Top dollar for top cache: AMD's dual 3D V-Cache Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 will sell for a wallet-burning $899

In the world of tech, if there's no competition in a particular sector, you can pretty much charge whatever you like for your product. Which is why AMD has set the official price tag for its new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition processor, with 192 MB of L3 cache, at a seemingly outrageous $899.

To put that into perspective, the launch price for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D was $699, though you can pick one up for $676 at Newegg right now. So what exactly are you getting for your extra $200?

Well, compared to the 9950X3D, you're getting a small decrease in the peak boost clock (5.6 GHz instead of 5.7 GHz) and a 30 W bump to the TDP. Oh, and you're also getting a 64 MB slice of 3D V-Cache on both Core Complex Dies (CCDs), for a grand total of 192 MB of L3 cache.

Is the 50% increase in cache worth $200? For gaming, absolutely not, because you won't see any performance games in the vast majority of games out there. That's because the threads that games generate are generally processed on just one of the eight-core CCDs.

You won't see much in the way of any gains for content creation tasks, either. AMD suggests that in video editing, offline rendering, image manipulation, or code compilation, the 9950X3D2 will only be around 5 to 8% faster than the 9950X3D.

However, for any scenario that is heavily dependent on cache or memory performance, rather than thread count, the new chip will certainly stand out. For example, scientific analysis, engineering modelling, or anything that involves lots of data read/writes, CPUs with lots of cache are much sought after.

For those roles, you'd be typically looking at an AMD Threadripper/Epyc or Intel Xeon processor, but they're all very expensive ( So, for the right person, spending $899 (£830 in the UK) on a Ryzen 9 9950X3D Dual Edition actually makes a lot of sense.

Naturally, there will be some PC gamers out there that will still go out and buy one, purely to have the 'best' AMD Zen 5 CPU money can buy. All the sensible gamers, though, will just get a Ryzen 7 9800X3D (currently $469 at Amazon) instead. It really is the best gaming CPU you can put in your rig.

Best CPU for gaming 2026

1. Best overall:
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

2. Best budget:
AMD Ryzen 5 5500

3. Best mid-range:
Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus

4. Best high-end:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

5. Best AM4 upgrade:
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D

6. Best CPU graphics:
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

👉Check out our full CPU guide👈