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AMD 3D V-Cache teardown shows majority of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is dummy silicon

Needs an electron microscope for further inspection.

To investigate AMD's design philosophy, semiconductor analyst Tom Wassick(via Hardwareluxx) took apart the chip, and the findings of his first report suggest that a large part of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is just dummy silicon for structural integrity. Still, AMD has extracted a lot of performance from its second-generation 3D V-Cache design, landing a solid victory against Intel's Arrow Lake chips. To accommodate such small and fragile components, AMD has added a bulky layer of dummy silicon at the top and the bottom for structural integrity.

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