The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Review: 16 Cores on 7nm with PCIe 4.0
by Dr. Ian Cutress on November 14, 2019 9:00 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |
| AMD Ryzen 3000 | AMD Ryzen 9 3950X AMD Ryzen 9 3900X |
| Motherboard | ASRock X570 Taichi 2.50 (AGESA 1004B) |
| CPU Cooler | Kraken X62 |
| DRAM | Corsair Vengeance RGB 4x8 GB DDR4-3200 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
| PSU | Corsair AX860i |
| SSD | Crucial MX500 2TB |
| OS | Windows 10 1909 |
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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eva02langley - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Yeah, because the average Joe is owning a 2080 TI to play at 1080p...blppt - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Believe it or not, you need a 2080Ti to play 1080p at max settings smoothly in RDR2 at the moment.My oc'd 1080ti (FTW3) chokes on that game at 1080p/max settings.
itproflorida - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Not.. 1440p 78 fps avg for RDR2 Benchmark and in game 72 fps avg maxed settings @ 1440p, 2080ti and 9700k@5Ghz.blppt - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
The 2080ti and other 2xxx series cards do MUCH better in RDR2 than their equivalent 10-series cards. Look at the benchmarks---we have Vega 64s challenging 1080tis in this game. That should not happen.https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/red_dead_red...
Ian Cutress - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
I have 2080 Ti units standing by, but my current benchmark run is with 1080s until I do a full benchmark reset. Probably Q1 next year, when I'm back at home for longer than 5 days. Supercomputing, Tech Summit, IEDM, and CES are in my next few weeks.Dusk_Star - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
> In our Ryzen 7 3700X review, with the 12-core processorPretty sure the 3700X is 8 cores.
Lux88 - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Not a single compilation benchmark...Ian Cutress - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Having issues getting the benchmark to work on Win 10 1909, didn't have time to debug. Hoping to fix it for the next benchmark suite update.Lux88 - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Thanks!stux - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Sad,Desperately want to know if the 3950x will make a good developer workstation. 64GB of Ram and a fast nvme, or is it going to be memory bandwidth bottlenecked... and I’ll need to step up to TR3.