The Ryzen 3000XT line of processors were the kind of stop-gap products that make people wary of stop-gap products, and AMD plans to remedy this. The new Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an upcoming Socket AM4 processor designed with the singular purpose of matching the Intel Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake" processor at gaming performance, so Intel doesn't have free reign until much later in the year, when AMD debuts "Zen 4" and AM5. It's also a means for AMD to signal consumers as well as investors to the sheer engineering depth the company enjoys these days.

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D isn't a a 5800X with an insane CPU overclock that throws efficiency out of the window. In fact, it has lower clocks! Instead, it leverages a new feature addition AMD did to its existing "Zen 3" microarchitecture, called 3D Vertical Cache. This is basically 64 MB of fast SRAM physically stacked on top of the CPU core die (CCD), giving it 96 MB of last-level cache. The company has already debuted this with its EPYC "Milan-X" enterprise processors, and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D would be the first client-segment product with this CCD.With 3D Vertical Cache tech in place, "Zen 3" enjoys a gaming performance boost akin to a generational update, with AMD claiming anywhere between 10 to 40 percent gaming performance gains over the Ryzen 9 5900X despite four fewer cores; which helps it sneak behind the Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake-S," currently Intel's flagship desktop processor.

AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su was specific about who the 5800X3D was for—those who use their PCs for one thing only, gaming. The chip has 8 CPU cores, with SMT enabling 16 logical processors. Each of these has 512 KB of L2 cache, and share 96 MB of L3 cache. The processor ships with lower clock speeds than the 5800X, with a base frequency of 3.40 GHz (compared to 3.80 GHz of the 5800X); and boost frequency of 4.50 GHz (vs. 4.70 GHz of the 5800X). The processor's TDP is the same as the 5800X, at 105 W. As we mentioned, this isn't a case of the designers running the chip at eleventy GHz and several hundred Watts of TDP.

The 5800X3D, as a Socket AM4 part, is drop-in compatible with AMD 500-series and 400-series chipset motherboards, with a BIOS update. Since its TDP is unchanged at 105 W, it doesn't come with any special VRM requirements (at least nothing different from what the 5800X needs).

Intel has already reacted to this development, by announcing the Core i9-12900KS, a variant of the i9-12900K with a massive 5.50 GHz boost frequency for the P-cores, which it hopes will ward off the 5800X3D. Intel is missing the point here. The 5800X is a $400-something part, priced rivaling the i7-12700K, and while the pricing of the 5800X3D is unknown, it's highly likely to end up with an enormous gaming price-performance advantage over Intel. The 5800X3D releases this Spring.