AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

[W1zzard]

the TDP in the table doesn't match up with AMD's.

Fixed

you don't say at all what graphics settings you're using. Ultra? medium? low? AA on? AA off?

ah right, added to the test system page. thanks for pointing this out.

I'm even learning from seeing other websites that AMD provides ram kits with the reviewer kit for the new chips, Trident-Z Royal DDR4-3600. So it's actually provided with the new chips and guranteed to work with the new chips and Techpowerup here isn't even using the provided ram. Instead they used their own 3200 mhz kit. What the heck?

If you tested all competing CPUs on 3200 CL14, and AMD sent you a 3600 MHz kit. Would you use it? What if Intel sends me a 4800 MHz kit for their CPUs for the next Ryzen review?

They did send me the full reviewer kit of course, including that memory.

All ryzen chips scale with ram speed

You are aware that latency matters too? Check out our memory scaling article

 

[EarthDog]

Most (almost all) review sites have had their review samples for weeks and they've been testing and reviewing the chips for a while now, but just under NDA and not allowed to publish the results until this morning, today. They definitely do not have "just 24 hours to do all testing". Where did you ever get that?

Maybe someone got it a day before. 4 I know of, 2 HUGE sites and two small, that didnt have these for over 1.5 weeks. They also got the 5700 and 5700xt too. The reviewer here is the cpu and GPU guy. Double whammy.

 

[Hotobu]

The power draw and temperatures for the 9900K vs the 3900 X in this review are pretty much the inverse of what I've been seeing from other sources. (Paul's Hardware, Hardware Unboxed)

 

[Space Lynx]

The 9900K is now obsolete unless it gets a heavy price cut.

This offers basically the same gaming performance as the 9900K in 1440p and up, consumes less power despite 4 extra cores, and demolishes it in productivity

10-20 fps less in several games, few shown here like that, but more if you read guru3d and techspot reviews. if FPS is all you care about on a high refresh 1080p or 1440p monitor, then intel is still your king, even a 9600k at $250 will OC to 5.1ghz no downlocking all 6 cores, 99% guaranteed and still decent temps, and you are prob look at 30 fps over ryzen 3900x in several games, but benches never show overclock scores. hate to say it but I am bit disappointed. I only game, so just going to sit this round out and hope Ryzen 4700x, x670 boards and 10nm or 7nm intel next year's battle.

actually I hope RDNA matures next year, it's honestly looking promising I will do an all AMD build (mainly for security reasons, I no longer trust intel's hardware faults and nvidia's telemetry) around this time next year with the next launches, I think AMD just needs one more year to flex it's muscles.

 

[the54thvoid]

Yay censorship. My posts get deleted because I criticize the reviewers here. Lovely. I'm sure this will get deleted too.

A constructive critique is always welcomed by @W1zzard but if you're just here to sling shit, you can do that in your own house. If a mod deletes a post on TPU, it's because it adds nothing or is ignorant. If you can improve the review process by adding valuable feedback, please do. Trolling doesn't work so well.

 

[Thefumigator]

Not sure about you guys, but I just fell in love with the 3900X
This is my next CPU, unless something strange happens.

 

[EarthDog]

Its a great cpu if you can utilize the cores and threads, otherwise, look a bit down the product stack for something cheaper (and also great).

 

[Easo]

Yeah, if I really will upgrade my 4790K next year, it is going to be Ryzen without a doubt.
I do wonder if Intel will make another "glued together" PP presenation? xD They have no true response until next year...

 

[Thefumigator]

Its a great cpu if you can utilize the cores and threads, otherwise, look a bit down the product stack for something cheaper (and also great).

In my case is all about productivity , and virtual machines, software development and networking

 

[bogmali]

Yay censorship. My posts get deleted because I criticize the reviewers here. Lovely. I'm sure this will get deleted too.

Went through all the posts and I didn't see any of yours getting deleted

 

[kanecvr]

Wait - I'm confused - how the **** did you manage to get 57C under load on a 9900k when my sample can't keep itself under 78? And that's cooled by a Thermalright Le grande Macho with two 140mm fans in push-pull configuration... Testing with a Nocua NH-14D temps go up another 2 degrees.... did you disable boost? Did you impose a thermal limit?

 

[Ravenas]

W1zz I may have missed it, but there should be somewhere in the review explicitly stating that if all you care about is gaming, then the 3700x offers the same gaming performance for ~$329.99.

Why would any gamer oriented buyer purchase the 3900x over the 3700x?

 

[Space Lynx]

Wait - I'm confused - how the **** did you manage to get 57C under load on a 9900k when my sample can't keep itself under 78? And that's cooled by a Thermalright Le grande Macho with two 140mm fans in push-pull configuration... Testing with a Nocua NH-14D temps go up another 2 degrees.... did you disable boost? Did you impose a thermal limit?

thought you were talking smack at first so I just checked, confirmed... it is 57 at load for 9900k... something has to be wrong there

my 9700k would hit 95 celsius on a NH-D14 with a 5ghz even OC... lol

W1zz I may have missed it, but there should be somewhere in the review explicitly stating that if all you care about is gaming, then the 3700x offers the same performance for ~$329.99.

Why would any gamer oriented buyer purchase the 3900x over the 3700x?

future games might utilize more cores. and most CPU purchases are long term purchases for people... my 2500k for example lasted me 7 years.

 

[Ravenas]

thought you were talking smack at first so I just checked, confirmed... it is 57 at load for 9900k... something has to be wrong there

my 9700k would hit 95 celsius on a NH-D14 with a 5ghz even OC... lol


future games might utilize more cores. and most CPU purchases are long term purchases for people... my 2500k for example lasted me 7 years.

I have been hearing that hypothetical for 15 years.

 

[phill]

Firstly @W1zzard, brilliant review as always. The dedication you have for retesting everything and the amount of hardware and testing you have to do must be crazy but there's a lot of people here that are so grateful, so as I'm one, I wanted to say thank you

Secondly... Whilst we might always wish for more performance from AMD, this is one of the biggest upgrades from 2700 to 3700 for example we've seen in such a long time.. We've become used to Intel and their meh give them this much performance and they'll still buy us routine (much like Nvidia now with their "Super" line of cards... I for one grateful I never bought a RTX 2xxx series card... but moving on) so it brings me a good smile to my face when seeing something like this being posted. I mean for the price difference for 8 cores 16 threads and the performance difference in games with what w1zzard has tested, I'd be buying AMD's regardless... I mean it's already been said, but 2%?? I'm sorry but (my personal opinion here) must be bat crap crazy to not consider AMD for what they have just released. Even with it being 2% difference there's so many other areas that it just surpasses the Intel equivalents and destroys them in others, I mean why wouldn't you?? Still, I for one are just over the moon of the releases today and I am very much looking forward to seeing whatever new Threadripper CPUs come out and not forgetting the 16 core that's due out in September I've read...

Bring it home AMD.. I'll be supporting you even with all the Intel kit I have here... Times are changing and I'm going with that change

 

[W1zzard]

Wait - I'm confused - how the **** did you manage to get 57C under load on a 9900k when my sample can't keep itself under 78? And that's cooled by a Thermalright Le grande Macho with two 140mm fans in push-pull configuration... Testing with a Nocua NH-14D temps go up another 2 degrees.... did you disable boost? Did you impose a thermal limit?

Set your cpu to stock

 

[Eskimonster]

If i was anything but a gamer , id jump directly into AMD.
this makes totally sence if youre a streamer or creator.

 

[Aquinus]

I'm highly amused by how Phoronix's review shows the 3900x keeping up with a i9 7960x, a $1,700 USD part... and AMD still has a 16c/32t part coming. Intel is in trouble if they don't have a counter for this before it hits the server market.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-3900x/22.html

 

[Manoa]

You are aware that latency matters too? Check out our memory scaling article

it's funy: in the past: core 2 vs phenom 2 it was intel using glue and northbridge and now it's the opposite xD
I bet you anything this new Zen has north of 200 clocks to memory, intel will be around 140. that's what the 64 mega L3 is for...im wondering what the L3 latency is

 

[biffzinker]

keeping up with a i9 7960x, a $1,700 USD part

It's on sale for $1439.14, but at 165 watt TDP while the Ryzen 9 3900X makes do with 105 watt TDP?

 

[Hotobu]

I have been hearing that hypothetical for 15 years.

It seems to me that it's a lot more of a reality now given that the next gen of consoles will be based off of Zen 2. Plus considering how long gaming development cycles are for AAA games, and that >4 cores only became a focal point for AMD and Intel in their mainstream processors only 2 years ago we're probably at an inflection point right now.

 

[Ravenas]

It seems to me that it's a lot more of a reality now given that the next gen of consoles will be based off of Zen 2. Plus considering how long gaming development cycles are for AAA games, and that >4 cores only became a focal point for AMD and Intel in their mainstream processors only 2 years ago we're probably at an inflection point right now.

So processor cores only matter to developers when there are more than 4?

 

[Hotobu]

What?

 

[nikoya]

Thank you W1zzard for the time spent preparing and writing such a deep analysis.
Thank you for all the other articles as well.

Thanks to you I personally learned really a lot.

 

[INFERNUS]

Great review would it be possible to compare windows 10 1809 vs 1903 if there is any difference in games? I use win 10 LTSC 1809 because I hate win 10 home/pro I hate all that useless crap they add. Being on LTSC I know there is no upgrade to 1903 and want to know the difference between the two.

Thank you