AMD is erasing the clean lines between mainstream desktop CPUs and so-called high-end desktop (HEDT) ones, thanks to more-powerful-than-powerhouse chips like the stellar 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X ($749). Compare it to Intel’s closest options, such as the Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition and others in the decidedly pricey, definitely HEDT Core X-Series, and the value contest isn’t even close. In the core wars at the close of 2020, AMD simply can’t be beat. If you deal with demanding content-creation applications or need a workhorse CPU to handle the rigors of heavy-load, highly multithreaded productivity tasks day in and day out, look no further. As AMD’s latest and greatest top-of-the-stack Zen 3 processor, the Ryzen 9 5950X delivers core-crushing power that bests an Intel chip meant to compete with AMD’s own “true HEDT” platform, Ryzen Threadripper. Most folks don’t need all the power the Ryzen 9 5950X packs, but few wouldn’t want it.
The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Specs: The Real Zen 3 Workhorse Has Arrived
To start off, let’s take a deeper dive into the specs of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, and specifically how it stacks up against both the Zen 2 generation chip it replaces (the Ryzen 9 3950X) and Intel’s HEDT option, the $979 (RCP) Intel Core i9-10980XE.
As a 16-core/32-thread CPU, the Ryzen 9 5950X rests just on the edge of AMD’s HEDT options, but still falls fairly short of the company’s even more thread-happy parts such as the 24-core/48-thread Ryzen Threadripper 3960X.
However, unlike Threadripper CPUs, which require their own specialized TRX40 chipset and oversize motherboard socket, the Ryzen 9 5950X is compatible with the familiar Socket AM4. That means it will work with a host of select motherboards, stretching from the B350 chipset all the way up to X570. (You’ll still need to provide your own cooler, though; the Ryzen 9 5950X doesn’t come boxed with one.)
This makes it a better choice for amateur content creators who need a lot of power for their productivity tasks, but may not want to make the larger financial plunge that’s demanded of Threadripper owners. (Threadrippers more or less require liquid cooling, and their motherboards are pricey.) Compared with the Ryzen 9 3950X, there aren’t a whole lot of changes to talk about: the same 7-nanometer lithography, and the same 105-watt TDP. The biggest shift in specs is around the base and boost clocks.
The base clock falls from 3.5GHz in the Ryzen 9 3950X to 3.4GHz with the Ryzen 9 5950X, while AMD raised the peak boost clock speed from 4.7GHz (Ryzen 9 3950X) to 4.9GHz (Ryzen 9 5950X). Like with the other Zen 3 processors we’ve tested, however, AMD bumped up the price by $50 from its previous-generation equivalent.
Meanwhile, comparing the Ryzen 9 5950X with the Intel Core i9-10980XE (on the Core X platform) is a bitter pill for the Intel faithful to swallow. Besides coming in at around $250 less, the AMD chip draws considerably less power (105 versus 165 watts). You might hold out hope that the Core i9-10980XE’s two extra processing cores (18 versus 16) could justify its higher price, but once we ran our performance benchmarks those hopes were all but dashed.
Testing the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: Move Over, Zen 2 Threadrippers (and Core X)
For our test setup, we installed the Ryzen 9 5950X into an MSI MEG X570 Godlike AM4 motherboard (our standard test platform for latest-generation Ryzens) and populated two of the DIMM slots with 16GB of memory set at 3,000MHz. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti handled video output during the CPU tests. (Like other Ryzen desktop chips not ending in “G,” these first four Zen 3 Ryzens lack on-chip graphics, so a video card is necessary.) We used an NZXT Kraken Z63 280mm closed-loop liquid cooling solution to keep the CPU cool during all our benchmark runs, with fan profiles set to the default of our Godlike’s BIOS settings.
We test CPUs using a variety of synthetic benchmarks that offer proprietary scores, as well as real-world tests using consumer apps like 7-Zip and 3D games such as Far Cry 5. The charts below include results from a variety of competing and sibling Intel and AMD processors.
CPU-Centric Tests: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Productivity Performance
As is tradition with any performance-minded CPU, let’s start off our benchmarking suite with a look at productivity and content-creation tasks…
In our productivity suite, the Ryzen 9 5950X shines at its brightest, setting new records in its class in the 7-Zip compression benchmark and even beating out third-generation Ryzen Threadrippers in our Blender run.
Compared with the 18-core/32-thread Intel Core i9-10980XE, the Ryzen 9 5950X came out well ahead in both raw scores and performance-per-core ratios. Apart from a virtual tie in the legacy/single-threaded iTunes test, there wasn’t a single task where the higher-core-count (and higher-cost) Intel Core X chip beat the Ryzen 9 5950X, not even in 7-Zip, a benchmark whose story is almost always “the more cores the better.”
Unfortunately, anyone expecting the best Zen 3 “plain” Ryzen CPUs to leapfrog over Zen 2-based Ryzen Threadrippers across the board will be disappointed. Though the Ryzen 9 5950X’s value proposition against Intel is undeniable, anyone who needs Threadripper-level performance in tasks like Handbrake video conversion are still better off choosing a CPU like the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X.
Gaming at the High End: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Frame Rates
Here’s what we saw in our bank of gaming tests with our GeForce RTX 2080 Ti card running the show. This top-end consumer graphics card is the primary arbiter of performance at 4K with all of the processors laid out below. At 1080p, however, the GPU gets out of the way a bit more and lets the CPU differences shine.
Since it’s targeted at content creators first and foremost, not PC gamers, we weren’t expecting the Ryzen 9 5950X to break any records in gaming. So you can imagine our surprise when the processor not only kept pace at times with more gaming-centric chips like the lower-core, higher-boost-clock Ryzen 7 5800X, but even managed to tie a few records in select resolutions in Hitman: Absolution.
That said, in lightly threaded esports games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, we didn’t see the same gains. There, the Ryzen 9 5950X actually faltered a bit when put up against the current gaming-CPU royalty, the Ryzen 9 5900X and the Intel Core i9-10900K.
A Brief Look at Overclocking and Thermals
In our testing, whether overclocking or at stock, the Ryzen 9 5950X never crested above 78 degrees C, though that’s considerably higher than the maximum temperature reading of 71 degrees C we saw from the Ryzen 9 5900X.
In our overclocking trials, we were able to achieve a stable overclock of roughly 8%. But, as with many of the other Ryzens we’ve tested thus far in the Zen 3 lineup, those theoretical gains in clock didn’t always translate into reliably higher performance.
During our testing, we weren’t able to see more than a 5% boost in performance across multiple overclocked benchmarks, and those results were subject to dips below that if we ran tests back-to-back. Overall, the chips in the Zen 3 line look like they have been pushed about as far as they can go straight out of the box. So any real-world gains you do see are just cream atop an already well-iced confection.
Verdict: Serious Content Creation Without the Serious Cost
As a mega-core monster, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X does exactly what we expected it to, given what we saw with the Ryzen 9 3950X that came before it: It provides elite-level multicore muscle at a reasonable price point.
As a $799 processor that beat the $979 Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition in just about every test we could throw its way, it’s the best value-for-sheer-cores option on the market short of a Ryzen Threadripper chip. If you’re solely looking for a top-end gaming engine, though, you’d be better served going with options like the Ryzen 7 5800X instead, both in terms of price and overall gaming performance.
For content creators and anyone looking for an AM4-compatible chip that can deliver serious productivity, your search stops here. The Ryzen 9 5950X is a capable and powerful productivity engine (but not an overly power-hungry one). And if you want to run serious content-creation tasks but have an AM4 motherboard you’d like to grandfather into the equation, the 5950X provides a less expensive alternative to options like the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X.
