Key information
An engineering sample of the unreleased Ryzen 9 5900X3D has surfaced on Chinese Chiphell forums, revealing details about a 12-core processor that AMD previously teased at Computex 2021. The prototype chip featured a 128MB L3 cache capacity.
The engineering sample achieves this cache size by placing a 64MB 3D V-Cache component onto a single Core Complex Die among two total dies. A CPU-Z screen capture indicates a boost clock frequency of 4,649 MHz for the unit.
Gamers Nexus previously observed separate lab variants carrying a 192MB L3 cache through dual-die cache stacking, pointing to what might have been a 16-core model. However, reports note that dual-stack layouts introduce cross-die latency and lower clock speeds from thermal limits, affecting gaming outputs.
Ultimately, AMD pursued single-die eight-core layouts like the Ryzen 7 5800X3D for gaming supremacy, later expanding multi-die V-Cache designs to Zen 4 architectures and beyond.
