AMD has successfully extended the life of the AM4 CPU socket with the Ryzen 9 5900XT and Ryzen 7 5800XT announced in June. And now comes the news that these sockets will be equipped with a new 3D V-cache.

The new Ryzen 5 5500X3D variant has reportedly been spotted in the Eurasian Economic Commission's product register (via Sweclockers). The entry does not provide details, but it is believed that this new CPU model will offer 6 cores and 12 threads, with base and turbo frequencies of 3 GHz and 4 GHz, respectively.

As for how this fits in with the existing Ryzen 5000X3D lineup, the limited edition Ryzen 5 5600X3D released to MicroCenter last summer has the same core count but base and turbo speeds of 3.3 GHz and 4.4 GHz, respectively. It sold for $230 last summer, but appears to be hard to find now.

Then there is the 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700X3D, clocked at 3 GHz and 4.1 GHz and priced around $210. Finally, there is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, an OG 3D V-cache model, also with 8 cores and 16 threads, but clocked at 3.4 GHz and 4.5 GHz. The price is slightly higher, around $340. [The new 5500X3D should undercut the $210 5700X3D by a considerable margin. At current prices, it could be the first AMD 3D V-cache chip below $200.

If so, it would be a very welcome option for PC owners with AM4 motherboards; an X3D V-cache chip under $200 could be a fairly budget-friendly gaming option.

Of course, whether that will happen and, if so, how the chips will be available remains to be seen. Hopefully, it will be a market-wide launch with reasonably easy availability, rather than a limited rollout as we saw with the 5600X3D.

As far as we know, the chips are next to impossible to purchase right now, with the possible exception of going directly to the appropriate microcenter.

Perhaps the rumored 5500X3D may be in limited supply due to the limited supply of 8-core X3D chips and some broken cores. However, one would hope that AMD is preparing the entire hill, which would mean a widespread rollout of this chip.