AT THIS YEAR’S Consumer Electronics Show, AMD’s Lisa Su made the usual slew of announcements, but the most anticipated was the official launch of its new Zen 4 V-cache chips. These are expected to be gaming monsters. Selling the best gaming chip is a hotly contested achievement that has flipped between AMD and Intel. On release, AMD’s V-cache chip, the Zen 3 Ryzen 7 5800X3D, immediately took the title, a feat AMD is keen to repeat with its more powerful Zen 4 versions.
There are three offerings, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D ($449), the Ryzen 9 7900X3D ($599), and the Ryzen 9 7950X3D ($699). The 7800X3D has eight cores, a boost of 5GHz, and 104MB of L2. The 7900X3D has 12 cores, a boost of 5.6GHz, and 140MB of L2. The 7950X3D has the full 16 cores, a boost of 5.7GHz, and 144MB of L2. The two bigger chips are available now, with 7800X3D following in April. They’re unlocked for memory and infinity fabric overclocking, and you can also play with the Precision Boost Overdrive and Curve Optimizer settings. The core voltages and multiplier aren’t unlocked, so no old-school overclocking.