AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Review: We've Seen This Before...

Given the information, I wonder if there is even a reason to release the X3D processors, sure they'll be 5-7% faster, but at a $100+ premium from what you can currently get the 7800X3D. A 9600X3D could make things interesting from a value perspective if priced under $300, but other than that, the 9800X3D would most likely be $449 where as you can pick up the 7800X3D right now for $350 and probably lower come Black Friday timeframe. Maybe the X3D chips will be more tuned for gaming and we'll see larger margins though, I guess that's possible.

I was looking forward to this review because it removed the efficiency argument in comparing the processors...

A 5% (ish) gain is disappointing.

But performance regressions!?! -mind blown meme-

Prior to Zen 5, AMD has been on a role since the first gen Zen was introduced. With each generation, it got decent uplifts in performance. With Intel's current predicament, it was AMD's chance to go for the kill with Zen 5.

It's darn shame and disappointing Zen 5 didn't follow through like it's predecessor.

Something is truly very very very wrong with this whole brand and the industry. These new AMD CPUs were suppose to be much better, these results are so low I simple cant believe it. There is something very sinister going on in the world, first all talk and promise of Gen 5 8TB nvme disappear, same as Gen 4 16TB, same as 64GB DDR5 sticks, all gone, like they never existed. Someone covered that up quickly and replaced it with massive price rises. Then Intel mess up beyond comprehension, and now AMD Ryzen is a complete utter flop! Major conspiracy and miss management in these corporations. Clearly the new process node isn't good. Unbelievable.

16% uplift???????? WHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its like 2% brother! AMD are liers,nasty liers.

I honestly had no idea you would have to reinstall windows for this, um no...forget that! It took me 6months of slow tweaking to get my new OS up and running, never again! AM5 is a dead platform.

This AMD debacle resets everything, its a clean slat for Intel.

My interest in the 9950x was hopefully allowing for 128GB (2x64GB sticks) at ~5000MT/s for high end photography asapose to just 3600. The single threaded perf is crucial here and it clearly is not even worth thinking about. We keep hearing that Zen 5 was going to be a monster, but its a complete flop!

This is proof that the industry goes up and down, now is a very bad time with major issues and stagnation.

'It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise.'

I like foxes said:

This processor is not for gamers , just for productivity . There re better options . So ,Steve , you can call it a flop/disaster for gamers . Well, i9 14900K is worse because its awful power efficiency , a little consolation .

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It's 3% better than the previous gen chip for productivity.

+3%!!!

Why would you buy this over the 7950X that uses the exact same MOBO and RAM?

ScottSoapbox said:

It's 3% better than the previous gen chip for productivity.

+3%!!!

Why would you buy this over the 7950X that uses the exact same MOBO and RAM?

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Once again, if you want productivity improvement, use modern software. Not antique crap like Cinebench.

ScottSoapbox said:

It's 3% better than the previous gen chip for productivity.

+3%!!!

Why would you buy this over the 7950X that uses the exact same MOBO and RAM?

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Ryzen 9950X vs Ryzen 7950X
app power consumption on average
135W vs 149W
multicore power draw
220W vs 260W

also 10% faster in Cinbench R23 ( source Tom s Hardware and other ) and Corona 10 .
Not defending it , just trying to be objective

Terrible terrible chips so if anyone has one they don't want I'll grudgingly take it off their hands...... Seriously though I still think there might be a windows issue with these chips given the comparative performance gains on Linux. Is windows treating the C2 as e-cores and hence why we see a reduced 7-zip performance? Would love to have a deep dive into what windows schedulling is doing with these chips and the power profiles. Reading over at anandtech the PPM driver is back with these chips so possible enhancements could be made to improve gaming performance further down the line.

I like foxes said:

Ryzen 9950X vs Ryzen 7950X
app power consumption on average
135W vs 149W
multicore power draw
220W vs 260W

also 10% faster in Cinbench R23 ( source Tom s Hardware and other ) and Corona 10 .
Not defending it , just trying to be objective

Click to expand...

Tom’s is running stock RAM speeds. I.e., 5200 vs 5600 so +7.7% in RAM sensitive tasks. Whereas Steve compared them at the “sweet spot” 6000.

HardReset said:

Once again, if you want productivity improvement, use modern software. Not antique crap like Cinebench.

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Such as?

Also, as noted in the article, the “antique crap” showed off a large improvement with the 7000 vs 5000, so I guess it became ancient in the last 2 years.

Jeesh,

This entire diatribe of review is based on some "made up" Person's assumptions into building a gaming rig. They make "pseudo" conclusions and criteria into hardware buying needs and make no count of actual system costs or i9's need for +200w more power or need for more cooling, space, etc. (Adding to system cost).

Why not just show price/performance..? (Without all the diatribe?)

Also, nothing said in this review even matters because i9 and the LGA1700 is EOL/dead. (It costs heavily to move to a new CPU w/iNTEL. Plus their CPU division is in shambles.)



Also,
Techpot's premise that people with a 18 month old Ryzen 7700x are rushing out to buy a 9700x is asinine. Or that someone building a new AM5 rig even cares about performance uplift ovr 1st gen, other than heat/watts/cost. Comparisons without all the crying are helpful, we can see the delta but none of it matters to a buyer.

Look at the 7700x's performance on all those charts.... why would anyone upgrade to any of the CPU in any of these tests..? Nobody would, bcz there is not an acceptable uplift in performance to justify dropping in another chip. The ONLY people looking to buy a Ryzen 9700x/etc CPU is a new builder, not someone upgrading.

Someone who already own a 1st-gen AM5 CPU are waiting for the 2nd-gen X3D chips before upgrading.



TECHSPOT, can you name what is so wrong 2nd Gen AM5 CPUs for new system builders..? Or how they are not the best choice for gamers..!

ScottSoapbox said:

Such as?

Also, as noted in the article, the “antique crap” showed off a large improvement with the 7000 vs 5000, so I guess it became ancient in the last 2 years.

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Something that support modern instruction sets. Ryzen 7000 had better support for ancient software, but Ryzen 9000 wants to be modern. Improvements need sacrifices, like it or not.

Well… the X3D variant(s) are going to be real boring.

To be fair, to have such large performance gains every single time was eventually going to falter.

Just a little reminder here though, intel literally did nothing from the 4000 to the 7000 series of CPU’s, all quad cores at most and practically no change in performance.

As long as AMD comes swinging next round, they’ll be fine.

ScottSoapbox said:

Tom’s is running stock RAM speeds. I.e., 5200 vs 5600 so +7.7% in RAM sensitive tasks. Whereas Steve compared them at the “sweet spot” 6000.

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You can search other places for yourself

I only look at tests at 1440p and above, which means gaming performance of cpus hasnt improved by more than 3-5% since the 5xxx series in a non fictive scenario

Eldrach said:

I only look at tests at 1440p and above, which means gaming performance of cpus hasnt improved by more than 3-5% since the 5xxx series in a non fictive scenario

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Believe whatever you want buddy, the facts still remain facts:

This is getting really boring, I'll just skip this whole 9000 series CPUs (both products and reviews) and call it a day. It seems to me like this 9000 CPU series is some kind of middle step before a real jump in next gen (11000 may be ?).

Let's be optimistic and hope so, otherwise we'll have to deal with Intel and a "Intel red version", which is not good for any customers. BTW, thanks AMD, you helped me to avoid the temptation of upgrading my 3600x.

In Hitman PBO brought just over 4% improvement, not 1% as the text says, but I'll leave you to focus on your job of summarizing Zen5's defects, I'm disappointed too.

Burty117 said:

Well… the X3D variant(s) are going to be real boring.

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Hope not, I quite enjoy a PC upgrade every few years but there's not much point at the moment. Maybe in light of the lukewarm reception to the base parts they might up the specs/lower the prices of the X3D's a little when they release? Probably not...

GPU's are no better either. With the buzzword-bingo-business-bullsh1t-brigade still buying up all the GPU parts, we have a snowball in hells chance of a decent 5 series from nVidia and I've given up on AMD really competing at the higher end. All very dull...

What's this dual CCD thing and why do I have to reinstall Windows regularly because of it?

So boring, its like watching an Intel 10+++++ CPU release. I cant believe its happening to AMD lol. Anyways, if this is soo boring and low... imagine the X3D chips. They can't be hat much better either. As someone with a 7800X3D, this is sad cus... if this second generation of the motherboard CPUs is so low, imagine the 3rd... They promised 1 motherboard lasting a few generations. If the generations are so low in performance uplift... ugh, its a total scam lol. I wouldn't upgrade to 10000 series either. I only upgrade when the boost is greater than 50%. So far its like 5-10. Do you honestly think their next CPU will add 40% more performance for me to even consider it? I doubt it lol, especially after this fail. I got duped into buying a 500 bucks long lasting motherboard lololol. These were the prices, these were the only available motherboards in my country back then. Don't ask how much I had to spend on 64GB of BRAND NEW DDR5 ram. Its not cheap. I SAID DONT ASK!