The conventional wisdom is that they’ll have to wait until CES, and indeed, earlier leaks said as much. However, a new rumor originating from Club386 claims that AMD could launch Zen 5-based Ryzen CPUs with 3D V-Cache much sooner than that. Here’s what senior hardware editor Damien over there had to say:
Our source on the Computex show floor tells us AMD plans to launch 9000X3D processors in September. This matches the staggered release of X870E motherboards that we anticipate will arrive the same month. […] There was a level of confidence behind our source’s words, and they’re trustworthy enough to put stock into. That said, familiarity with how nebulous AMD’s launch schedules are urges taking this with a pinch of salt. Nothing’s confirmed until you have a sample in your hand as dates can easily change.
The idea of having new CPUs to launch with new motherboards makes perfect sense, although we find it a little hard to imagine that AMD would blow a newsworthy 3D V-Cache launch on additional motherboard chipsets this way. The only reasons we could see for an early X3D arrival would be if Ryzen 9000 adoption is slower than expected due to the aforementioned DIYers waiting for V-Cache CPUs, or perhaps if a competitor steals the gaming performance crown.
On the surface, the reasoning is pretty simple: if Intel’s Arrow Lake processors are competitive enough to snatch performance leadership away from AMD, then the company can fire back with 3D V-Cache to hopefully keep command of gaming benchmarks, at least. Only, it’s a bit odd, because Arrow Lake (by Intel’s own admission) isn’t really supposed to launch until Q4 of this year, which is obviously after that September prediction.