like much, but increasing the speed of a 16-core processor is challenging enough already.

Clock speeds are important for gaming and everything else you can do with a PC. Another side effect of moving the 3D V-Cache is the ability to fully overclock the processor, allowing for configuring the Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) and making manual adjustments to get more from the CPU. It’s also worth noting that games aren’t too fussed about speeds and raw computing performance, rather they prefer the CPU storing and processing as many instructions as quickly as possible.

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AM5 platform support until 2027

Potential future upgrades

Buying an AM5 AMD processor is a great decision if you want a platform where you have a higher chance to upgrade to newer chips. AMD has announced 2027 as the expected end of life for AM5 when we’ll likely see AM6, but anything can happen and AMD always can extend this support with newer generations of processors after 2027. Even if AM6 comes in 2027, AMD is still launching AM4 processors with new features for those with older platforms, so you can bet the company may do something similar on AM5.

Buying a Zen 5 processor on the AM5 platform also provides access to DDR5 RAM, PCIe 5.0 GPUs and storage drives, and the latest USB advancements.

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An AMD X3D CPU isn’t for everyone

I’ve outlined some of the reasons that make the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D one of the best processors you can buy for gaming, but it’s not for everyone. If you do other things on your PC outside of gaming and running heavier software may be just as important as higher frame rates, an Intel CPU or AMD chip without a 3D V-Cache may be the better pick. This is because these X3D CPUs aren’t as good as normal CPUs for productivity. They’re not terrible, but you’ll see a slight reduction in overall performance compared to a non-X3D counterpart.