AMD unveils its first laptop processor with 3D V-Cache | Engadget

AMD has revealed its first mobile gaming processor with 3D V-Cache. As the name suggests, 3D V-Cache enables AMD to stack more cache on top of the CPU. The tech arrived on desktop processors last year, and soon you’ll be able to pick up a laptop with a 3D V-Cache CPU.

This approach allows AMD to cram extra 64MB of L3 cache onto the Ryzen 9 7945X3D. For a total of 144MB. That helps mitigate the chances of cache miss. If your system can’t find information it’s looking for in the cache, it has to go to system memory. That could result in processes taking 10 times longer to carry out, according to AMD. The company claims its 3D V-cache approach can help increase the frame rates of games.

By moving vertically instead of padding more cache onto a CPU’s typical 2D plane, AMD is able to increase the size of the cache without having to make the chip wider or longer. In essence, the company can get more performance out of a CPU while avoiding any increase to the horizontal real estate it takes up on a motherboard.

The company claims this is the fastest mobile gaming processor on the planet, and that it’s more than 15 percent faster than the Ryzen 9 7945HX on average. It has 16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.4 Ghz boost speeds and 55W+ TDP. The CPU is built on the Zen 4 architecture.

You won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on a laptop that uses the Ryzen 9 7945X3D. ROG’s Strix Scar 17 X3D machine will be available on August 22nd.