AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU could be on sale soon – but I’m still worried about the price

• ASRock has listed the unreleased Ryzen 9 X3D CPUs on its website
• The Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D appear on the list of supported chips for AM5 motherboards
• This preparation work being put in place could be a hint that these processors are inbound soon

AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D could be launching soon, or at least a motherboard maker has dropped a hint that this might be the case.

VideoCardz was particularly hawk-eyed in noticing that ASRock has updated its list of supported CPUs for motherboards with the AM5 chipset, and that the Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D are both now present on that list.

No other motherboard makers have done this (at the time of writing), but the fact that ASRock has moved to do so now could be read as a suggestion that these processors are going on sale imminently.

So far, all AMD has done is revealed the flagship X3D chip and its Ryzen 9 sibling (at CES 2025), with no indication of a release date, and furthermore we don’t have any pricing details yet.

Analysis: More X3D options

There were rumors that AMD was aiming for a late January launch for its new X3D chips, the Ryzen 9 flavors that’ll join the existing Ryzen 9800X3D which was launched last year. However, with only a few days of the month left now, it’s feeling unlikely that this could still happen.

It’s not impossible, mind, and the appearance of the Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D on the ASRock website at least indicates that a launch should be coming soon. If it isn’t, why would ASRock bother getting these listings in place now? Well, this could be a simple case of overpreparing, but then again…

I’d be surprised if the launch of the new Ryzen 9 X3D models wasn’t coming in February, and possibly early in the month. We may not get to see pricing until AMD announces the imminent release, but the MSRPs are going to be watched with a lot of interest.

The Ryzen 9800X3D is a great chip that’s sold very well with PC gamers, and is still difficult to find at its MSRP (certainly in the US, where you’re looking at more like $600 for this CPU from third-party marketplace sellers on the likes of Newegg or Amazon, at the time of writing).

The Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D could offer a good alternative for those hunting for a 3D V-Cache chip which is not just good for gaming, but for heavyweight usage – with the 9900X3D possibly not weighing in at much more than the mentioned third-party price for the 9800X3D (in theory, anyway).

However, these inbound CPUs could end up pricier than expected – which is what happened with the 9800X3D – and that remains a concern for me. Particularly with the flagship Ryzen 9950X3D, where AMD might decide to really charge a premium.

AMD recently explained the relative strengths of these Ryzen 9 models versus the existing Ryzen 9800X3D, and how the new CPUs will be the equal of the latter for gaming – but won’t be better than it, until you look outside of gaming scenarios that is, where the Ryzen 9 silicon really pulls out the stops.

These processors are definitely more niche affairs than the Ryzen 9800X3D, but that said, with the turbulent launch that Intel’s rival Arrow Lake desktop CPUs have had thus far, I expect the new X3D models to be relatively popular – pricing dependent, as noted – and perhaps turn up relatively soon. Indeed, AMD has previously blamed the stock shortage of the 9800X3D on Intel’s ‘horrible’ Core Ultra 200S launch spiking demand for the Ryzen CPU.

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