For a few years now, AMD has provided particular variations of its desktop processors with an additional 64MB chunk of L3 cache included. This cache is layered on prime of the prevailing CPU silicon, incomes it the identify “3D V-Cache,” and it has confirmed particularly profitable for accelerating cache-sensitive software program like video games.
As we speak, AMD is asserting the primary 3D V-Cache processor for laptops, the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. It is a model of the common 16-core Ryzen 9 7945HX with that very same 64MB chunk of cache added in, giving it a complete of 144MB of L3 cache.
The 7945HX is basically a model of the desktop Ryzen 9 7950X repackaged to be used in laptops as a substitute of high-end desktops; whereas chips just like the equally named 7940HS use one monolithic silicon die for every little thing from the CPU cores to the chipset to the built-in GPU, the 7950HX makes use of a pair of 8-core CPU chiplets and a separate I/O die.
By the identical token, the 7945HX3D is a cellular model of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D for desktops. The 3D V-Cache is layered on prime of one of many CPU chiplets, giving it eight cores with entry to the additional cache and eight cores with out it; AMD’s chipset software program is accountable for ensuring the “proper” cores are used for any given activity, to the extent that the non-V-Cache cores could be parked fully when a recreation is operating. (In our testing of the 7950X3D, the software program labored as marketed, although as with many heterogeneous CPU architectures, there have been hiccups.)
One of many fringe advantages of the 7950HX3D was additionally decrease energy utilization and better effectivity because the CPU die with the cache stacked on prime wanted to be run at a decrease voltage to forestall overheating (we do not know whether or not that is additionally the case within the 7945HX3D, but it surely appears doubtless). AMD says the 7945HX3D’s efficiency benefit over the common 7945HX will increase because the processor’s TDP is diminished; at 45 W, the 7945HX3D could be as much as 23 % sooner than the 7945HX in video games. At 70 W, the 7945HX3D has a smaller 11 % efficiency benefit. AMD says it’s best to anticipate it to be about 15 % sooner in video games than the 7945HX on common.
For now, the 7945HX3D will solely launch in a single laptop computer: a model of Asus’ ROG Strix Scar 17, which launches on August 22. AMD mentioned that the ROG Strix Scar could be the one 7945HX3D laptop computer “for the foreseeable future,” although presumably any design that at the moment makes use of a 7000-series HX CPU just like the 7945HX must also have the ability to use the 7945HX3D with minimal adjustments. The configuration AMD examined with contains 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a cellular Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, which is able to make this one of many quickest (if not the quickest) gaming laptops you should purchase, although, as with all gaming laptop computer, your efficiency will probably be restricted a bit by energy limits and temperature ceilings.
AMD did not say what the 7945HX3D model of the Strix Scar 17 would value, however the secure reply is “greater than $3,300,” which is the present road worth of the identical laptop computer with a 7945HX in it.
If that worth makes you cringe, AMD has extra budget-conscious X3D processor choices for desktop patrons. Final month, the corporate introduced a Micro Heart-exclusive Ryzen 5 5600X3D, an improve focused at homeowners of older socket AM4 Ryzen programs who desire a budget-minded efficiency increase with out having to improve to a more recent AM5 system (or purchase a elaborate new laptop computer).
Itemizing picture by AMD/Andrew Cunningham