AMD's top two new desktop processors, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-core/32-thread; and the Ryzen 9 7900X3D 12-core/24-thread, go on sale later today (starting 3 PM Central European time, 9 AM EST). The two "Zen 4" processors feature the company's 3D Vertical Cache technology, which significantly improves gaming performance. The 7950X3D in particular attains parity with the Intel Core i9-13900K in both gaming and multi-threaded productivity performance.

3D Vertical Cache is a 64 MB SRAM die that augments the 32 MB on-die L3 cache of one of the two CCDs in these processors. The combined 96 MB cache has a profound impact on compute latencies for gaming. In our testing, the 7950X3D matches the gaming performance of the i9-13900K "Raptor Lake," which means AMD now has a truly competitive processor with Intel's latest. It also matches or exceeds the I/O feature-set, including DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen 5 (including for the CPU-attached NVMe slot); and an iGPU, although it loses out on DDR4 memory support. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D commands an MSRP of USD $700, and the 7900X3D $600.

Catch the TechPowerUp Review of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D.