AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D has long been the best CPU money can buy, but with Ryzen 9 9950X comes a new challenger for the crown. Team Red’s latest features the same topology, so you won’t see a night and day difference in performance, but is it enough to warrant your attention, especially ahead of Ryzen 9000X3D?
Removing some of the mystery, AMD outright says its Ryzen 9000X CPUs won’t beat 7000X3D in gaming, so you already know what to expect. However, this doesn’t gauge all-round value like our benchmarks do. Chomp down on our head-to-head to find out which is the best upgrade for you.
Specs
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D | |
|---|---|---|
| Cores | 16 | 16 |
| Threads | 32 | 32 |
| TDP | 170W | 120W |
| L3 Cache | 64MB | 128MB |
| Base clock | 4.3GHz | 4.2GHz |
| Boost clock | 5.7GHz | 5.7GHz |
| Launch MSRP | $649 / £610 | $699 / £649 |
AMD hasn’t exactly shaken things up with Zen 5, replicating much of the same structure. You’ll see identical core-and-thread counts, as well as frequencies close enough to shrug your shoulders.
Things get mildly interesting when you compare power draw against L3 Cache. Although Ryzen 9 7950X3D comes with double the L3 thanks to its sweet, sweet V-Cache boon, it sips far less electricity than the newer counterpart.
On paper, the only thing keeping Ryzen 9 9950X in the race is a lower MSRP, but you can already find 7950X3D for $525 / £506. Fortunately, top-level specs aren’t everything, and the fresh architecture has at least a little something in store.
Performance
As usual, with a new platform, we do away with all our previous tests and conduct benchmarks from square one. This way, we keep all variables to a minimum and can see a true generational uplift without any extraneous factors.
Our AMD chips rest on an MSI MEG X670E Ace motherboard with the latest BIOS update, sticking to recommended TDPs. Each is cooled by Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420, powered by be quiet! Dark Power 13 1,000W, and sits alongside a Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card and 64GB (2x32GB) Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 RAM.
Productivity
Zen 5 tweaks push Ryzen 9 9950X into the lead in 7-Zip Compression tests, but just barely. This is partly due to Ryzen 9 7950X3D’s lower power draw and frequencies, but it mostly keeps pace with a 3% difference in performance for 20% less power.
We’ve already established that Y-Cruncher favours AMD over Intel, but the latest and greatest proves itself as the fastest yet. There isn’t much skin in the game between the two Ryzen processors, as both compute complex mathematical equations shoulder-to-shoulder with the best.
Ryzen 9 9950X leaps ahead in single-core applications like Geekbench 6, offering over 12% more than its predecessor. It’s a much closer race in Geekbench 6’s multi-core stress test, with just 5.5% in it between the two. Just as with Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X, it’s an incremental generational nudge at best.
AMD has optimised all its Ryzen 9000 Series to accommodate artificial intelligence (AI), so it’s no surprise to see 9950X at the top. It’s by no small margin, either, as the new flagship boasts a 25.7% improvement, making short work of float32, float16, and int8 data types.
Rendering
Blender is a 3D rendering app that AMD’s top brass uses as a playground. Ryzen 9 9950X raises the bar with a relatively substantial jump over Intel, but the gap between generations is much smaller. Here, we see a noticeable 14% performance over its 3D-cache-clad forerunner, but does it beget the price?
As expected, Ryzen 9 9950X runs rings around its brethren in Cinebench 2024, but the lack of change in topology means it’s not by much. You can expect 13% more in single-core and 10.7% in multi-core applications.
The latest flagship is a media and productivity dream, leading the charge by 20% in Corona 10 and 15% in Adobe Photoshop. However, it tapers off a bit in Adobe Premiere Pro with a difference of just 5.6%.
Memory
Without a foundational overhaul, memory subsystems are practically the same. Architectural tweaks give the edge to the new chip, but you can’t expect more than a 1.5% increase in read and write speeds or a 2.4% reduction in latency.
Gaming
Every chip we paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 performed remarkably consistently in 3DMark Speed Way. Fundamentally, you won’t see a difference between either chip.
There isn’t more than two frames difference in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, putting the chips on par. Zen 5 performs a little more consistently with higher 1% lows, but it’s practically a spot-the-difference at this point.
Ryzen 9 7950X3D’s doubled L3 Cache is handy for Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing, giving the processor a distinct advantage. Running at 1080p will give you an 8% performance boost, but the gains diminish as you scale the resolution higher.
Generational improvements are non-existent in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. In fact, Ryzen 9 7950X3D sees a couple of extra frames across the board, proving 1440p is a sweet spot. You’ll even get better minimums with the older chip.
No need to rub your eyes; these aren’t the same picture, no matter how close both chips perform in Forza Motorsport. You won’t see any real-world difference with identical average frame rates, but Zen 5 is more consistent in its minimums.
Throwing a real-time strategy (RTS) into the mix is always good to put CPUs through their paces with a few units cluttering the screen. This is where Ryzen 9 9950X shines, with up to 7% more frames on average. It’s a short-lived victory, as higher resolutions swing in 7950X3D’s favour. If anything, this is a sign to wait for Ryzen 9000X3D.
Efficiency
No surprises here, considering the difference in TDP. Ryzen 9 7950X3D guzzles 26.7% less power under load, and it has a slightly lower idle. Given the CPU costs over £100 less outright and respects your electricity bills far more than Zen 5, it’s a no-brainer.
Despite the higher wattage, Ryzen 9 9950X runs supremely cool at 73.4°C, indicative of the wider 9000 Series. 7950X3D isn’t far behind at 76.7°C, though. No matter which way you go, you won’t end up with a space heater.
Value
Divide the Cinebench 2024 multi-core score by the system-wide power consumption and you end up with Club386’s CPU Efficiency Rating. Shock horror, asking for much less juice while keeping performance in line results in Ryzen 9 7950X3D taking the cake. It’s actually the most efficient chip we’ve tested in 2024.
Swap power for launch price, and the same equation turns into Club386’s CPU Value Rating. Ryzen 9 9950X triumphs here since it launches $50 cheaper than its predecessor. This doesn’t tell the full story, though, as its year-and-a-half-old predecessor has seen several discounts. Using its current $525 / £500 listings, Ryzen 9 7950X3D jumps to 3.97, overtaking the newer alternative.
Conclusion
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X puts up a strong showing in most categories but never enough to justify jumping from one generation to the next. Evidentially primed for the data centre space, mere nips and tucks here are there to please benchmarks but there’s nothing truly defining. Team Red heeds lessons from its previous attempts by bringing the price down slightly but this ignores over a year’s worth of market adjustments.
Ryzen 9 7950X3D offers a much better deal, costing you less to purchase and to run while moving in similar performance circles. There’s no competition in games, as it either matches the newer alternatives or exceeds what they’re capable of. Since it’s built on the same AM5 platform destined for support beyond 2027, you can easily start here and move onto whatever comes next without a hitch.
Although there is a clear winner in terms of value, I still recommend waiting another couple of months to see how things play out. AMD will eventually release Ryzen 9000X3D processors that should prove a better opponent, and Intel has Core Ultra Arrow Lake just around the corner. At the very least, these new arrivals will reduce prices even further, if nothing else.
Check out our AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs. Intel Core i9-14900K editorial to see if either rival heavyweight lands a telling punch. There’s also the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X vs. Intel Core i5-14600K showing you how the two little brothers compare.
AMD Ryzen 9
9950X
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
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