AMD admits that the Ryzen 9000 series can't beat the Zen 4 X3D in terms of gaming performance
AMD announced four new Zen 5 desktop CPUs at Computex. Like Zen 4, AMD started with a standard version of the CPU, followed by a version with 3D V-Cache stacked cache. This begs the question of how top-of-the-line Zen 5 CPUs like the Ryzen 9 9950X stack up against the previous generation Zen 4 CPUs with 3D V-Cache technology when it comes to gaming. According to AMD, the Zen 4 X3D CPU will win the battle, but the lead won't be as big as one might think.
AMD admits that the Ryzen 9000 series can't beat the Zen 4 X3D in terms of gaming performance
The flagship Zen 5 CPU Ryzen 9 9950X was unveiled at Computex and will represent the pinnacle of performance for the Zen 5 series when it hits market in July. During the launch demo, AMD showed that the CPU beats Intel's Core i9-14900K for both gaming and content creation, but doesn't show any comparisons to chips with 3D V-Cache technology, such as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. In addition, AMD advertised the CPU as "the world's most powerful consumer processor" rather than "the fastest gaming CPU." This isn't an oversight on the part of AMD, and according to Donny Woligroski, senior technical marketing manager for AMD's consumer processors, the Zen 4 X3D chip is still faster for gaming.
AMD admits that the Ryzen 9000 series can't beat the Zen 4 X3D in terms of gaming performance
Woligroski confirms that Zen 4 with 3D V-Cache technology is still the fastest CPU for gaming. When asked if the new Ryzen 9 9950X will be the fastest gaming CPU at launch, he replied, "In our tests, it was faster than the competition. X3D is still the king of performance, but the lead is much smaller than the gap between X3D and non-X3D in the past. ”
A similar situation happened in 2022 when AMD released the Zen 4, when AMD didn't reveal whether the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X was faster in terms of gaming than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D from the Zen 3 era. As it turns out, it's not any faster, as the extra 64MB L3 cache can make a huge difference in getting the most out of its games. It wasn't until the Zen 4 Ryzen 7 7800X3D hit the market that the previous overlord was pulled off the throne. It looks like the 7800X3D will continue to reign supreme until the arrival of the Zen 5 X3D.
AMD admits that the Ryzen 9000 series can't beat the Zen 4 X3D in terms of gaming performance
The 30% performance gap between the 7800X3D and the regular Ryzen 7000 series chips was a hurdle to overcome. AMD claims that Zen 5 has a 16% improvement in overall instruction set clocks per cycle (IPC) over Zen 4, so there's still a considerable gap between the two. There's always hope, though, and the gaming world is now patiently awaiting news about AMD's plans to launch a 3D V-Cache for the Zen 5 series. AMD will likely launch these chips later this year to get a head start on the market when Intel is likely to release Arrow Lake processors for desktops in October.