AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs were groundbreaking when they were released, but it’s time for an upgrade. The chip manufacturer has announced that their existing CPUs will be modernised with a new 3D V-Cache stacking technology, which could make a massive difference for gamers.
AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs: Expected performance
The new technology was announced by AMD’s CEO, Dr Lisa Su, at Computex 2021. In the presentation, AMD showcased a demo presentation where a current generation 5900X ran a Gears of War 5 benchmark against a prototype 5900X built with the new 3D V-Cache technology.
Without any other change in design, the updated 5900X ran Gears 5 12 percent faster at 1080p — despite no other adjustment in power usage and a fixed frequency between both CPUs. Other games benefited from the technology as well, according to AMD’s presentation, with Monster Hunter World seeing a 25 percent improvement from the new design. (A footnote in AMD’s presentation added that, on average, the refreshed Zen 3 CPU was 15 percent faster across 32 separate PC games, although some titles like League of Legends only saw fractional gains in performance.)
But what exactly is 3D V-Cache?
To understand the benefits of V-Cache, we need to look at how the current Ryzen Zen 3 CPUs actually work. If you were to take apart a Ryzen 5000-series CPU today, you’d see a core complex (CCD) underneath.
Each CCD can attach to 32MB of L3 cache. If you’re using a 5900X or 5950X in your gaming PC, those CPUs have two seperate CCDs, giving them a total of 64MB L3 cache.
L3 cache can be vastly useful for gaming, often more so than having more cores or threads. While more of anything is generally a good thing when it comes to gaming performance, an analysis from Techspot found that more L3 cache can often be more benefficial, provided the game isn’t completely GPU-bound.
“If you were to upgrade from a Core i7-8700K — which is essentially a Core i5-10600K — to the Core i7-10700K or something faster, and have noticed an uptick in performance, chances are it’s not due to the extra cores, but rather the extra cache,” Techspot concluded.
So to increase the amount of L3 cache on their CPUs, AMD has invented 3D V-Cache technology. The design vertically stacks an extra 64MB of L3 cache onto each CCD, allowing for a maximum of 192MB L3 cache. That’s more than double what the current Ryzen chips can offer, and by bonding the new cache directly to the complexes and adding some structural silicon, AMD says the refreshed chips look identical to their Zen 3 counterparts.
“Just the existence of [3D V-Cache] is a generational leap in performance,” Robert Hallock, AMD’s director of technical marketing, said in an interview in October.
Will I have to upgrade my PC for the Zen 3 refresh?
No. AMD has confirmed that the refreshed Zen 3 chips will be compatible with their existing AM4 platform. So if you’ve got a motherboard today that’s already running a Ryzen 3000-series CPU, or a Ryzen 5000-series CPU, you’ll be able to buy the refreshed Zen 3 CPUs when they become available.
AMD’s refreshed Zen 3 CPUs: Expected release date, price
Hallock confirmed that AMD would launch the Zen 3 refresh in “early 2022”, although the current expectation is that the chips will be announced sometime in January. AMD has previously used their CES keynote as a launchpad for their products, but AMD isn’t currently listed on the CES 2022 schedule.
AMD also hasn’t revealed if its entire Ryzen 5000-series lineup will be refreshed with the 3D V-Cache technology, or whether it will just be its higher end CPUs like the 5900X and 5950X.
Nevertheless, the current speculation is that we’ll get an exact release date around CES. Greymon55, a popular leaker within the hardware community, has indicated that the refreshed Zen 3 CPUs may become publically available from February (given the time it takes from production to hitting retail shelves).
They also indicated that AMD’s Rembrandt CPUs — also known as their Ryzen 6000 series, which will rival Intel and Apple in the laptop market — will be announced in January as well.
AMD is yet to formally announce a price for their upcoming Zen 3 refresh, although these are typically released when the chips are fully unveiled. The 5950X currently retails for around $799 US, £749.99 or $999 AUD. AMD’s approach to previous generations has been to discount the older CPUs while having its newer products assume the same price point, and given that Zen 4 is on the horizon, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see AMD follow the same approach here.
What kind of performance would you want to see from AMD’s new CPUs to convince you to upgrade?
PlatoAi. Web3 Reimagined. Data Intelligence Amplified.
Click here to access.
