Intel will respond to AMD's 3D V-Cache with server-bound Clearwater Forest, not desktop CPUs
Intel apparently has no plans to produce consumer desktop CPUs featuring 3D-stacked cache to compete with AMD's technology.
AMD's 3D V-Cache technology has significantly enhanced gaming performance in the company's last three generations of processors, with rival Intel yet to respond. In a recent interview, Intel revealed that while it has similar technology in development, gaming performance is not its primary focus.
Intel apparently has no plans to produce consumer desktop CPUs featuring 3D-stacked cache to compete with AMD's technology. Instead, the company is focusing on enhancing the cache configuration for its next-generation server CPUs, which it considers a more critical market segment.
Over the past few years, stacking die configurations to expand L3 cache has become a key advantage for AMD. The addition of 3D V-Cache to the Ryzen 5 5800X3D made it arguably the best-value gaming CPU upon its launch in 2022. Its newly released successor, the 9800X3D, has undisputedly claimed the title of the best overall gaming CPU, as confirmed in our review.
However, Intel Tech Communications Manager Florian Mailslinger recently told YouTubers der8auer and Bens Hardware that the company's equivalent to 3D V-cache won't debut in desktops. Around the 1-hour and 19-minute mark in the interview below, he confirmed that Clearwater Forest, a lineup of Xeon server CPUs set to arrive in 2025, will feature a technology called Local Cache, which uses vertically stacked tiles.
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