Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

AMD is bringing 3D V-Cache back to Ryzen 7000 — but there’s a twist

Great news for AMD fans — the company has now officially confirmed that it will be bringing back 3D V-Cache in the upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors, as well as future Zen 5 CPUs.

Unfortunately, there is a catch — it seems that the technology will still not be as widespread as some may have hoped for.

AMD's roadmap for its next-gen Zen 4 and Zen 5 processors.
AMD

Given the success of the gaming beast that is AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, this should come as no surprise, but it’s still a relief to hear from an official source that 3D V-Cache will make a return soon and will reappear in both Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 processors and in the next-next-gen Zen 5.

Recommended Videos

In the current generation of consumer CPUs, AMD has only used 3D V-Cache once, in the aforementioned AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Built on the Zen 3 architecture and equipped with an enormous, stacked 96MB of L3 cache, it quickly became one of the best processors for gaming, made even better by the fact that it didn’t cost an arm and a leg to buy, with a reasonable $450 MSRP. That price still varies based on the retailer and rarely ever drops that low, but it’s still a fairly cost-effective high-end gaming CPU.

AMD itself has previously teased that it planned to reintroduce the 3D V-Cache technology in the next generation of Ryzen CPUs, but it never went into any greater detail. This left many enthusiasts with a lot of questions, wondering when that might happen and which processors will receive the 3D V-Cache treatment. Although today’s announcement clears things up on that score a little bit, we’re still far from knowing everything.

AMD said in a pre-brief with press that while, yes, it will bring back the stacked cache, it won’t be available on every processor. Much like it did with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, AMD will once again target specific processors to be equipped with a much larger cache that will be released separately from the main Zen 4/Zen 5 lineup. If you’re wondering how many CPUs we can look forward to, that is still unclear.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D pins facing up on a table.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

It’s possible that AMD might, once again, pick only one processor from each range and deck it out with a 3D V-Cache. On the other hand, considering the warm welcome the Ryzen 7 5800X3D has received, it seems safe to assume that there might be more such processors coming in the future. AMD’s road map suggests that these CPUs won’t hit the shelves alongside their other non-3D Ryzen 7000 siblings. We’ll likely have to wait longer.

AMD Ryzen 7000 is the next generation of processors, said to release later this year. Alongside improved performance and specs, it brings with it a switch to a whole new socket. This means that users who choose to upgrade will also need to buy a new X670 motherboard. Knowing that the 3D V-Cache is coming back eventually, this might sway some people to wait for the next generation as opposed to buying the Ryzen 7 5800X3D right now.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
Sources zero in on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D launch date
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D sitting on a motherboard.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors have had their launch schedule up in the air for some time.

Having first been unveiled at CES 2025, there have been many rumors circulating about the components. However, a new report suggests that the release of the upcoming CPUs is now more locked in. AMD’s new chips should be available in just a few weeks, with reviews of their performance going live the day before release, according to VideoCardz.

Read more
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D accounts for nearly all Zen 5 sales
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D sitting on a motherboard.

Recent sales data from German retailer MindFactory highlights a striking trend in AMD’s Zen 5 CPU lineup, with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D accounting for nearly 90% of all Ryzen 9000-series sales. The latest figures indicate that consumers overwhelmingly prefer this gaming-optimized processor over other models in the lineup.

In January 2025, MindFactory recorded 25,625 total CPU sales, with AMD capturing 92.16% of the market—equivalent to 23,615 units. Intel, by contrast, managed to sell just 2,010 processors, reinforcing AMD’s dominance in the consumer market.

Read more
AMD calls Intel’s Arrow Lake ‘horrible’
Fingers holding an Intel 285K.

Shots fired. Frank Azor, an AMD executive, just straight-up called Intel's Arrow Lake line of CPUs "horrible." Where did it all start? Why, with the ongoing shortage of AMD’s best gaming processors, of course. And surprisingly, AMD blames Intel for the fact that its X3D processors are hard to come by right now.

In a recent media roundtable reported by Tom's Hardware, AMD admitted that it never expected the demand for its CPUs to be that high. In fact, it expected it to be lower because it thought that Intel would be more competitive -- but since Arrow Lake turned out to be largely unimpressive, people turned to AMD for their next-gen CPUs even more so than before.

Read more