AMD Readies Ryzen 5 9600X3D to Spice Up the Mid-range

AMD is giving finishing touches to the Ryzen 5 9600X3D processor, which could improve the company’s standing in the mid-range, against Intel’s Core i5-14600K and Core Ultra 5 245K. This came to light when AMD inadvertently leaked the SKU in its processor support list for the recently launched Radeon AI R9700 graphics card. The Ryzen 5 9600X3D will likely be a 6-core/12-thread processor based on the “Granite Ridge” silicon with 3D V-Cache memory. The processor is based on the latest “Zen 5” microarchitecture.

3D V-Cache is 64 MB of stacked cache on top of the 32 MB on-die cache, for a total of 96 MB last-level cache. Clock speeds of the 9600X3D could end up similar to those of the 9600X, given that AMD has changed the way the L3D (3D V-Cache die) stacks with the CCD (CPU complex die), inverting them, such that the L3D serves as a base tile for the CCD on top, giving the 9600X3D similar thermal and overclocking characteristics to the regular 9600X. The introduction of 3D V-Cache could significantly improve the gaming performance of the 9600X3D over the 9600X, giving gamers in the sub-$300 processor market segment a compelling alternative to the i5-14600K and the 245K.