AMD Teases Zen 5 X3D's Grand Debut And Cuts Ryzen 9000 CPU Prices

PC enthusiasts have a weird problem with overly-relativistic thinking. Case in point: AMD's newish Ryzen 9000 Zen 5 desktop processors. It's fair to say that they were disappointing given their relatively modest performance gains in typical client desktop tasks over the Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 CPUs. However, that doesn't make them "bad." In fact, they typically are a bit faster than the already-scorching Ryzen 7000 CPUs, which makes them ridiculously fast processors in absolute terms.

Even still, many enthusiasts have held off on upgrading to the new CPUs in the interest of waiting on the expected "X3D" models equipped with 3D V-Cache. Back in June, AMD promised that it was "working actively on really cool differentiators" to "improve" 3D V-Cache this time around, and given that the standard Zen 5 CPUs are only a small step up from the Ryzen 7000 processors, many people are keen to see what those might be.


Well, we don't have long to wait, because AMD says that Ryzen 9000 processors with 3D V-Cache are arriving very soon indeed: November 7th, or just a little over two weeks away. AMD has not clarified for us which processors it will be launching nor how much they will cost, but given the emphasis on gaming performance we can imagine that we will see a "Ryzen 7 9800X3D" at the very least. We could guess at the specifications, but we don't really have to because Chinese component vendor Maxsun already leaked them.


Of course, there's a lot of Ryzen 9000 processors out there that haven't been moving off shelves all that quickly. Perhaps in an attempt to encourage folks to go ahead and buy the extant CPUs, AMD is also doing an early holiday promotion that knocks up to $50 off of the price of the Ryzen 9000 CPUs. That discount applies to the top-end 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X, while the 12-core, 8-core, and 6-core models get $30 shaved off.

It's a bit of an odd decision to do this discount at the same time as the company is announcing (but not yet releasing) its X3D CPUs. There is an argument to be had that the only thing which really matters to DIY buyers anymore is gaming performance, and the hypothetical Ryzen 7 9800X3D is very likely to blow the doors off of anything else in that arena. If you're buying a new Ryzen CPU for gaming, it will almost assuredly behoove you to either pick up a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or wait for a Ryzen 7 9800X3D.


Still, the higher-core-count chips do have their advantages, particularly in productivity workloads, and it must be said that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D will be in high demand, likely being priced in accord. In other words, if you're not pairing the X3D CPU with something like a Radeon RX 7900 XT or GeForce RTX 4080 Super GPU, you probably don't need to stress over getting the absolute fastest gaming CPU. These discounts could spur some folks to assemble a new system based around one of these capable CPUs.


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Is a $50 discount enough to entice you to make the leap to Zen 5, or are you going to hold out the remaining two-weeks-and-change for the Zen 5 X3D parts? [Editor's Note: It's also notable that the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales season looms, which could see further discounts and promotions]. Alternatively, are you just going to sit tight with your current machine and its "good enough" performance? Let us know in the comments below.