AMD already has fine form when it comes to extending the life of the AM4 CPU socket, what with the Ryzen 9 5900XT and Ryzen 7 5800XT chips it announced back in June. Now comes news that there's a new 3D V-cache headed for the socket.

The Ryzen 5 5600X3D launched as a Micro Center exclusive and sells for $199.99 in-store, if you can find it in stock. AMD's suggested pricing, however, is $229 for that part. So as far as the MSRP goes, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D could land as AMD's first X3D processor to dip below the $200 mark.

Before this CPU appeared out of the ether, the company launched a similar Zen 3 V-Cache CPU in 2023 with the Ryzen 5 5600X3D, but it was a Micro Center exclusive. That was a six-core CPU that is still hard to find, so it's expected the 5500X3D will offer similar specs but have general retail availability like its predecessors.