AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D Is the First 3D V-Cache CPU for Laptops

AMD is bringing 3D V-Cache, which powers some of the company's best CPUs,  to gaming laptops. At ChinaJoy in Shanghai, the company announced the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, which will launch on August 22 in the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D gaming laptop.

The chip is a 16-core, 32-thread processor with a boost clock up to 5.4 GHz (as of publication, AMD didn't list base clocks). It features 144MB of cache and has a TDP of at least 55W, though AMD suggests it can go higher. Like the rest of the Dragon Range HX-series lineup, the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D chip consists of a standard CPU for a desktop PC that's been crammed into a laptop chassis.

For those who haven't paid attention to the X3D desktop processors, the laptop one will work in a similar fashion. AMD applies 64MB of L3 cache to the CCD  to reduce requests to system memory, saving precious milliseconds to keep framerates high by reducing the time it takes to complete instructions. For the technically inclined, you can read our detailing of AMD's second-gen V-Cache and previous explainers about packaging and hybrid bonding.

The company suggests that V-Cache is even far more impressive in a power-limited mobile device than on a desktop PC, where power is unlimited. With a lesser TDP, AMD suggests that you could get more than double the benefit in certain games. In a test using the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark at 1080p on high settings with an AMD reference board and Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090, AMD claimed the V-Cache at a 40W TDP provided 23% faster results versus not having V-Cache at all, while at 70W it only offered an 11% benefit.

In general, AMD suggests you'll get more than a 15% increase in gaming performance compared to the current flagship AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX that we tested in the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16. That claim is based on performance in a variety of games, including Strange Brigade, Cyberpunk 2077, F1 2021, Total War: Warhammer 3, DOTA 2, Borderlands 3, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at high settings and 1080p. If this CPU follows the path of its desktop siblings, it may be the fastest CPU in a laptop. AMD didn't provide any comparisons against Intel CPUs (though its footnotes mention that AMD did test on an Intel Core i9-13980HX), so that will be up to reviewers.

Those hoping to see the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D outside of Asus' laptop are out of luck, for now. Asus and AMD have an exclusivity deal here, and there are no current plans for that chip to show up outside of the ROG Strix Scar 17. While it releases on August 22, no price was immediately announced as of publication, nor were regions where it will be for sale.

This is AMD's sixth chip using 3D V-Cache. Its predecessors are all desktop processors, including the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the Micro Center-exclusive Ryzen 5 5600X3D, Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 7900 X3D, and Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

You can see AMD's full slide deck, including all the fine print, here:

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