Comment by Animats

Only towards the end. By the time the CVAX microprocessor inside the VaxStation 3100 shipped in 1988, it was too late for the VAX line.[1] Other microprocessors already dominated. The VAX 11/780 came out in 1977. It was a long time until a faster model.

There were rumors of a VAX 11/790, and it eventually came out as the VAX 8000 family in 1984. That had about 4x the performance of the 11/780. It was not a microprocessor; the CPU still took up several large boards. The VAX 8000 had to compete with all the M680x0 machines, and soon, the Intel 386 machines. It was worse on price/performance. DEC had to go back and make a fast VAX microprocessor, which they did. But it was too late.