AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

[W1zzard]

The new AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D brings Zen 5 with 3D V-Cache to the high-end. This new $700 flagship offers the best application performance, beating even the 9950X, and at the same time you get a fantastic gaming experience that's better than any other non-X3D processor on the market.

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[Daven]

The 9950X3D is 12.5% faster than the 7950X3D. Closets to the 15% IPC estimate that I've seen so far. Nice!

Edit: NVM. The 9950X3D has about a 7% average higher clock than the 7950X3D so the IPC gains are minimal. Good news is that the 9950X3D clock speeds are identical (slightly higher?) to the non-X3D 9950X. So that problem is solved.

 

[Chaitanya]

Intel is in real trouble, I hope there are Threadrippers on the way now that desktop stack is "complete"(missing Ryzen 3 class).

 

[Onasi]

An undeniable desktop CPU king, but as long as the X3D is on a single CCD and is reliant on software crutches in Windows it kind of remains a “meh” proposition for me.

Also, since there is a slight discrepancy in numbers, I assume the CPU Power Consumption testing is also moving to a newer methodology like GPUs did?

 

[_roman_]

I miss the benchmark for the Flightsimulator. -> People always claim that the Flightsimulator will use more cores. I always read that - I want to see real claims for that.

It would be an improvement when we could see the low end also in the benchmarks. The differences in 1440p does not look that awesome because the bottom is missing in form of the intel and amd equivalent of 7500f / 7600 / 7600X. Of course someone could look up somewhere the numbers if there are any recent ones.

I wonder if those 1440p game tests were made with 8 or 16 cores? There were mainboard options to enforce a "game" mode.

An undeniable desktop CPU king, but as long as the X3D is on a single CCD and is reliant on software crutches in Windows it kind of remains a “meh” proposition for me.

That applies for any operating system with processors with mixed cores and structures. So many weeks have passed and there is still no proper scheduler and kernel support for this. A processor should never need so many extra lines and kernel and scheduler code to barely work properly.

 

[napata]

These dual CCD chiplet CPUs are such powerhogs. Samish effiency as a 14900K in gaming so terrible in general while also drawing almost twice as much in idle & low power scenarios. For my use case I'd probably draw less power in a year on a 14900K than a 9950X3D.

 

[csendesmark]

Only a little extra heat over the "regular" 9950X Very nice!

 

[Bwaze]

I remember when X3D was first introduced there were talks that it could come as standard when implemented correctly, that there would be no downsides like there were in first CPUs with it - lower frequencies and thus lower performance in applications that don't benefit greatly from increased cache.

We're there now, performance is great, but I don't think I've heard that idea of implementing X3D as stock again - it will apparently remain as a top of the line, extra costly model.

 

[Epaminombas]

An undeniable desktop CPU king, but as long as the X3D is on a single CCD and is reliant on software crutches in Windows it kind of remains a “meh” proposition for me.

Also, since there is a slight discrepancy in numbers, I assume the CPU Power Consumption testing is also moving to a newer methodology like GPUs did?

The manufacturer creates the drivers; Windows does not have full control over how software wants to use CPUs for this purpose.

Baixar o Kit de Driver do Windows (WDK) - Windows drivers

Instruções para o download da versão mais recente do Kit de Driver do Windows (WDK)

learn.microsoft.com

This WDK Kit is used by manufacturers to create drivers and test and approve them in quality tests. People think that Microsoft is the one who creates the drivers.

You can create software and force it to use specific cores, bypassing what the AMD driver initially wants to do.

What Microsoft does is improve hardware compatibility in the latest Windows 11 BUILD released.

Windows 11 24H2 has improvements for new CPUs and GPUs.

Previous versions do not.

And there are a lot of people buying new hardware from 2024/2025 and installing outdated Windows 10 or an old Windows 11 version that is not compatible. Then these people come to the forum to complain about poor performance.

 

[Heiro78]

I wish AMD could have this same success in video cards too

 

[PixelTech]

@W1zzard Typo, as according to ASUS's product page linked in your Test Setup chart on the Support tab thier BIOS (UEFI) firmware version numbers go from version 0303 being the first to the latest being version 1203.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I remember when X3D was first introduced there were talks that it could come as standard when implemented correctly, that there would be no downsides like there were in first CPUs with it - lower frequencies and thus lower performance in applications that don't benefit greatly from increased cache.

We're there now, performance is great, but I don't think I've heard that idea of implementing X3D as stock again - it will apparently remain as a top of the line, extra costly model.

Well, it's more complex to manufacture, it costs more to manufacture as there are additional steps in the manufacturing process and it's likely to have a higher failure rate, since you have another component that can fail that goes into the chips. Until they've figured out a way to eliminate those hurdles, it's likely the X3D parts will remain premium parts.
Admittedly it will also depend on competition from Intel, which is rumoured to be doing something similar on their upcoming processors. Time will tell when AMD is ready to drop it's regular CPUs, if ever, since things like office PCs don't really benefit all that much from the 3D V-Cache.

 

[low]

Can you deaktivate the 2nd CCD for more performance? Or are ressources noch divided?

 

[Epaminombas]

Core i9 and Ryzen 9 were not made for gaming, they are great at gaming, but the target audience is those who work with Adobe and Autodesk and other video editing and engineering and architecture programs.

Can you deaktivate the 2nd CCD for more performance? Or are ressources noch divided?

Why would you buy a 16-core CPU to disable them?

Is it better to buy an R7 9800x3D??
my god

 

[Dr. Dro]

Solid performer. Personally, I don't think it's too expensive for what it offers. Usual caveats of the previous generation X3D apply, and looks like the Ryzen 7 remains the go-to for gamers. Both cheaper, faster, and doesn't suffer from the scheduling issues introduced by the split CCD design. If AMD insists on continuing with this they really should work on a hardware thread scheduler like Intel's thread director for Zen 6.

Can you deaktivate the 2nd CCD for more performance? Or are ressources noch divided?

Yes, you can deactivate the non-3D CCD; just like on the 7950X3D. But then there is no point on buying this over the 9800X3D.

 

[Daven]

Yes, you can deactivate the non-3D CCD; just like on the 7950X3D. But then there is no point on buying this over the 9800X3D.

I think the implication is that you deactivate the non-X3D CCD when gaming to get identical or better performance (higher clocks?) as the 9800X3D and then reactivate the CCD for productivity workloads. If that works, I think it is a viable strategy which you cannot do with the 9800X3D.

Edit: Now that I think of it, why wouldn't you do this as the default? It should get around the OS scheduling limitations and rarely does anyone game and work at the exact same time on the same computer.

 

[W1zzard]

@W1zzard Typo, as according to ASUS's product page linked in your Test Setup chart on the Support tab thier BIOS (UEFI) firmware version numbers go from version 0303 being the first to the latest being version 1203.

ROG-CROSSHAIR-X870E-HERO-ASUS-9951.CAP

It's provided by AMD specifically for these reviews, but I don't think there are significant differences to latest

Can you deaktivate the 2nd CCD for more performance? Or are ressources noch divided?

Yes, it can be disabled

 

[dyonoctis]

I think the implication is that you deactivate the non-X3D CCD when gaming to get identical or better performance (higher clocks?) as the 9800X3D and then reactivate the CCD for productivity workloads. If that works, I think it is a viable strategy which you cannot do with the 9800X3D.

Edit: Now that I think of it, why wouldn't you do this as the default? It should get around the OS scheduling limitations and rarely does anyone game and work at the exact same time on the same computer.

Because having to restart each time is just a bit annoying. People are lazy like that

 

[phanbuey]

I think the implication is that you deactivate the non-X3D CCD when gaming to get identical or better performance (higher clocks?) as the 9800X3D and then reactivate the CCD for productivity workloads. If that works, I think it is a viable strategy which you cannot do with the 9800X3D.

Edit: Now that I think of it, why wouldn't you do this as the default? It should get around the OS scheduling limitations and rarely does anyone game and work at the exact same time on the same computer.

It doesn't work... software and kernel get confused all the time - i.e. Space Marine. That's essentially what they try to do but it's not great, since you're running thousands of processes and threads in the background. The only true fix is a hard turn off in the bios, but then you're just booting a very expensive 9800x3d.

 

[Epaminombas]

Solid performer. Personally, I don't think it's too expensive for what it offers. Usual caveats of the previous generation X3D apply, and looks like the Ryzen 7 remains the go-to for gamers. Both cheaper, faster, and doesn't suffer from the scheduling issues introduced by the split CCD design. If AMD insists on continuing with this they really should work on a hardware thread scheduler like Intel's thread director for Zen 6.



Yes, you can deactivate the non-3D CCD; just like on the 7950X3D. But then there is no point on buying this over the 9800X3D.

There is no problem with the task scheduler in the Ryzen driver or any other CPU.

What actually exists is a lack of optimization in home PC software.

There is no such thing as a lack of CCD optimization in servers, because only server software knows how to deal with many cores.

Or servers have thousands of tasks at the same time that use several cores.

 

[Scattergrunt]

Looks nice. About where I expected it to be. Not exactly as hype worthy as I thought but still a good product.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I think the implication is that you deactivate the non-X3D CCD when gaming to get identical or better performance (higher clocks?) as the 9800X3D and then reactivate the CCD for productivity workloads. If that works, I think it is a viable strategy which you cannot do with the 9800X3D.

Edit: Now that I think of it, why wouldn't you do this as the default? It should get around the OS scheduling limitations and rarely does anyone game and work at the exact same time on the same computer.

Because the hardware is not capable of it. AMD provides a custom scheduler driver that's supposed to inject in games through the Xbox Game Bar, which sets the affinity of the detected game to run on the more appropriate CCD for best performance. The caveats of this are obvious:

1. It needs the Xbox Game Bar to be installed, activated and updated
2. AMD and Microsoft need to issue updates for it to work (something which is not guaranteed to happen in the very long term)
3. You can't get the benefits of using both sides of the processor at once. It works better as an 8 core or 8 core+3D cache configuration, rarely if ever well together

You may manually assign processor affinity with a tool like Process Lasso, otherwise the only way to activate or deactivate CCDs is with a system reboot. Ryzen Master should be able to automate that process with a one-click I believe, but it is not a seamless experience.

There is no problem with the task scheduler in the Ryzen driver or any other CPU.

What actually exists is a lack of optimization in home PC software.

There is no such thing as a lack of CCD optimization in servers, because only server software knows how to deal with many cores.

Or servers have thousands of tasks at the same time that use several cores.

You seem to be contradicting yourself, because you say that there is no problem, and then you proceed to point out the exact problem, lol.

Windows is not optimized for this topology, and it is very likely that it will never be. Intel's thread director works around this issue seamlessly through hardware-based runtime feedback to the operating system by literally telling it where to issue and physically execute each instruction, something that AMD hardware is not currently capable of.

 

[Daven]

Because having to restart each time is just a bit annoying. People are lazy like that

For those that only game on the weekends and/or occasionally in the evenings, I see no reason not to do this. I would actually consider buying the 9950X3D under this scenario. Monday-Friday 9 to 5 both CCDs enabled. Evenings and weekends just the X3D CCD enabled.

 

[Hattu]

As I hardly game anymore, I'm more interested in pure application power. Seems a very good performer.


I'm moving away from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu) anyway someday, so I went to Phoronix to see Linux performance. It's even better.


I don't have the funds or need to upgrade anytime soon, but it's always interesting to see how new HW performs.


Thanks for the review.

 

[The Shield]

I remember when X3D was first introduced there were talks that it could come as standard when implemented correctly, that there would be no downsides like there were in first CPUs with it - lower frequencies and thus lower performance in applications that don't benefit greatly from increased cache.

We're there now, performance is great, but I don't think I've heard that idea of implementing X3D as stock again - it will apparently remain as a top of the line, extra costly model.

This is the nowadays marketing standard: make you pay even for the air you breathe.