Asus has prematurely listed AMD's Ryzen 9000X3D processors on its microsite for upcoming 800 series motherboards, in what is yet another hint that next-gen 3D V-Cache CPUs could be arriving sooner than expected.
As noted by VideoCardz, the site lists X870 (and X870E), B850, and B840 motherboards for Ryzen 9000 (second-generation AM5 boards still based on the same socket that was introduced with Ryzen 7000).
Most tellingly, however, the site mentions “Ryzen 9000X3D” in numerous places—or at least it did, but that appears to be no longer the case. That said, Ryzen 9000X3D does even appear in the URL and is still present.
So the theory (and it's a bit of a stretch, admittedly) is that AMD's 800-series motherboards are definitely going on sale soon, possibly within weeks, and maybe, just maybe, the Ryzen 9000X3D is eyeing a similar arrival timeframe.
If so, it could seriously interfere with the launch of Intel's Arrow Lake, Team Blue's next-gen CPUs that are expected to debut on October 10 according to the latest rumors. Or at least it would throw cold water on Arrow Lake's chances of taking the title of fastest gaming processor, as 3D V-Cache CPUs are great for PC gaming thanks to that cache.
Analysis: Backing up previous speculation
This may all seem like a wild guess, but it's not just a guess that's come out of the blue, as there have previously been rumors that AMD could be targeting a surprisingly early launch of X3D chips for the Zen 5 range.
Typically, we’d expect these 3D V-Cache processors to launch in early 2025. However, an earlier rumor suggested a September launch, along with hints in AMD’s own drivers, and this apparent slip-up from Asus backs all of this up to some extent. Or at least it suggests that even if the Ryzen 9000X3D chips may not be ready next month – which seems pretty unlikely at this point – they could still arrive fairly soon.
VideoCardz further notes that there will be an AMD event on October 10th (oddly enough), but it seems unlikely that it will include an X3D launch since it’s focused on enterprise products (including the Ryzen AI 300 Pro and Epyc server chips). So 3D V-Cache wouldn’t fit in there, but it’s entirely possible that Team Red is planning a standalone launch event for these X3D processors (they are important enough, after all).
As is always the case with rumors, we’ll have to wait and see what happens, but it’s an exciting prospect that a Ryzen 9800X3D could be in the offing in the near future (the other expected debut launches are the 9950X3D and 9900X3D). Given the reaction to Ryzen 9000 in general, which has been a bit flat, one could even argue that AMD needs to get these CPUs out sooner rather than later, and as mentioned, this would definitely hurt Intel’s chances on the gaming front.
