AMD Zen 6 and Intel Nova Lake could clash with massive 288 MB 3D V-Cache designs

Gaming performance could hinge on massive cache increases

by · TechSpot

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Highly anticipated: AMD's Zen processors are set to arrive next year, and that means all-new 3D V-Cache CPUs. According to a new leak, one of these chips will feature a monstrous 288 MB of LLC cache, potentially making it a new gaming king and a rival to Intel's top Nova Lake SKUs.

Current AMD Ryzen desktop processors that use stacked 3D V-Cache top out at 128 MB of L3 from a single die. However, a recent post from hardware leaker HXL claims that Zen 6 will move beyond that limit.

HXL claims that a redesigned cache structure where a single 3D V-Cache chiplet could offer as much as 144 MB of cache – more than the previously rumored 96 MB. In dual-chiplet configurations, that figure could double to an eye-watering 288 MB of L3.

If accurate, this would represent a massive leap in cache capacity compared to existing X3D processors and could significantly benefit gaming and other latency-sensitive workloads.

Large last-level caches have already proven highly effective when it comes to gaming performance – it's why we called the Ryzen 7 9800X3D the new gaming king in our review last year.

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Intel is reportedly planning a similar approach for its upcoming Nova Lake desktop processors. Those chips are rumored to feature big Last-Level (bLLC) cache designs that could also scale up to 288 MB on high-end models. Intel already uses a bLLC design in its Clearwater Forest server processors, where the cache is built into a passive interposer and sits directly beneath the active compute tiles.

It's important to remember that AMD hasn't confirmed any of these details. Moreover, cache capacity alone doesn't guarantee performance gains, and real-world results will depend heavily on cache latency, memory subsystem design, and clock behavior.

There are also practical considerations around cost, yields, and thermals, as stacking large amounts of 3D cache adds complexity to manufacturing and packaging. And as seen with current X3D chips, these processors don't come cheap.

Zen 6 is expected to bring broader architectural improvements beyond cache, including IPC gains and refinements. AMD plans to move the processors to a split-node design, using TSMC's 2 nm N2P process for the compute chiplets and the 3 nm N3P node for the I/O die.

AMD is dominating the consumer CPU market right now: its processors hold 19 of the 20 spots on Amazon's best-sellers chart. It'll be interesting to see if the landscape changes once Zen 6 and Intel Nova Lake arrive.