AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU Review & Benchmarks vs. 9800X3D, 285K, 9950X, & More
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Date: 2025-03-14
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Comments and reviews: 20
Cpgeekorg
core parking as a solution to diverting particular threads to particular cores is straight up AWFUL. it assumes that you aren't running background applications that want to take advantage of all those other would-be unused cores (such as running virtualization or media workloads (perhaps streaming applications while gaming, or maybe you're doing deprioritized blender renders in the background or maybe you're waiting for another gpu doing ai inferencing while gaming on the primary, etc. etc. - there are a million reasons one might want to take advantage of all of their cpu cores on a 16 core machine instead of shutting 8 of them off while playing games. the current chipset drivers are REALLY heavy handed and it's mostly we've detected that you're playing a game, we're going to park half your cpu cores now! which is complete BS. - if that's what you're going to do, you might as well just buy a 9800x3d. I really don't understand why they can't give us a x950x3d that has dies where BOTH have 3d vcache. this would be INCREDIBLE for things like code compile times, virtualization workloads, probably media application multitasking, etc. and would allow games to use all 16 cores (Admittedly, particularly at 4k, we don't need games to have all those cores with the way they are written today, but it could significantly improve enemy ai, the numbers of complex decisions and actions that npcs can do independently, etc. if game devs would take advantage of spreading those threads over more cores which could lead to significantly improved simulation texture and complex emergent behavior and thus improved replayability.
Instead of turning off half the cpu cores, why can't it just tell the windows scheduler to only schedule identified games the x3d ccd - this should theoretically only allow the game to use the x3d ccd while allowing other applications to use the other ccd as normal. memes or not, I paid for 16 cores, I'm gonna use 16 cores!
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core parking as a solution to diverting particular threads to particular cores is straight up AWFUL. it assumes that you aren't running background applications that want to take advantage of all those other would-be unused cores (such as running virtualization or media workloads (perhaps streaming applications while gaming, or maybe you're doing deprioritized blender renders in the background or maybe you're waiting for another gpu doing ai inferencing while gaming on the primary, etc. etc. - there are a million reasons one might want to take advantage of all of their cpu cores on a 16 core machine instead of shutting 8 of them off while playing games. the current chipset drivers are REALLY heavy handed and it's mostly we've detected that you're playing a game, we're going to park half your cpu cores now! which is complete BS. - if that's what you're going to do, you might as well just buy a 9800x3d. I really don't understand why they can't give us a x950x3d that has dies where BOTH have 3d vcache. this would be INCREDIBLE for things like code compile times, virtualization workloads, probably media application multitasking, etc. and would allow games to use all 16 cores (Admittedly, particularly at 4k, we don't need games to have all those cores with the way they are written today, but it could significantly improve enemy ai, the numbers of complex decisions and actions that npcs can do independently, etc. if game devs would take advantage of spreading those threads over more cores which could lead to significantly improved simulation texture and complex emergent behavior and thus improved replayability.
Instead of turning off half the cpu cores, why can't it just tell the windows scheduler to only schedule identified games the x3d ccd - this should theoretically only allow the game to use the x3d ccd while allowing other applications to use the other ccd as normal. memes or not, I paid for 16 cores, I'm gonna use 16 cores!
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maskharat
I have a question/request. Could testing be extended onto Linux I know, I know - the market share isn't there yet, there's still issues etc. pp. but if reviewers, especially big guys like you, would put up benchmarks for both systems, that would for one thing grow the necessary attention to it and we actually would be able to see where there's issues, where there are none and would give people actually an impression that there's actually alternatives that don't screw the consumer.
From my experience, gaming on Linux is there for the most part and with the heroic launcher access to other storefronts than steam is easy. A lot of the historical issues, that still get promoted as current, are outdated.
I do understand that this is a hard ask that basically doubles the workload, but I also think that giving attention to the proprietary stuff only also skews the perceived possibilities for users. There's been put much work into making Linux friendly for average users and to deliver a great gaming experience, while on the MS side of things there's been put much work into making the experience worse.
We're at a point on the road where, I think, the major issue is a skewed public perception, not actual capability. I think it's also becoming increasingly important, now where MS deprecates perfectly fine hardware that can still be used. I mean, yeah, we get a Is Linux ready now video every now an then from some outlets and some outlets cover Linux, but that coverage is niche.
There's only so much individual users without a platform can achieve to change perception, or rather to bring a objective perception into the playing field.
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I have a question/request. Could testing be extended onto Linux I know, I know - the market share isn't there yet, there's still issues etc. pp. but if reviewers, especially big guys like you, would put up benchmarks for both systems, that would for one thing grow the necessary attention to it and we actually would be able to see where there's issues, where there are none and would give people actually an impression that there's actually alternatives that don't screw the consumer.
From my experience, gaming on Linux is there for the most part and with the heroic launcher access to other storefronts than steam is easy. A lot of the historical issues, that still get promoted as current, are outdated.
I do understand that this is a hard ask that basically doubles the workload, but I also think that giving attention to the proprietary stuff only also skews the perceived possibilities for users. There's been put much work into making Linux friendly for average users and to deliver a great gaming experience, while on the MS side of things there's been put much work into making the experience worse.
We're at a point on the road where, I think, the major issue is a skewed public perception, not actual capability. I think it's also becoming increasingly important, now where MS deprecates perfectly fine hardware that can still be used. I mean, yeah, we get a Is Linux ready now video every now an then from some outlets and some outlets cover Linux, but that coverage is niche.
There's only so much individual users without a platform can achieve to change perception, or rather to bring a objective perception into the playing field.
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Bensam123
Couple things worth noting here, the 285K has changed drastically since launch and there are a lot of tweaks the tech community uses on it and were then rolled into the newest firmware. Not sure if those were used here, as it wasn't really mentioned and I don't think GN has looked at it again specifically at this angle since launch. Other TechTubers have however (Ring OC, NGU Fabric, and D2D Interface).
Based on owning a 7950X3D I can safely say the PPM driver isn't always right. While you almost always want to run a game on the X3D CCD, which it does, there are weird niche cases in which more then 8c can actually increase performance if you're running it across all 16c (assuming you have SMT off so it doesn't accidentally overload cores). Examples of this are Space Marines 2, Hell Divers 2 (diff 10, 4 player, nursery missions), Riftbreaker custom difficulty with 3000% spawn waves, and Skylines 2 which will eat your entire CPU (this can be seen with 250k pops). Those are personally games I've tested. The PPM driver I'm sure in the above examples is still running on 8X3D cores and not across all 16c.
Would've been nice to see 16c no SMT vs default configuration.
More remarkably, which wasn't even mentioned in the video, is that because there is no downside to having X3D cache now (reduced clock speeds), you can actually just have both CCDs with X3D cache and it's win-win for the end user. It by default should be a option if you're paying a premium for this CPU to begin with. They're just trying to save money by convincing gamers they don't need it, when there are definitely some cases where it helps.
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Couple things worth noting here, the 285K has changed drastically since launch and there are a lot of tweaks the tech community uses on it and were then rolled into the newest firmware. Not sure if those were used here, as it wasn't really mentioned and I don't think GN has looked at it again specifically at this angle since launch. Other TechTubers have however (Ring OC, NGU Fabric, and D2D Interface).
Based on owning a 7950X3D I can safely say the PPM driver isn't always right. While you almost always want to run a game on the X3D CCD, which it does, there are weird niche cases in which more then 8c can actually increase performance if you're running it across all 16c (assuming you have SMT off so it doesn't accidentally overload cores). Examples of this are Space Marines 2, Hell Divers 2 (diff 10, 4 player, nursery missions), Riftbreaker custom difficulty with 3000% spawn waves, and Skylines 2 which will eat your entire CPU (this can be seen with 250k pops). Those are personally games I've tested. The PPM driver I'm sure in the above examples is still running on 8X3D cores and not across all 16c.
Would've been nice to see 16c no SMT vs default configuration.
More remarkably, which wasn't even mentioned in the video, is that because there is no downside to having X3D cache now (reduced clock speeds), you can actually just have both CCDs with X3D cache and it's win-win for the end user. It by default should be a option if you're paying a premium for this CPU to begin with. They're just trying to save money by convincing gamers they don't need it, when there are definitely some cases where it helps.
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strat0caster124
The CPU engineers at AMD are really making progress steadily generation over generation. Besides the common physical structure improvement (putting the 3D V-cache down first in fab), the 9950x3d also seems to have solved some lingering issues with scheduling the heterogeneous dies. Even though I'm not going to buy it, it's a great piece of engineering to look at.
I actually just got my 9800x3d before Monster Hunter Wilds launch. It was a bit hard to swallow at the original price of $480, considering the $300 historical real price of 1 CCD 8 core x3d chips. But take into account this crazy economy and chip demand (AI acceleration chips eating up a huge chunk of manufacturing capacity), and the fact that it was a significant upgrade from my 5600x for some of the games I play, I was overall happy with my decision. This generation of AM5 feels pretty good (except for the price, obviously).
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The CPU engineers at AMD are really making progress steadily generation over generation. Besides the common physical structure improvement (putting the 3D V-cache down first in fab), the 9950x3d also seems to have solved some lingering issues with scheduling the heterogeneous dies. Even though I'm not going to buy it, it's a great piece of engineering to look at.
I actually just got my 9800x3d before Monster Hunter Wilds launch. It was a bit hard to swallow at the original price of $480, considering the $300 historical real price of 1 CCD 8 core x3d chips. But take into account this crazy economy and chip demand (AI acceleration chips eating up a huge chunk of manufacturing capacity), and the fact that it was a significant upgrade from my 5600x for some of the games I play, I was overall happy with my decision. This generation of AM5 feels pretty good (except for the price, obviously).
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werewolfmoney6602
Thanks Steve.
Unrelated to the video, but I was wondering if you're planning any content on the whole used Seagate drives with reset SMART monitoring thing.
I bought two 14tb exos x18 drives last week from Newegg (I'm in USA, I've seen some discourse online about whether or not it's happening outside of Germany) and they only have the power on hours and cycles that I put on them myself, but with several billion lifetime reads and writes (I haven't actually done anything but format them so it isn't from me.) Newegg accepted the return yesterday but I haven't sent them in yet. History tells us they'll just sell them to some other poor sap that might not have the knowledge to look deeper than just what's shown on smart, so if you guys want them, I'd much rather send them to someone who will use them to inform people rather than to turn a profit like Newegg will.
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Thanks Steve.
Unrelated to the video, but I was wondering if you're planning any content on the whole used Seagate drives with reset SMART monitoring thing.
I bought two 14tb exos x18 drives last week from Newegg (I'm in USA, I've seen some discourse online about whether or not it's happening outside of Germany) and they only have the power on hours and cycles that I put on them myself, but with several billion lifetime reads and writes (I haven't actually done anything but format them so it isn't from me.) Newegg accepted the return yesterday but I haven't sent them in yet. History tells us they'll just sell them to some other poor sap that might not have the knowledge to look deeper than just what's shown on smart, so if you guys want them, I'd much rather send them to someone who will use them to inform people rather than to turn a profit like Newegg will.
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RheyneMusic
I think the rules and quirks with AMD compared to Intel over the years is keeping me from jumping back to the red team. What am I missing AMD has better performance per watt, but you have the core parking / latency issues due to communicating over multiple dies (where Intel just has one), having to re-install Windows after a CPU upgrade, unstable overclocking, long memory training, sensitivity to 4 sticks of RAM over two (Intel experiences this although it's less sensitive to it), the inferior PBO over turbo boost, more frequent BIOS updates... Intel might not always have the best raw efficiency, but it seems to work more often without needing to tweak as many settings, when you look at both Intel and AMD / ATI over a 20 year timeline, where they've all had major issues at some point. It just seems like there's less fuss with Intel overall.
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I think the rules and quirks with AMD compared to Intel over the years is keeping me from jumping back to the red team. What am I missing AMD has better performance per watt, but you have the core parking / latency issues due to communicating over multiple dies (where Intel just has one), having to re-install Windows after a CPU upgrade, unstable overclocking, long memory training, sensitivity to 4 sticks of RAM over two (Intel experiences this although it's less sensitive to it), the inferior PBO over turbo boost, more frequent BIOS updates... Intel might not always have the best raw efficiency, but it seems to work more often without needing to tweak as many settings, when you look at both Intel and AMD / ATI over a 20 year timeline, where they've all had major issues at some point. It just seems like there's less fuss with Intel overall.
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djmidnightwolf
I may get flack for this but with the GPU situation, lets say I am building a new system and can't get what I want. Can we get some test results on using the iGPU in the X3D Ryzen CPUs I don't see anyone testing this and am thinking of buying the 9950X3D(coming from a 5900X workstation and 5600X3D gaming rig) and waiting out the GPU market and just finishing out the new system I am building. I only need a CPU and GPU to finish it. I already have a RX 6950 XT in the gaming rig so continuing to use the 5600x3D system isn't an issue. I would still like to be able to game on the 9950X3D while I wait without taking out a card from the other systems.
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I may get flack for this but with the GPU situation, lets say I am building a new system and can't get what I want. Can we get some test results on using the iGPU in the X3D Ryzen CPUs I don't see anyone testing this and am thinking of buying the 9950X3D(coming from a 5900X workstation and 5600X3D gaming rig) and waiting out the GPU market and just finishing out the new system I am building. I only need a CPU and GPU to finish it. I already have a RX 6950 XT in the gaming rig so continuing to use the 5600x3D system isn't an issue. I would still like to be able to game on the 9950X3D while I wait without taking out a card from the other systems.
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gamersnexus
What could I say about Steve that hasn't been said before I have deep admiration for him...and the whole team. Keep it up, guys!
On the subject, I was planning on replacing my beloved 5950X/6900 XT build this Black Friday/Cyber Week, which is still performing amazingly and was my spendiest system ever, but the uncertainty of these chaotic times were an incentive to jump ahead of schedule.
Ended up scoring the 9950X3D and 9070 XT on Newegg on two separate bundles. That should hold me until the rapture.
Strangely, I'm not excited at all. This wasn't a happy purchase. It was more of an enjoy before the ship sinks maneuver.
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What could I say about Steve that hasn't been said before I have deep admiration for him...and the whole team. Keep it up, guys!
On the subject, I was planning on replacing my beloved 5950X/6900 XT build this Black Friday/Cyber Week, which is still performing amazingly and was my spendiest system ever, but the uncertainty of these chaotic times were an incentive to jump ahead of schedule.
Ended up scoring the 9950X3D and 9070 XT on Newegg on two separate bundles. That should hold me until the rapture.
Strangely, I'm not excited at all. This wasn't a happy purchase. It was more of an enjoy before the ship sinks maneuver.
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MentalLemur
GamersNexus, idk if this is useful. But ive been really tempted to upgrade from my 7900x to a 9900X3D, seems interesting to me for overclocking with less thermal density.
Checked stock at Microcenter local to me (N.NJ) today in morning around 10a and evening around 8:30p. Website in morning claimed 9950X3D in stock: 25 in stock. By afternoon claimed: 1 in stock. Total 9900X3D in stock: NONE (no listing for it on the store’s website at all, which is unusual for an advertised hot new product even if its out of stock.
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GamersNexus, idk if this is useful. But ive been really tempted to upgrade from my 7900x to a 9900X3D, seems interesting to me for overclocking with less thermal density.
Checked stock at Microcenter local to me (N.NJ) today in morning around 10a and evening around 8:30p. Website in morning claimed 9950X3D in stock: 25 in stock. By afternoon claimed: 1 in stock. Total 9900X3D in stock: NONE (no listing for it on the store’s website at all, which is unusual for an advertised hot new product even if its out of stock.
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james2042
This cpu is work by day play by night. Its for a home workstation that doubles for gaming. For a while due to a bug in the amd drivers, i used the radeon pro drivers on my 6900xt. If i still did software development, id 100% have this is my system. Threadripper is simply too many cores, and this is faster for gaming.
If I was rendering, id certainly go to threadripper for the expanded memory and pcie connectivity because the extra ram bandwith and pcie would be infinitely more useful than core count
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This cpu is work by day play by night. Its for a home workstation that doubles for gaming. For a while due to a bug in the amd drivers, i used the radeon pro drivers on my 6900xt. If i still did software development, id 100% have this is my system. Threadripper is simply too many cores, and this is faster for gaming.
If I was rendering, id certainly go to threadripper for the expanded memory and pcie connectivity because the extra ram bandwith and pcie would be infinitely more useful than core count
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BensAudioCave
Wow that was a LOT! So bottom line... My wife is a content creator and uses office 365 and Filmora to edit her videos... She is running a poor little machine with a 5600 and I want to upgrade her in a big way... Should I just go ahead and spring for the 9950X3D Will likely be used with either a 5070Ti (if I can get one) or a 9070XT video card; 128GB RAM and Dual crucial t705 4tb drives on an ASUS ProArt 870E Board... She only gets an upgrade every few years so I like to treat her to the best
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Wow that was a LOT! So bottom line... My wife is a content creator and uses office 365 and Filmora to edit her videos... She is running a poor little machine with a 5600 and I want to upgrade her in a big way... Should I just go ahead and spring for the 9950X3D Will likely be used with either a 5070Ti (if I can get one) or a 9070XT video card; 128GB RAM and Dual crucial t705 4tb drives on an ASUS ProArt 870E Board... She only gets an upgrade every few years so I like to treat her to the best
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ChePe-j1v
I will pass on the 9950x3d, I happened to own both 9950X and recently the 9800x3d, I prefer the two separate units because they're at two separate environments in my home, Game Room and Office, it's what have categorized everything from furniture to pc hardware and lighting. Hopefully Zen 6 brings more of the amazing technology options. However this is excellent for someone that can do both work and game in one place...awesome AMD...love it.
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I will pass on the 9950x3d, I happened to own both 9950X and recently the 9800x3d, I prefer the two separate units because they're at two separate environments in my home, Game Room and Office, it's what have categorized everything from furniture to pc hardware and lighting. Hopefully Zen 6 brings more of the amazing technology options. However this is excellent for someone that can do both work and game in one place...awesome AMD...love it.
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doubletee4391
Meaningless in the current market. At least for a gaming processor. You can't get a damn gpu so who cares I was very excited for the 9800x3d. Ordered it, paid almost $479 and waited 2 months for it to ship. Now i can't find a graphics card to use it and don't expect to find one for months. To the newcomers to the hobby don't get excited. Maybe buy a console and wait a year before building a pc. The market is misery right now.
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Meaningless in the current market. At least for a gaming processor. You can't get a damn gpu so who cares I was very excited for the 9800x3d. Ordered it, paid almost $479 and waited 2 months for it to ship. Now i can't find a graphics card to use it and don't expect to find one for months. To the newcomers to the hobby don't get excited. Maybe buy a console and wait a year before building a pc. The market is misery right now.
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cjsky5822
I briefly considered threadripper but when you look at the price difference and the lack additional M2 on most threadripper boards (compared to AM5, especially Asrock), it makes so little sense to pick threadripper over a 9950x3D. If you need lots of cores and even more cache, plus extra gpus maybe it makes sense But the 9950x3D on AM5 seems to tick all the boxes, without going into truly astronomical prices.
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I briefly considered threadripper but when you look at the price difference and the lack additional M2 on most threadripper boards (compared to AM5, especially Asrock), it makes so little sense to pick threadripper over a 9950x3D. If you need lots of cores and even more cache, plus extra gpus maybe it makes sense But the 9950x3D on AM5 seems to tick all the boxes, without going into truly astronomical prices.
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iHumanist
I love you guys. The only thing I’d love to see added are benchmarks vs Apple silicon to satiate my curiosity. I recently watched a video about the new AMD Ryzen AI 395 MAX SoC, and there were comparisons to the Apple M-series SoC’s. I didn’t realize how powerful the Apple chips were! Thanks for all that you do!
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I love you guys. The only thing I’d love to see added are benchmarks vs Apple silicon to satiate my curiosity. I recently watched a video about the new AMD Ryzen AI 395 MAX SoC, and there were comparisons to the Apple M-series SoC’s. I didn’t realize how powerful the Apple chips were! Thanks for all that you do!
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halflife82
My only complaint is that his voiceover only ever talks about average fps. As a 1440p or 4k gamer, it’s irrelevant, and 0.1% fps are all that we care to compare. People don’t complain at average fps at these resolutions, it’s the glitches for the 1% and 0.1% lows that drive us all nuts!!!
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My only complaint is that his voiceover only ever talks about average fps. As a 1440p or 4k gamer, it’s irrelevant, and 0.1% fps are all that we care to compare. People don’t complain at average fps at these resolutions, it’s the glitches for the 1% and 0.1% lows that drive us all nuts!!!
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Izmael1310
Can anyone tell me how long amd is going to make and sell 980X3D I want to buy it and use it in my new pc build this year - probably beginning of the Q3 2025 but I'm afraid they wont be available and everybody is going to be selling the 9900 and 9950. Thanks. Guesstimate will be enough.
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Can anyone tell me how long amd is going to make and sell 980X3D I want to buy it and use it in my new pc build this year - probably beginning of the Q3 2025 but I'm afraid they wont be available and everybody is going to be selling the 9900 and 9950. Thanks. Guesstimate will be enough.
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berkertaskiran
If only AMD and Nvidia sold all of the card without others, GPUs would be similar to CPUs in terms of pricing. The here is a GPU now add some stuff to it and sell it to the people always felt weird to me. It's like putting a sticker into a generic TV and making it your own to sell.
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If only AMD and Nvidia sold all of the card without others, GPUs would be similar to CPUs in terms of pricing. The here is a GPU now add some stuff to it and sell it to the people always felt weird to me. It's like putting a sticker into a generic TV and making it your own to sell.
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Tochimon_
Hey
Hey
I work on single rig and do gaming streaming and aiming to upgrade my i7 12700k.
Is hte 9800x3D enought for gamestream or becouse of C/T on 9800x3D it will be hard to maintain good fps with gamestreamothers programs up
Or should I'm aim for 9900x3D
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Hey
Hey
I work on single rig and do gaming streaming and aiming to upgrade my i7 12700k.
Is hte 9800x3D enought for gamestream or becouse of C/T on 9800x3D it will be hard to maintain good fps with gamestreamothers programs up
Or should I'm aim for 9900x3D
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arcaneftwtv
Getting my 9950x3d in 2 days. Building a new system around it but considering sticking to my 4090 over getting a 5090 due to all the burned cable issues and huge power spikes that are just over the cable spec. Feels to risky despite it being tempting
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Getting my 9950x3d in 2 days. Building a new system around it but considering sticking to my 4090 over getting a 5090 due to all the burned cable issues and huge power spikes that are just over the cable spec. Feels to risky despite it being tempting
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