In late October, AMD’s mid-cycle Zen 5 refresh leaked, giving us a glimpse at two new X3D CPUs the corporate has in retailer for CES 2026. One of these was the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a higher-boosting model of the present 9800X3D, and which has been featured in a number of leaks over the previous few weeks. The different chip was much more mysterious: a supposed dual-cache Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, however updates on it went radio silent ever since — right now, it has lastly reappeared on each PassMark and Geekbench.
In PassMark, the 9950X3D2 achieved a multi-score score of 71,585 and a single-core score of 4,716. Both of these numbers are inside the margin of error of the 9950X and 9950X3D, however a bit removed from the highest-scoring CPUs on the database. Keep in thoughts that PassMark listings might be fabricated, so take all this with a heavy grain of salt.
The 9950X3D2 is reported to hold a whopping 192 MB of whole L3 cache, which PassMark confirms, achieved by stacking it throughout each CCDs. It options the identical 16-core, 32-thread structure because the 9950X and 9950X3D, however as an alternative of 3D V-Cache on only one chiplet, it is current beneath each. This doubles the in any other case 96 MB L3 cache (32 MB L3 + 64 MB X3D) to 192 MB.
This would be the first time the chipmaker has achieved such a feat, rounding out an impressive generation as Zen 5 already made a massive leap by fully unlocking these SKUs. That was made possible by putting the extra 3D V-Cache under the CCD instead of on top, allowing for better thermal and power efficiency. Now, doubling that cache can lead to even more (albeit slight) gains in gaming workloads.
The second leak comes courtesy of Geekbench, where it appeared on socketed on a Galax B850M motherboard, paired with 96 GB of DDR5 memory. This listing confirms the boost clocks at 5.6 GHz, which aligns with the initial rumor. The 9950X3D2 scores 3,456 in the single-core test — the highest on Geekbench’s processor benchmark database — whereas netting 21,062 factors within the multi-core take a look at, near its namesake 16-core brethren.
Both the PassMark and Geekbench listings reiterate the core config, whereas the previous mentions the 9950X3D2 as a 170W CPU, going towards the 200W TDP that was being thrown round until now. AMD might’ve tweaked the ultimate specs, or what’s extra seemingly is simply the dearth of samples and early nature of those runs has led to incorrect reporting.
These appearances counsel that both the CPUs have began to be shipped off to reviewers, or that motherboard distributors are testing these to configure the BIOS for launch.
This leak comes with CES 2026 proper across the nook, the place AMD might reveal new processors.
Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our newest information, evaluation, & critiques in your feeds.