Ryzen 5 5500U vs Ryzen 9 3950X

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Aggregate performance score

Ryzen 9 3950X
2019
16 cores / 32 threads, 105 Watt
24.37
+198%
Ryzen 5 5500U
2021
6 cores / 12 threads, 15 Watt
8.19

Ryzen 9 3950X outperforms Ryzen 5 5500U by a whopping 198% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

Comparing Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking210929
Place by popularitynot in top-10019
Cost-effectiveness evaluation18.76no data
Market segmentDesktop processorLaptop
SeriesAMD Ryzen 9AMD Lucienne (Zen 2, Ryzen 5000)
Power efficiency21.9631.00
Architecture codenameMatisse (Zen 2) (2019−2020)Lucienne-U (Zen 2) (2021)
Release date11 June 2019 (5 years ago)12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$799no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

no data

Detailed specifications

Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores16 (Hexadeca-Core)6 (Hexa-Core)
Threads3212
Base clock speed3.5 GHz2.1 GHz
Boost clock speed4.7 GHz4 GHz
Multiplierno data21
L1 cache1 MB384 KB
L2 cache8 MB3 MB
L3 cache64 MB8 MB (shared)
Chip lithography7 nm, 12 nm7 nm
Die size2 x 72 mm + 125 mm (IO-Die) mm2156 mm2
Maximum core temperatureno data105 °C
Number of transistors19,200 million9,800 million
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility++
Unlocked multiplier+-

Compatibility

Information on Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration1 (Uniprocessor)1
SocketAM4FP6
Power consumption (TDP)105 Watt15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions86x MMX(+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A,-64, AMD-V, AES, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, SHA, Precision Boost 2MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4A, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, SMEP, SMAP, SMT, CPB, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHA, SME
AES-NI++
FMA-+
AVX++
Precision Boost 2+no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U are enumerated here.

AMD-V++

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR4 Dual-channelDDR4
Maximum memory size128 GB64 GB
Maximum memory bandwidth51.196 GB/sno data
ECC memory support+-

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card-AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 ( - 1800 MHz)

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U.

PCIe versionno data3.0
PCI Express lanesno data12

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Ryzen 9 3950X 24.37
+198%
Ryzen 5 5500U 8.19

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

Ryzen 9 3950X 38715
+198%
Ryzen 5 5500U 13010

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

Ryzen 9 3950X 1730
+34.4%
Ryzen 5 5500U 1287

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

Ryzen 9 3950X 10784
+138%
Ryzen 5 5500U 4528

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

Ryzen 9 3950X 6102
+14.9%
Ryzen 5 5500U 5313

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

Ryzen 9 3950X 53396
+94.6%
Ryzen 5 5500U 27437

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

Ryzen 9 3950X 4.11
+51.3%
Ryzen 5 5500U 6.22

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

Ryzen 9 3950X 44
+283%
Ryzen 5 5500U 11

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

Ryzen 9 3950X 4002
+221%
Ryzen 5 5500U 1247

Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.

Ryzen 9 3950X 209
+18.1%
Ryzen 5 5500U 177

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

Ryzen 9 3950X 2.37
+19.1%
Ryzen 5 5500U 1.99

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

Ryzen 9 3950X 10.8
+151%
Ryzen 5 5500U 4.3

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

Ryzen 9 3950X 7409
+87.8%
Ryzen 5 5500U 3945

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.  

Ryzen 9 3950X 168
+271%
Ryzen 5 5500U 45

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.  

Ryzen 9 3950X 265
+63.3%
Ryzen 5 5500U 162

Geekbench 5.5 Multi-Core

Ryzen 9 3950X 12363
+127%
Ryzen 5 5500U 5439

Blender(-)

Ryzen 9 3950X 126
Ryzen 5 5500U 417
+231%

Geekbench 5.5 Single-Core

Ryzen 9 3950X 1306
+17.9%
Ryzen 5 5500U 1108

7-Zip Single

Ryzen 9 3950X 5340
+23.5%
Ryzen 5 5500U 4324

7-Zip

Ryzen 9 3950X 99467
+195%
Ryzen 5 5500U 33768

WebXPRT 3

Ryzen 9 3950X 239
+16%
Ryzen 5 5500U 206

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 24.37 8.19
Recency 11 June 2019 12 January 2021
Physical cores 16 6
Threads 32 12
Power consumption (TDP) 105 Watt 15 Watt

Ryzen 9 3950X has a 197.6% higher aggregate performance score, and 166.7% more physical cores and 166.7% more threads.

Ryzen 5 5500U, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and 600% lower power consumption.

The Ryzen 9 3950X is our recommended choice as it beats the Ryzen 5 5500U in performance tests.

Note that Ryzen 9 3950X is a desktop processor while Ryzen 5 5500U is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions on choice between Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 5 5500U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
Ryzen 9 3950X
AMD Ryzen 5 5500U
Ryzen 5 5500U

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Community ratings

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