Rumor Mill: Customers waiting for Zen 4 X3D processors can get good news at CES 2023 in January. Recent rumors suggest that AMD wants to remove some of the restrictions it has imposed on Zen 3 3D V-Cache, but these reports almost completely contradict earlier ones.
Sources told Quazar Zone that AMD plans to introduce at least three X3D Zen 4 processors at CES in January. Contrary to earlier reports, they will be presented in eight-, 12- and 16-core models.
12- and 16-core X3D processors can be Ryzen 9 7900X3D and 7950X3D, respectively. Based on the effects that 3D V-Cache has had on Zen 3 processors, two high-performance processors can have 192 MB of L3 cache memory. Meanwhile, the octa-core variant can be either Ryzen 7 7800X3D or 7700X3D with 96 MB of L3 cache, similar to this year’s well-established 5800X3D. In addition, upcoming X3D models can bypass the 5800X3D clock speed limits.
AMD’s 3D V-Cache, introduced last year, uses 3D stacking techniques to triple the processor’s L3 cache. This method gave the 5800X3D significantly better gaming performance than the 5800X by increasing the L3 cache by 200 percent from 32 MB to 96 MB.
However, AMD slightly lowered the frequency of the X3D variant and blocked overclocking. Users expecting faster V-Cache processors without restrictions received disappointing rumors last month that AMD could only release Ryzen 5 7600X3D and Ryzen 7 7700X3D. They will accompany the entry-level A620 AM5 motherboard, which will disable overclocking and limit the speed of RAM to DDR5-4800.
Instead, new reports indicate that Zen 4 X3D processors will have roughly the same clock speeds as non-X3D models and will at least partially relax the overclocking limit. All Zen 4 3D V-Cache processors will have a TDP of 170 Watts — as will the 7900X and 7950X. 7600X3D will not.
Zen 4 X3D will be released sometime after the CES presentation, but it’s unclear when exactly. Earlier rumors linked the release to March or April 2023, but that could be up in the air if the rest of the old information is inaccurate. AMD is probably hoping that V-Cache will strengthen the initially weak Zen 4 sales compared to the still popular Zen 3.
Meanwhile, competitor Intel plans to upgrade its Raptor Lake 13th generation processors in the third quarter of 2023, and Meteor Lake 14th generation to postpone until 2024.
