If you're on the Socket AM4 platform, AMD is never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you; never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie, and hurt you. The company is reportedly giving finishing touches to a firecracker of a sub-$200 chip for price-conscious gamers, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D. That's right, AMD is bringing 3D V-cache technology to the mid-range, with a new 6-core processor based on the "Zen 3" microarchitecture, but enjoying the gaming performance boost from 96 MB of L3 cache on tap.

AMD already has a 6-core X3D Socket AM4 chip, the Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which joined the product stack a couple of years after AMD's original Ryzen 7 5800X3D took the gaming PC processor scene by storm, matching the then swanky new Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake" despite being based on an older-generation "Zen 3" architecture. Not much else is known about the 5500X3D, except that it could have a lower clock speed than the 5600X3D. Back in November 2023, when news of the 5700X3D first hit the scene, the 5500X3D was rumored to be a 6-core/12-thread chip with 3.00 GHz base frequency and 4.00 GHz maximum boost, compared to the 3.30 GHz base and 4.40 GHz boost frequency of the 5600X3D. Given that AMD launched the 5600X3D at $230, AMD could target a sub-$200 price point to wow gamers on AM4, such as $199.

US Computer component retailer Micro Center has announced that the store has struck an exclusive deal with AMD to be the sole retailer for the Ryzen 5 5600X3D processor. The CPU is apparently a limited edition release, although it's not clear how limited it'll be in terms of available quantities. The new CPU will launch on the 7th of July and has a base clock of 3.3 GHz and a boost clock of 4.4 GHz, each 100 MHz slower than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The CPU obviously has six CPU cores, which results in a total cache of 99 MB due to the missing two cores.

The TDP remains at 105 W and it appears that the Ryzen 5 5600X3D might just consist of failed Ryzen 7 5800X3D chips sold with two cores disabled. From what TPU understands, there should be some OEM availability of the Ryzen 5 5600X3D as well, based on what our sources have told us, but we don't have any details on which system integrators might be offering the CPU. Micro Center will be charging US$229.99, which is US$220 less than what the Ryzen 7 5800X3D launched at, although Micro Center is currently selling it at US$279.99. The Ryzen 5 5600X3D will also be offered at a discounted price when bought with eligible motherboard and memory bundles from Micro Center.

AMD is finally coming around to the idea of a 6-core processor with 3D Vertical Cache technology, only this time it's for the older Socket AM4 platform. The new Ryzen 5 5600X3D could be positioned competitively against the lower end of Intel's 13th Gen Core i5 processor series, so it could attract a class of DIY gaming PC builders that can take advantage of cheap Socket AM4 motherboards and DDR4 memory to build formidable mainstream gaming PC builds.

The Ryzen 5 5600X3D is based on the same "Vermeer" 3DV cache MCM as the 5800X3D. It is a 6-core/12-thread processor with a base frequency of 3.30 GHz, and 4.40 GHz boost, which are both 100 MHz less than those of the 5800X3D. The processor gets the full 96 MB of last-level cache (that's 32 MB of on-die L3 cache + 64 MB of 3DV cache), which the 5800X3D offers. It bears the OPN "100-000001176." The company didn't reveal pricing, but given that the 5800X3D can be had for as low as $290, the 5600X3D could possibly target a $200-225 price, making it an attractive option, given that you can pair it with even cheap B450 chipset motherboards priced well under $100, and 32 GB of DDR4 memory that can be had around the $60-mark. The 5600X3D could also provide an affordable upgrade path to those still on the AM4 platform, with Ryzen 3000-series processors.