It's time to scrap the non 3D cache versions. It's just a nasty cash-grab that needs to stop.
The CPU is so badly designed for common home workloads (gaming) that it needs this cache to function properly outside of excel and web browsing.
I can't really agree to that.
The option to have non X3D CPUs for people who already get enough gaming performance should be there. I sold my 7950X3D for a 9950X simply because games were not bottlenecked at 1440p wide but I got extra productivity performance. I lost all of 0% performance in games but gained significantly more in productivity.
Zen 5 isn't slow in gaming by any stretch, it's just that the X3D's are stupid fast and useful for 1) competitive gaming at relatively low resolutions with a flagship GPU + super fast monitor 2) Gamers primarily playing certain simulation games such as factorio etc 3) People who are planning to keep their CPU's for a couple of GPU generations.
Even if magically they lose 0% clockspeed when going X3D, it'll still cost more. So even in that case just reduce non-X3D prices and i'll take it.
Also, the X3D reimagined sounds interesting. Adding L2 doesn't make sense as it'll pretty much require a whole redesign of the floorplan, and dual X3D's are a lot of money for very little gain. If you see Zen5's floorplan, it doesn't really seem to have much space on the L3 area to include another 64MB on top because they considerably shrunk the L3 in Zen 5 in places where the TSV's are. So I'll add to others predictions and say it'll include two stacks of 48MB L3 for a total of 96MB.