I say potential only because AMD has limited its 3D V-Cache technology to the highest-spec Zen 4 laptop chip and its sole chip to an exclusive deal with Asus. about one device, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D. [AMD's Donny Woligroski said, "This will be on one laptop. 'And it will be on one laptop,' said AMD's Donny Woligroski. That means this will only be available on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 for the foreseeable future."
After being leaked earlier in the week, the machine is expected to launch on August 22 of this year.
The chip is almost identical to the Ryzen 9 7945HX laptop processor, but with 64MB of L3 cache in one of the 8-core chiplets, the same TDP, and the same peak clock of 5.4GHz (though this one does not have the extra L3 hat (though this seems achievable only with a chiplet without the extra L3 hat).
I am a big fan of this processor, and in fact, I love my original Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 machine with this processor. In fact, I am a little disappointed that this processor has not been adopted by more laptops.
But why is it important to add cache to an already impressive chip, and why would you want it in a gaming CPU? The basic answer is because it is a way for all manufacturers to squeeze some additional performance out of their hardware in an era where it is increasingly difficult to make silicon run any faster.
However, adding a large amount of cache to a processor or graphics card is a relatively easy way to get a little extra performance without requiring more energy or cooling.
Applications, especially games, require large amounts of very low-latency access to huge amounts of data. And the closer that data is to the actual processing silicon, the higher the performance. If the data is stored in a cache at a level that is actually connected to the chip, it can be used more quickly.
If the app cannot find the data in the cache, e.g., if only a small amount of memory is connected, the app must go farther to find it. AMD also notes that if it needs to sneak into system memory (PC RAM), it will take 10 times longer than accessing data via the cache.
AMD suggests that the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D averages about 15% higher gaming performance than comparable products without 3D V-Cache. And sometimes much higher.
Given the success of AMD's 3D V-Cache in providing the best gaming performance for Ryzen processors, I am surprised that AMD has been so modest about bringing more chips to the market. It first appeared in early 2022 with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and was the only 5000 series chip with additional cache until very recently when the Ryzen 5 5600X3D was released.
And that last one was sold in very limited quantities exclusively at Micro Center. In other words, AMD has a history of releasing X3D chips and a history of exclusive agreements; the Ryzen 7000 series has only three X3D chips, again largely limited to the high end. [The fact that AMD will only have one 16-core, 32-thread mobile chip as the home of 3D V-Cache is unfortunate, but hopefully this exclusive chip is just a water test for other mobile processors to get the same treatment. Because laptops are the perfect home for the performance gains that 3D V-Cache can provide. The frame rate gains from the increase in available L3 cache will be more noticeable at the lower TDP and lower clock speeds of mobile processors.
The situation is that only one of the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D's compute chiplets (CCDs) is getting an L3 cache bump. Therefore, the chipset driver needs to work in parallel with Windows in real time to figure out which workload is going to which chiplet. Are higher clock speeds preferred? Then choose the one without 3D V-Cache. Do you prefer a little more cache?" you know where to go...
To be fair, the desktop Ryzen 9 7950X3D does quite well in this regard, although this complexity may add some problems. However, since gaming in general is what benefits most from higher levels of cache, a more affordable 8-core laptop chip with one CCD and an additional 3D V-Cache is what I am waiting for.
.
Comments