Following its official CES 2026 announcements, AMD has quietly confirmed to journalists that a groundbreaking new processor is indeed in development: the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2. This chip, rumored for months, is set to feature dual stacks of 3D V-Cache, promising an astronomical amount of on-chip memory to redefine high-performance gaming and specialized workloads.
The confirmation comes after the chip’s notable absence from AMD’s main CES keynote, a move that had puzzled enthusiasts and industry watchers alike.
A CES No-Show, Followed by a Quiet Confirmation
During its major CES presentation, AMD announced the Ryzen 7 9850X3D but made no mention of the much-anticipated 16-core variant with dual cache. The company seemed to hint at its existence, however, by including a picture of the unreleased CPU within its official press materials for the event.
The mystery was resolved when AMD reached out to a select group of media after the show. According to reports from outlets like ComputerBase, the company simply stated the new CPU is coming and to “stay tuned,” offering no specific launch timeline, pricing, or performance details. This suggests a separate, dedicated launch event is planned for later in 2026.
The “2” Stands for Unprecedented Cache
What sets the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 apart is the “2” in its name, signifying a second stack of AMD’s cutting-edge 3D V-Cache. Based on the leaked specifications AMD itself has let circulate, the chip is expected to be a 16-core, 32-thread Zen 5 monster featuring a staggering 192MB of L3 cache.
For comparison, the already cache-rich Ryzen 7 9850X3D has 96MB, and a standard high-end CPU might have 64MB or less. This incredible cache pool is designed to keep massive amounts of game or application data instantly accessible to the CPU cores, potentially eliminating bottlenecks in games and professional applications that thrive on fast data access.
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Anticipating a New Performance King
While AMD provided no performance figures, the architectural advantage is clear. The existing 3D V-Cache technology has consistently propelled AMD’s X3D chips to the top of gaming benchmarks. A processor with twice the cache, paired with 16 high-performance Zen 5 cores, is poised to target the absolute peak of desktop performance.
Its rumored 200W TDP indicates it will be a power-hungry flagship part, requiring robust cooling. When it launches, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 will not replace the standard Ryzen 9 9950X3D (with 128MB cache) but will sit above it as a new, ultra-specialized tier for enthusiasts and professionals who demand the ultimate tool for cache-sensitive tasks.
Source: ComputerBase