AMD reveals $899 price tag for Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 — first dual-cache X3D CPU is $200 more expensive than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition desktop chip — (Image credit: AMD)

Following retailer listings popping up over the weekend, AMD has made the price of its upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 official. The CPU has a suggested retail price of $899, AMD's David McAfee announced today on X. That's $200 more than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D released at, and around $230 more than what that chip is selling for now. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 is set to arrive at retailers on April 22, and it will slot into existing motherboards with the AM5 socket.

This is AMD's first dual-cache X3D CPU, where it uses its 3D V-Cache packaging on both eight-core CCDs. Previous chips like the Ryzen 9 9950X3D only feature stacked cache on a single CCD, mainly to keep gaming performance in check, as inter-CCD communication can cause big spikes in latency.

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AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition — Specifications
CPU	Street (MSRP)	Arch	Cores / Threads (P+E)	P-Core Base / Boost Clock (GHz)	Cache (L2/L3)	TDP	Memory
Ryzen 9 9950X3D2	$899	Zen 5 X3D	16 / 32	4.3 / 5.6	208MB (16+192)	200W	DDR5-5600
Ryzen 9 9950X3D	$699	Zen 5 X3D	16 / 32	4.3 / 5.7	144MB (16+128)	170W	DDR5-5600
Ryzen 9 9950X	$545 ($599)	Zen 5	16 / 32	4.3 / 5.7	80MB (16+64)	170W	DDR5-5600
Ryzen 9 9900X3D	$599	Zen 5 X3D	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.5	140 (12+128)	120W	DDR5-5600
Ryzen 7 9800X3D	$480	Zen 5 X3D	8 / 16	4.7 / 5.2	104MB (8+96)	120W	DDR5-5600
Ryzen 9 9900X	$380 ($469)	Zen 5	12 / 24	4.4 / 5.6	76MB (12+64)	120W	DDR5-5600
Ryzen 7 9700X	$289 ($329)	Zen 5	8 / 16	3.8 / 5.5	40MB (8+32)	65W	DDR5-5600

Although X3D chips like the Ryzen 7 9850X3D are the best CPUs for gaming thanks to their chart-topping frame rates, AMD is billing the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 as a workstation-level chip that is "built for developers and content creators tackling complex workloads and massive datasets." To that end, AMD hasn't shared gaming benchmarks for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 yet, instead focusing on application performance.

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Productivity performance comparison between the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D vs the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition. — (Image credit: AMD)

You can see the early results in the chart above, where AMD claims up to a 13% improvement in data science workloads via SPECWorkstation 4, and about a 5% to 8% jump in other applications. Although we don't have gaming numbers yet, there's a good chance we won't see a significant uplift. Crossing the CCDs is already an issue AMD has had to deal with when it comes to the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D, so we don't expect much on the gaming front.

It won't be long until we know for sure where the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 lands. The chip is set to hit retailers on April 22, and our test benches are already running at full tilt to see where it ranks among our CPU benchmark hierarchy.

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Jake Roach is the Senior CPU Analyst at Tom’s Hardware, writing reviews, news, and features about the latest consumer and workstation processors.

34 Comments Comment from the forums

-Fran-

Go home AMD, you're drunk.

I like and want this CPU, bit I don't $900 want it. I'll keep using PLasso and putting up with anti-cheat false positives.

Regards.
Reply
TerryLaze

-Fran- said:
Go home AMD, you're drunk.
It's a niche halo product, it was never going to be cheap.
Also every x3d2 CPU prevents them from making two x3d CPUs ... price is actually low if you consider that.

But yeah, this isn't a CPU they had to make, no idea why they did other than maybe for e-peen to show 'number go up' .
Reply
Makaveli

TerryLaze said:
It's a niche halo product, it was never going to be cheap.
Also every x3d2 CPU prevents them from making two x3d CPUs ... price is actually low if you consider that.

But yeah, this isn't a CPU they had to make, no idea why they did other than maybe for e-peen to show 'number go up' .
I agree I think the price is fair for a productivity product.
Reply
txfeinbergs

I have not had to use P Lasso with my 9950X3D. It works without issues 9 out of 10 games when activating a game (and for that 10th game, I can usually finagle it by opening Game Bar and clicking on the settings menu a few times).
Reply
usertests

It's a halo product for almost nobody, that may cost more not only from the second cache chiplet, but also from lower yields of packaging them both perfectly. Maybe they can't even turn a single cache chiplet failure into a 9950X3D (non-2) because of compromised thermals.

We've seen these MSRPs for 16-cores: 3950X ($750), 5950X ($800), 7950X and 7950X3D ($700), 9950X ($650), and 9950X3D ($700). We're being trained to see the 16-core as not special anymore, especially when they fall to prices like $400-500, but AMD is going to collect from the people who want this SKU.

They also face zero competition for this particular capability. There may be Intel Nova Lake CPUs with dual-bLLC, but you'll have to wait at least a year.
Reply
thestryker

This pricing is right in line with AMD's marketing for it which has been professional/creator. If this was going to make any difference for gaming you can be sure AMD would be marketing it for that too. Given the core count increases from AMD and dual Compute Tile from Intel I'd be surprised if we don't see a $1000+ "desktop" CPU from Zen 6/NVL.

There's two main things that seem to be driving CPU pricing from what I've seen. First is that gamers will pay to have the best gaming CPU even if they can't leverage it to its fullest. Second is that the gap between entry level workstation and desktop is huge. Even this part at $900 is still $600 cheaper than the nearest TR CPU. If you don't need the memory bandwidth or PCIe a high core count desktop part can be a better choice and this will just be even more true with Zen 6/NVL.
Reply
JamesJones44

28% price premium for 5-8% boost in performance. ROI doesn't seem the greatest, but I guess if you have money to burn 🤷‍♂️
Reply
usertests

thestryker said:
There's two main things that seem to be driving CPU pricing from what I've seen. First is that gamers will pay to have the best gaming CPU even if they can't leverage it to its fullest. Second is that the gap between entry level workstation and desktop is huge. Even this part at $900 is still $600 cheaper than the nearest TR CPU. If you don't need the memory bandwidth or PCIe a high core count desktop part can be a better choice and this will just be even more true with Zen 6/NVL.
Some select (rare) workloads that don't scale well will do better with 16-core Zen 5 X3D than the 24-96 Zen 5 cores offered by TR and TR Pro. Although there are some Epyc CPUs with 3D cache, AMD hasn't offered any Threadrippers with 3d cache to date.

9950X3D2 will be good for some professionals out there. But I don't think it can be much more than maybe 25% faster than the 9950X3D in one of these rare workloads. Phoronix will probably have some benchmark showing that, but overall most benchmarks vs. the 9950X3D will probably be showing 0-2% improvement or regression (from the lower boost clock).
Reply
jblosun

$900 isn't cheap, but I haven't forgotten Intel charging near $2000 for their top desktop chips before Ryzen came around and gave them some competition. Could be a lot worse.
Reply
greenreaper

Makes sense when the 9800X3D is $480. You know what they say: double your cache, double your pleasure – and you get double the cores, too! 😼
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