AMD's decision to defer the launch of the 8-core 7800X3D appears to be more of a business-minded one: Why not push a few 12-core and 16-core 7000X3D processors before bringing in the $450 8-core part that could potentially cannibalize them? The 7950X3D and 7900X3D achieve their core-counts using two 8-core CPU complex dies (CCDs), or chiplets. Only one of the two pack 3D Vertical Cache, while the other is a regular "Zen 4" CCD. The one with 3D Vertical Cache has a total last-level cache size of 96 MB; while the other CCD has 32 MB. This way, gaming workloads that are content with 8 cores, are localized to the CCD with the 3D Vertical Cache, while the other CCD only steps in as needed. For non-gaming multi-threaded workloads, you get the raw compute muscle of both CCDs, and the 24-thread or 32-thread parallelism they bring.