Something to look forward to: Following the recent launch of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, AMD is reportedly set to unveil a pair of faster processors with 3D V-cache. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D and the Ryzen 9 9950X3D are said to join AMD's Zen 5 lineup at CES 2025, and the latter has now been tested in the Factorio benchmark, revealing impressive performance gains over the 7950X3D.
The Factorio benchmark is hosted on a site called Factoriobox, which lists test results for the 9950X3D (via @Olrak_29), marking the first time the CPU has been spotted online. In the test, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D scored 654.9 UPS, which is much higher than the scores put up by the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. While the former scored 553.7 UPS on average, the latter notched up an average score of 427.5 UPS.
It is worth noting that Factorio benchmarks depend on not just the CPU, but also the memory clock and timings, so the results should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, the average score for the Ryzen 9 7950X3D on Factoriobox is lower than that of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, while the 5800X3D handily outperforms the 7800X3D, suggesting that this particular benchmark may not be the most accurate indicator of CPU performance.
The 9950X3D was leaked earlier this week by Gigabyte, which hinted at the next-gen flagship in a press release. According to the Taiwanese manufacturer, a new "X3D Turbo Mode" in its motherboards will allow AMD's upcoming "16-core X3D processor" to offer "up to 18%" faster performance, presumably over the 7950X3D.
The chip was also reportedly mentioned recently by Thermal Grizzly, which claimed that its cooling solutions will be fully compatible with the upcoming flagship.
Leaks suggest that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D will feature 16 cores and 32 threads in two Zen 5 CCDs. It is expected to sport 128MB of L3 cache, divided equally between the CCDs and a 3D V-Cache stack. Additionally, it is tipped to feature 16MB of L2 cache.
There's no word on the clock speeds and TDPs for now, but online speculation suggests that the 9950X3D could offer higher clock speeds than the 7950X3D and have a default TDP between 120 and 170W. It should also support overclocking like the 9800X3D.