AMD Ryzen 9 7950X review
TechRadar Verdict
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is a massive jump over its predecessor and comes in at a lower cost, but that’s off set by the new hardware you’ll need just to use it. Even so, at the moment, it is unquestionably the best processor on the market, so Intel Raptor Lake has a very high bar to clear.
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Pros
- +
Best-in-class performance
- +
Lower retail price than predecessor
- +
Compatible with AM4 cooling solution
- +
Excellent energy efficiency
Cons
- —
Requires new AM5 motherboard
- —
Not compatible with DDR4 RAM
- —
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X offers better value
- —
No 3D-Vcache
Why you can trust TechRadar
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: Two minute review
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is finally here, and it’s hard to argue that this isn’t the best consumer processor ever made.
This is a big claim, and with Intel Raptor Lake quickly approaching, we’ll know soon enough if Team Blue is going to be able to counter a very resurgent AMD, but we are not going to sugar coat it: AMD has set the bar very high with the Ryzen 9 7950X, and Intel is going to be hard pressed to even keep pace with what this processor brings to the game.
To start, AMD used TSMC’s 5nm node to produce the new Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 series chips, and the Ryzen 9 7950X is a 16-core, 32-thread beast with 80MB cache memory and a boost clock within sight of 6.0GHz.
What’s more, unlike Intel’s turn to big.LITTLE architecture, all 16 of the Ryzen 9 7950X’s cores are full performance cores, so while Intel might be using the Arm-pioneered performance core-efficiency core pairing, the Ryzen 9 7950X simply runs roughshod through tasks, beating out just about every other competing chip out there, across every category.
In particular, the Ryzen 9 7950X is easily the most significant gen-on-gen performance leap in as long as we can remember.
Intel Alder Lake impressed us as much as it did because it was coming after the rather ‘Meh’ 11th-gen Rocket Lake chips, which were barely enough of an improvement to warrant the refresh in the first place.
The AMD Ryzen 5000-series processors were some of the best processors ever produced, top to bottom, and the Ryzen 9 7950X feels like as big a jump as Intel Alder Lake was, but it is instead making the leap from a mountain top rather than the boggy plateau of Rocket Lake and so it lands significantly farther out. It’s honestly like AMD skipped the release of an entire processor generation and we’re getting this chip after the one we didn’t even realize that we didn’t get was skipped.
It may be too soon to tell if AMD has finally caught up to Intel post-Alder Lake, but the Ryzen 9 7950X, along with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, is one hell of an opening salvo to kick off the next generation of processors.
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at Amazon for $568.99
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: Price & availability
(Image credit: Future)
- How much does it cost? MSRP $699 (about £600 / AU$1,000)
- When is it available? September 27, 2022
- Where can you get it? Available in the US (UK and Australia dates forthcoming)
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is available from September 27, 2022, with a US MSRP of $699 (about £600 / AU$1,000).
AMD has not listed UK or Australian retail pricing, and we’ve reached out to AMD for clarification on when the new Ryzen 7000 processors will go on sale in those regions.
The Ryzen 9 7950X’s price is $100 less than the Ryzen 9 5950X’s, which is fantastic, especially with recent concerns about inflation. This also mildly offset’s the cost of the upgrade to the new Ryzen 7000’s. This is also $110 more expensive than the Intel Core i9-12900K, which has a US MSRP of $589 (about £500, AU$850). Is the Ryzen 9 7950X worth the premium price over the Core i9-12900K? We definitely think it is, but there’s no getting around the fact that this is still an enthusiast chip, and it is priced accordingly.
What’s more, unlike the Core i9-12900K, the Ryzen 9 7950X isn’t compatible with DDR4, so not only will you need a new motherboard, you will need to buy expensive new RAM. It also has a much higher TDP, so if you were bumping up against the limits of your power supply, odds are good that you’ll need to buy one of those, too.
(Image credit: Future / InfoGram)
In a lot of ways, other than your graphics card, you really are talking about a substantial investment to upgrade to the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. You might be better off buying one of the best gaming PCs preloaded with a Ryzen 9 7950X, depending on how much you end up needing to replace in your rig.
Still, this isn’t unexpected or unreasonable, considering the age of the AM4 socket and how Intel has similarly shifted to the LGA 1700 socket for its Intel Alder Lake chips. On the plus side, if you had an AM4 cooling solution, you can still use it with the Ryzen 9 7950X.
All that said, expect to spend a good deal more than $699 for this upgrade. Given the performance improvements with the Ryzen 9 7950X, we definitely think you are getting way more value for your money than you would with the Ryzen 9 5950X it replaces.
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X might not be as good a «value» proposition as the Ryzen 7 7700X, but it is without a doubt a much more compelling processor than its predecessor.
It comes in slightly behind the Core i9-12900K on price, but with rumors swirling about the increased prices of the Intel Raptor Lake processors due out soon, it’s more likely than not that the Ryzen 9 7950X will only look like a better value as time goes on.
- Value: 4 / 5
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: Chipset & features
The Ryzen 9 7950X uses the new AM5 motherboard socket and chipset. (Image credit: Future)
- AMD finally moves on from AM4
- PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 come to Ryzen PCs
- Integrated dual-core RDNA 2 GPU
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X specs
Process: 5nm
Socket: AM5
Cores: 16
Threads: 32
Base frequency: 4.5GHz
Boost frequency: 5.7GHz
L3 cache: 80MB
TDP: 170W
PCIe: 5.0 x 24
Max RAM: 128GB Dual-Channel DDR5
Unlocked: Yes
Integrated Graphics: 2-core RDNA 2 GPU
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a 16-core, 32-thread beast of a CPU, fabbed on a 5nm FinFET process from TSMC that has been years in the making, but which seems to have been well worth the wait.
Most notably for the Ryzen 9 7950X, AMD 7000-series processors can now use both PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 RAM (the latter isn’t optional), which is something that Intel has been able to utilize for nearly a year now since the release of Intel Alder Lake in November 2021. Unfortunately for Intel, just having a platform for these two technologies doesn’t mean that consumers will be able to take advantage of them, and Intel’s continued support of DDR4 meant that many customers likely didn’t even take advantage of one of Intel’s most exclusive features over the last year.
With this processor release, along with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X, Intel’s year-long exclusive compatibility with next-gen memory, storage, and add-in cards has come to an end, and it was barely able to take advantage of its first-mover status. You’ll still need to get an AM5 motherboard for the Ryzen 9 7950X, but you an still use the same cooler you had on an AM4 board with the new AM5s.
It might not be the biggest savings, but any bit helps when doing a build.
Moving on to the actual chip itself, its 16 full-performance cores have a base clock of 4.5 GHz, with a boost clock of 5.7 GHz, which is nearly a full 40% faster base clock compared to the Core i9-12900K’s performance cores, with a 12% faster boost clock as well.
Compared to the Ryzen 9 5950X, there is a similar increase in core speeds, with the 7950X’s base clock running about 32% faster than the 5950X’s, while it’s boost clock runs about 16% faster than the 5950X’s.
(Image credit: Future)
There is also support for Intel’s AVX-512 instruction set, which is designed by Intel for high-performance computing and floating-point-compute-heavy applications like video encoding, financial services, and simulation modeling.
Most interesting to us though is that it is also very useful when doing ray tracing calculations. During the Q&A session following the taping of the AMD Ryzen 7000 announcement on August 27, we asked AMD Corporate Vice President and GM for desktop PCs, David McAfee, and AMD’s Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Technology and Engineering, Mark Papermaster, if the inclusion of the AVX-512 instruction set on the Ryzen 7000-series would create an opportunity for smart synergies between AMD’s 7000-series processors and its Radeon graphics cards when it came to ray tracing performance.
«AI is finding its way into every application and that does include ray tracing, so it is important to just bring that efficiency [from the AVX-512 instruction set] into the CPU,» Papermaster told us. «The CPU is still the vastly dominating engine in the industry where inferencing is practiced, such as where you’re sharpening up images, and certainly those play into a whole range of applications.»
«As to whether we’ll see hybrid ray-tracing across AVX-512-based CPUs and Radeon GPUs,» McAfee added with a laugh, «I can’t comment on that right now.»
Intel, meanwhile has killed off its support for AVX-512 in Intel Alder Lake and Raptor Lake (it said that since its efficiency cores couldn’t use AVX-512, misuse of the instruction set could lead to errors so Intel dropped it from Alder Lake and Raptor Lake.
This could give the Ryzen 9 7950X a key advantage in some select applications over the 13th-generation Core i9-13900K, especially when it comes to content creation and scientific research.
Whether we’ll get any hybrid ray tracing solutions from pairing an AMD CPU and GPU togther is an open question, but the instruction set appears to already be paying dividends in at least one of our performance benchmarks.
The Ryzen 9 7950X also has a built in dual-core RDNA 2 GPU, so while you’re hunting down a new graphics card for your build, you can still get by with the processor’s integrated GPU while you wait for some cheap graphics card deals to finally come around.
- Features: 5 / 5
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: Performance
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- Best-in-class performance
- Runs circles around the Ryzen 9 5950X
- Fantastic energy efficiency
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is AMD’s flagship enthusiast processor and boy howdy does it deliver.
We are talking best in class performance across the board, from raw single and multi core performance – including some jaw-dropping scores for a consumer processor – to content creation and gaming.
If there is a critique of the Ryzen 9 7950X, its that it really is too powerful for most people, and so this is a processor best reserved for professionals, hardcore gamers, and PC enthusiasts who want to be at the cutting edge of tech.
In a lot of ways, comparing this processor to the Intel Core i9-12900K also isn’t totally fair, as this chip’s real rival is the forthcoming Intel Core i9-13900K, which should be released sometime in the next month or so. Until we can square the Ryzen 9 7950X against Intel’s flagship Raptor Lake processor, it’s too soon to say that the Ryzen 9 7950X is the best processor of the year, but it is without question the best AMD processor ever made for the consumer market, and it’s not close.
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First, everything with the Ryzen 9 7950X begins with its single core performance – which tops the Core i9-12900K, 2,064 to 2,018, in CineBench R23 – and only gets better from there.
The Ryzen 9 7950X’s CineBench R23 multi-core score was a jaw-dropping 38,531, a 52% increase over the Ryzen 9 5950X’s score of 25,347. It’s dominating performance continues with GeekBench 5, where the 7950X’s single-core score of 2,241 was a 30.8% increase over the 5950X’s score of 1,713. For the GeekBench 5 multi-core score, the Ryzen 9 7950X clocked in at 22,167 against the Ryzen 9 5950X’s 13,975 – a staggering 60% increase.
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On the content creation side of things, the Ryzen 9 7950X outperforms the Ryzen 9 5950X by about 35% on average across our Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Handbrake, and Blender benchmarks.
It also beats out the i9-12900K by about 8.4% on average, which is very important given that the i9-12900K is widely see as the best processor for content creation on the market right now.
Most of the Ryzen 9 7950X’s advantage comes from the Blender benchmark, which tests a processor’s prowess at running the app’s Cycles rendering workload. Cycles takes advantage of the aforementioned AVX-512 instruction set, and so it chews through the work about 53.3% faster on average than the Ryzen 9 5950X which does not incorporate the AVX-512 instruction set.
The Intel Core i9-12900K falls seriously behind the Ryzen 9 7950X in Blender as well, with the 7950X completing the rendering workloads about 54% faster on average. The i9-12900K does come out ahead slightly in video workloads like Adobe Premiere Pro and Handbrake, with the 7950X scoring a 1,216 in PugetBench for Premiere’s benchmark against the i9-12900K’s 1,253 – about 3% less than Intel’s best.
Likewise on Handbrake, the Core i9-12900K processed 83 fps while encoding 4K to 1080p on the fast preset compared to the Ryzen 9 7950X’s even 80 fps.
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Finally, when it comes to gaming, the Ryzen 9 7950X isn’t the best gaming CPU, but it’s a close third behind the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
It’s particular performance vis a vis the 7700X and the i9-12900K depends on the game, and there’s no clear reason why, say, Cyberpunk 2077 plays better on an i9-12900K than a Ryzen 9 7950X, while the 7950X crushes the i9-12900K in Hitman 3, but averaging all the benchmark scores out, and the Ryzen 9 7950X’s 325 fps is well within the margin of testing error against the 7700X’s 335 average fps and the ryzen 7 5800X3D’s 328 average fps.
As an absolute verdict, the 7950X falls just short of being the best gaming or content creating CPU, but with everything else it brings to the table, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is nothing short of the best consumer processor on Earth right now.
- Performance: 5/5
Should you buy the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X?
Buy it if…
You want the best AMD processor on the market
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is a massive generational leap over its Zen 3 predecessor.
You want to do a processor that does everything well
There is no area where this processor isn’t either outperforming every other processor on the market by a lot or barely falling short within the margin of testing error.
You’ve got money to burn
Maybe that big tax refund came in or your parents carry landed hereditary titles, but whatever the reason, if you’ve got the money to splurge and you’re looking for a reason, this is the processor (and accompanying hardware) you’ve been looking for
Don’t buy it if…
You don’t want to upgrade an entire PC
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X needs an AM5 motherboard and DDR5 RAM, so unless you’re upgrading from another Ryzen 7000-series chip and have all this hardware already, you’re going to have to buy a LOT of hardware just to use this processor.
You’re on a tight budget
While the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is cheaper than its predecessor, it’s still a premium flagship processor, so it’s going to be a hefty investment.
Also Consider
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
While the Ryzen 7 5800X3D might be «last-gen», its 3D-VCache technology makes it the best gaming processor for the AM4 platform, so if you’re looking for a cheaper upgrade, you can get it for much cheaper than the Ryzen 9 7950X.
Read more: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X isn’t as powerful as the 7950X, but it’s no slouch, and it provides an excellent performance-to-price proposition for someone who is a bit more value conscious.
Read more: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X review
Intel Core i9-12900K
If you’re looking for the best processor for content creation, you’re going to be hard pressed to find better than the Core i9-12900K. It’s expensive, sure, but this is the processor you’re going to want for video editing, rendering, and the like.
Read more: Intel Core i9-12900K review
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Final Report Card
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Value | While cheaper than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X it is replacing, you are going to need to buy a lot of new hardware to use this chip, adding to the expense. For the performance you’re getting, though, it’s worth the extra expense. |
4 / 5 |
| Features | Now with PCIe 5.0, DDR5 RAM, and a 5nm process, this is the upgrade Ryzen chips have been needing desperately since the release of Intel Alder Lake. | 5 / 5 |
| Performance | While it might win every single category outright, the ryzen 9 7950X brings incredible performance across the board regardless while absolutely running away with the crown elsewhere. | 5 / 5 |
| Final score (average) | The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X’s combination of phenomenal performance, DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 compatibility, and an excellent price makes this the best processor in the world right now. | 4.67 / 5 |
- First reviewed September 2022
How we test processors
When it comes to processors, we look at four key metrics: synthetic single and multi-core performance, «general» performance, creative performance, and gaming performance.
- Synthetic single and multi-core benchmarks test the performance of specific instruction sets and processor operations like floating-point calculations using benchmark tools like GeekBench, Cinebench, and CPU-Z.
- General performance is how the processor performs during typical use conditions using PCMark 10.
- Creative performance is a measure of how well the processor performs in several popular creative workloads like Handbrake, Blender, and Adobe Photoshop. Where possible, we explicitly disable GPU accelerated operations or test rendering using the CPU by itself.
- Gaming performance measures how well the processor calculates gaming operations like in-game physics by running several games’ integrated benchmark tools like CyberPunk 2077, Metro: Exodus, and F1 2022. In all cases, we run the benchmarks on the lowest graphics settings available at 1080p and using the most powerful graphics card we have available and with 32GB RAM to isolate the actual CPU operations we are testing without having to worry about inteference with excessive memory or graphics management.
Once this is done, we average the scores across each category for a final report card broken down by use case, and then we finally divide these scores by the processor’s MSRP to measure its performance-for-price to determine how good of a overall value the processor is for the average consumer.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: Price Comparison
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John (He/Him) is the US Computing Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.
Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.
You can find him online on Twitter at @thisdotjohn
Currently playing: The Last Stand: Aftermath, Cartel Tycoon
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X review
TechRadar Verdict
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is an absolute monster of a CPU, bringing the biggest gen-on-gen jump in single-core performance in years, which helps make the processor stronger across the board.
The best part? You don’t even need a new motherboard.
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Cons
- —
Price went up
- —
No included cooler
Why you can trust TechRadar
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: two minute review
Thanks to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and the rest of the Ryzen 5000 series, there might be a new gaming processor champion on the market.
The war between AMD and Intel has raged for years over the best single- and multi-threaded performance, and it was always believed that you go with AMD for top-notch multi-threading for professional and creative applications.
Jump to
Price and availability
Features and chipset
Performance
Should you buy?
Also consider
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900X at Amazon for $340
But, if you’re trying to squeeze every ounce of performance for the best PC games, it was assumed that Intel was the best CPU for the job.
But the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X may have changed all that. This CPU might just be the best available option. It’s just as capable with single-threaded tasks as it is with multi-threaded ones.
AMD’s Ryzen 5000 presentation made this clear, as the company zeroed in on gaming, with creative applications taking a back seat. As a result, the company might have created the best gaming CPU you can get right now.
Rounded out by PCIe 4.0 support, the Ryzen 9 5900X is now the flagship product among the best AMD processors, and with it, there’s really no reason to buy an Intel processor for that gaming PC you’re building.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: price and availability
The Ryzen 9 5900X fits into the same AM4 slot as Zen 2 chips (Image credit: Future)
- How much is it? MSRP is listed at $549 (about £420, AU$760)
- When is it out? It is on sale now
- Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, Australia, and elsewhere
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is available today for $549 (about £420, AU$760).
That is a $50 (about £30, AU$40) price jump from the 3900X, which launched for $499 (about £390, AU$720) back in July 2019. That 10% price jump is a tough pill to swallow, but it’s largely in part due to the lack of competition from Intel.
For comparison’s sake, the Intel Core i9-10900K launched for $488 (about £400, AU$750) back in May 2020, and didn’t manage to meaningfully tackle the Ryzen 9 3900X. However, with that processor, Intel did at least manage to hold on to its single-core crown for a little while.
But, because the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X trounces the Core i9-10900K so thoroughly, AMD’s new processor kind of exists in a realm of its own, where the price hike at least starts to seem justified. It’s hard to argue for the price bump when it’s among the best processors ever made.
At this price point, there is nothing that can even approach the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, so if you’re in the market for a high-end consumer processor, there really isn’t any other choice right now.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: features and chipset
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- Same AM4 Socket as Ryzen 9 3900X
- PCIe 4.0 support
- 7nm architecture
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is built on the Zen 3 architecture, which on a surface level may look similar to Zen 2 – they’re both 7nm, after all. However, AMD has redesigned the architecture from the ground up to increase IPC performance and efficiency to the point where it leaves no prisoners.
The biggest difference in architecture from Zen 2 to Zen 3 is that instead of having two Core Complexes (CCX) per compute die (CCD), each CCD only has one CCX, with each CCX having up to 8 cores, rather than 4 cores on Zen 2.
This change not only cuts down on latency when cores are communicating with each other, but it also means that each CCX has access to a full 32MB of L3 cache, rather than being limited to 16MB of the stuff on Zen 2.
This means that while the Ryzen 9 5900X has the same amount of L3 Cache as the Ryzen 9 3900X at 64MB, each core has direct access to 32MB on the 5900X, rather than 16MB on the 3900X.
Because cache is so important to gaming performance, this change, along with the higher clock speeds, massively boosts gaming performance. In fact, as we’ll explore later, AMD has boosted performance across the board here.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X key specs
Socket: AM4
Cores: 12
Threads: 24
TDP: 105W
Base frequency: 3.7GHz
Boost frequency: 4.8GHz
L3 cache: 64MB
Architecture: AMD Zen 3
Process node: 7nm (TSMC)
PCIe: 4.
0
Max RAM: 128GB DDR4-3200 (Dual-channel)
Integrated Graphics: No
Unlocked: Yes
As far as raw specifications go, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12 core, 24 thread processor, with a boost clock up to 4.8GHz, with a 3.7GHz base clock. It has the same 105W TDP as the Ryzen 9 3900X, and in our testing only reached a max of 142.27W, compared to the 145.3W that the Ryzen 9 3900X reached in the same testing suite. This simply demonstrates just how much more efficiency AMD was able to squeeze out of Zen 3.
Another huge winning point here is that we don’t have a new chipset this time around. X570 motherboards are still the top-end boards for AMD Ryzen 5000 processors, which is excellent news for anyone looking to upgrade from an older Ryzen processor, and it also means that we won’t run into any major stock issues.
Of course, in order to upgrade to one of these processors, you’ll still need to update your BIOS, though new motherboards will ship with a Ryzen 5000-ready BIOS preinstalled.
To be safe, though, you’re going to want to check to make sure the motherboard you’re buying has the latest BIOS installed before you try to install it.
But that compatibility goes further than just 500-series motherboards, certain X470 and B450 motherboards will also support Ryzen 5000 processors like the Ryzen 9 5900X, though not all of them. Again, you’re going to want to check the manufacturer’s website to make sure the motherboard you’re looking at will be compatible.
If you’re a new AMD user, one thing you’re going to want to be aware of is how temperatures work. Rather than having one static boost target like an Intel processor, AMD Zen 3 processors will constantly be trying to maximize performance. This means that you may see uncomfortably high temperatures, especially if you’re pushing the processor hard.
For instance, in our testing, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X reached a maximum temperature of 86°C – and that’s with a 360mm AIO cooler attached. Don’t worry, that’s just how Ryzen is designed.
AMD has told us that the new processors may peak around 98°C, and that it’s expected. Your processor isn’t going to burst into flames.
At the same time, Intel’s processors run much cooler. In the same suite of tests with the same cooler, the Intel Core i9-10900K peaked at just 73°C. Again, this is just a difference in how these coolers are designed, but AMD’s processors could lead to more hot air circulating around your case, depending on the cooler you’re using.
On that topic, AMD isn’t including a Wraith cooler in the box anymore, which means you’re going to have to invest in an aftermarket cooling solution, so we’d advise going with at least a 240mm AIO liquid CPU cooler or a thicc air cooler like the Noctua NH-U12A .
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: performance
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- Exceptional gaming performance
- Dominates multi-threaded workloads
- Improved single-threaded performance
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is the fastest processor we’ve ever tested on a mainstream platform, and it’s not even that close.
In all but one of our tests, the Ryzen 9 5900X was significantly ahead of not only its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 3900X, but ahead of its main competition – the Intel Core i9-10900K.
We focused our testing around the best PC games going this time around, as that’s the core use-case AMD is now championing – and with good reason.
In the most CPU-demanding game in our testing suite, Assassins Creed Odyssey, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X beats out the Intel Core i9-10900K by 8%, pushing it above 80 fps. However, in this test it’s pretty much even with the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X.
The Ryzen 9 5900X has a bigger departure in Total War: Three Kingdoms, however, which is a game that has always favored Intel processors. In this game, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X averages 116 fps at 1080p with the Ultra quality preset, beating out the Intel Core i9-10900K’s 108 fps at the same resolution and quality. That’s a 7% difference, there, too.
Test system specs
These are the systems we used to test the desktop CPU performance in this review:
All CPUs:
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Masterliquid 360P Silver Edition
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
RAM: 32GB HyperX Predator RGB @ 3,000MHz
SSD: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro @ 1TB
Power Supply: Phanteks RevoltX 1200
Case: Praxis Wetbench
Intel 10th Gen:
Motherboard: MSI MEG Z490 Godlike
Intel 9th Gen:
Motherboard: MSI MEG Z390 ACE
AMD 3rd Gen:
Motherboard: X570 Aorus Master
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X:
Motherboard: AsRock X570 Taichi
The only place where Intel holds a lead is in the Time Spy physics test.
For this test, we isolate the CPU score, rather than report the overall score. The Ryzen 9 5900X scores 12,885 points to Intel’s 13,888 points. That’s a 7% lead in Intel’s favor, turning the tables in that synthetic gaming workload. However, what’s impressive is that it’s now even with the Ryzen 9 3950X, the flagship of the previous generation.
Moving on to pure CPU workloads, the Ryzen 9 5900X unsurprisingly wipes the floor with the Core i9-10900K in multi-core workloads – but that was true of the Ryzen 9 3900X. However, the Ryzen 9 5900X, in the GeekBench 5 multi-core test is now 24% faster than the Intel Core i9-10900K, up from the 11% lead enjoyed by the Ryzen 9 3900X.
In Cinebench R20, which simulates rendering for creative applications, the multi-core lead expands to a whopping 31%. The smallest lead in pure CPU performance comes in the SISoft Sandra CPU Arithmetic test, where the Ryzen 9 5900X is just 18% faster – but that’s still a significant lead.
The biggest story here is the significant jump in single-core performance, facilitated by that ground-up redesign in the Zen 3 architecture.
In the Cinebench R20 single-core test, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X scores 618 points, up from the 518 scored by the Ryzen 9 3900X, a 19% gen-on-gen increase. The Intel Core i9-10900K scores 522 points in this test, 18% slower than AMD.
That story repeats throughout all of our synthetic single-core tests. The Intel Core i9-10900K is 21% slower in Cinebench R15 single-core, 9% slower in GeekBench 4 and 12% slower in GeekBench 5.
AMD has finally claimed the single-core performance crown from Intel. That’s heavily reflected in benchmarking software, but what’s more impressive is how that’s reflected in raw gaming performance. With Zen 3, AMD set out to create the best processor for gaming and in every test we’ve run, Team Red has absolutely hit that target.
Even more importantly, this marks one of the biggest generational improvements we’ve ever seen in processors. Intel has been adding small increases with each generation, but the Ryzen 9 5900X smashes past the Ryzen 9 3900X.
In fact, while we would normally advise that folks don’t upgrade their processor after just a single generation – and still largely hold that opinion – there’s a genuine case to be made to upgrade to the 5900X from the 3900X, especially if gaming is large portion of what you do with your PC.
This is especially true when you consider the massive generational leaps experienced in the best graphics cards. When you look at how the RTX 3080 behaves at 1080p and 1440p, you need a strong gaming CPU to pair with it – the Ryzen 9 5900X would make an excellent gaming companion.
Should you buy an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X?
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is available now (Image credit: Future)
Buy it if…
You want the best processor for gaming
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is an incredibly powerful processor for gaming, bringing single-core performance that goes way beyond what last-generation CPUs brought to the table. A large portion of games should see a massive performance increase.
You need something that can do creative work
Ryzen is Ryzen, and with 12 cores and 24 threads, the AMD Ryzen 5900X is an absolute beast for multi-core workloads. The massive boost to single-core performance helps to increase multi-core performance – after all if every core is faster, the entire processor will obviously benefit.
You want a nice upgrade from Ryzen 2000 or 3000
Because the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X features such a huge jump in single-core performance over the Ryzen 9 3900X, it’s genuinely worth the upgrade, especially if one of the main things you’re doing with your PC is playing PC games.
Don’t buy it if…
You’re on a budget
The Ryzen 9 tier of processors is already a no-go for anyone looking to build a reasonable machine, especially when the Ryzen 7 5800X comes so close in games, but because AMD added an extra 10% to the purchase price, the Ryzen 9 5900X is even more expensive this time around.
You need an included cooler
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X doesn’t have a cooler in the box, not that we would recommend using it even if it did. If you don’t have the cash to invest in a third-party CPU cooler, you may want to look elsewhere.
Also consider
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
When we reviewed the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 3D V-Cache wasn’t a thing, but with the introduction of this new AMD technology, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D absolutely goes toe-to-toe with the Ryzen 9 5900X for gaming, and it’s even less expensive as well. It still falls behind considerably in other workloads though, so only consider this if you are looking for the best pure gaming CPU out there.
Read the full AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review
Intel Core i9-12900K
In the past year, Intel has launched its Alder Lake processors, and the flagship Core i9-12900K is indisputably the best processor on the market right now.
Whether it’s gaming or any other workload, this processor will do just as well if not far better than the Ryzen 9 5900X, but the cost of a new motherboard and new RAM as well as the processor could make this a very expensive alternative.
Read the full Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K review
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: Price Comparison
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Jackie Thomas is Deputy Editor at Decisionary. Previously, she was TechRadar’s US computing editor. She is fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but she just happens to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don’t be afraid to drop her a line on Twitter or through email.
With contributions from
- John LoefflerComputing Editor
Oil spilled on the World Cup track. Maybe it’s good that Russia is not involved in this?
The second stage of the ski season will be remembered not for racing, but for the failure of the organizers.
Photo: © Millo Moravski / Agence Zoom / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
What could be the intrigue of the men’s part of the second stage of the Ski World Cup in Lillehammer? The victory of the Norwegians in all the races, even without the moping Klebo, is too obvious, so there was no hope for a miracle.
nine0003
So the public decided that something more interesting was needed to draw attention to the world of skiing. Last year, the motivation to watch races was sought in the fight between Russians and Scandinavians. Now this is not.
So you have to do things that have nothing to do with skiing. During the 20 km mass start, the activists calmly walked onto the track and staged a picket. This became the most discussed outcome of the stage in Norway.
Illusion of intrigue
After the starting stage in Ruka, which was unconditionally won by Johannes Klebo, everyone gave him victory in the overall World Cup standings in absentia. This year, ski racing is already devoid of intrigue, and taking into account what we saw, there was no point in watching the season. nine0003
But the five-time Olympic champion himself intervened in the scenario and decided to give odds to others. On Friday and Sunday, he withdrew from distance racing due to a «sore throat». At the same time, this did not stop him from winning the Saturday sprint.
It is not clear how Klebo’s logic works, but apparently it is also a matter of a certain trick: you need to somehow maintain motivation and sports interest in yourself if there is no Bolshunov. We have to arrange such pauses to give odds to others.
Without Johannes, nothing has changed in the distribution of places: on Friday, young Yver Andersen won the freestyle “trimming”, on Sunday, the more famous Golberg won the classic mass start. In the top 10 of both races, only the Englishman Musgrave, the Swedes Poromya and Rosier managed to break through. nine0003
Paul Golberg / Photo: © Marius Simensen / Keystone Press Agency / Global Look Press
Sunday’s race winner even passed Klebo in the overall standings, 136 points ahead of Johannes. If the 26-year-old Norwegian had the task of competing for the trophy at the end of the season, then he coped with it. True, Klebo himself refuses this fight at all:
— I gave up the opportunity to win the overall World Cup standings when I did not go to the start of yesterday’s race.
Now I don’t see it as a chance anymore,” the skier said after skipping Friday’s cut. nine0003
More relevant than skiing
Why Johannes said this became clear on Sunday. Missing one race does not jeopardize the whole season when you win all the others, but the athlete did not enter the line in the mass start either.
Although even in his sub-optimal condition, he could easily complete another victory. The peloton of 40 skiers finished in 30 seconds. This is a very small gap for such a large group, and the winner was determined on the target, where Paul Golberg worked the most powerfully. He often wins prizes in the sprint too, so it’s not surprising. nine0003
19 kilometers 500 meters it was extremely boring to watch the athletes resting in a pack, but environmental activists and relaxed organizers decided to dilute the picture. A group of people made their way onto the track unhindered, unrolled a banner and spilled some kind of liquid that looked like oil:
— I saw everything well, because I had to get off the ski track.
Luckily, they did it on the ascent, not on the descent. Otherwise, the race would have to be canceled due to massive falls,” said the winner of the race after the finish. nine0003
Paul Golberg / Photo: © Marius Simensen / Keystone Press Agency / Global Look Press
On top of that, the protesters were lighting a torch on the side of the track, so the athletes had a really hard time. The race turned into a real obstacle course:
— I tried to hold my breath while running past the fire, and then I saw them enter the track, — Norwegian bronze medalist Nyenget shares his emotions
collect them in a group, giving the athletes the opportunity to drive around the demonstrators around the edges. Maybe it’s good that Russia does not participate in this obscurantism? nine0003
When there is no intrigue on the track, you have to focus on things that are not at all sporty. This was not the case with the Russians on the tour.
View video
Related
Cross-country skiing
Winter sports
Previously in Cross-country skiing:
Paul Golberg won the mass start (video).
World Cup
Ludmila Guseva: The labor market in Moscow remains manageable and responds well to support measures
In Moscow, the number of unemployed registered with the employment service decreased by 11% compared to the beginning of the year, which indicates the effectiveness of measures to support employment and control of the situation. Such an opinion in an interview with journalists of the Moscow City News Agency was expressed by the chairman of the Moscow City Duma commission on economic and social policy, Lyudmila Guseva. nine0003
“Unemployment is one of the key indicators that is constantly in the focus of attention of the Commission. This is a factor that affects the social well-being, economic activity of the population. The approaches that are used in Moscow to ensure that people do not remain unemployed, to shorten the period of searching for a new place, as well as retraining, advanced training, self-employment development, show their effectiveness,” said Lyudmila Guseva.
The deputy recalled that the labor market in Moscow is one of the most active in the country. “The level of officially registered unemployment in Moscow is now at 0.45%, which is one of the lowest rates in major cities in the world. As of October 1, there are more than 32 thousand people on the labor exchange, and they are offered a full range of assistance — both in finding a job and in developing the necessary new skills — increasing the level of digital or flexible skills is now in high demand, and gain new knowledge It is possible both online and in the classroom,” explained the chairman of the relevant commission of the Moscow State Duma. nine0003
The parliamentarian also stressed that today the work in the field of labor market support is clearly segmented by target audience.
“Proactive work has been carried out over the past six months in those areas where Western brands left Russia, and a large number of highly qualified employees have been released,” the deputy said.