AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs Ryzen 9 3950X

Buy
VS
Buy
Price now 575$
Games supported 100%
Ryzen 9 3950X
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
Buy
  • Interface
  • Core clock speed
  • Max video memory
  • Memory type
  • Memory clock speed
  • Maximum resolution
Ryzen 9 5900X
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Buy
  • Interface
  • Core clock speed
  • Max video memory
  • Memory type
  • Memory clock speed
  • Maximum resolution
Price now 447$
Games supported 100%

General info

Comparing Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in performance ranking111109
Value for money35.5350.00
Market segmentDesktop processorDesktop processor
SeriesAMD Ryzen 9AMD Ryzen 9
Architecture codenameMatisse (Zen 2) (2019−2020)Vermeer (Zen3) (2020)
Release date14 November 2019 (3 years old)8 October 2020 (2 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$799$549
Current price$575 (0.7x MSRP)$447 (0.8x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance per price, higher is better.

Technical specs

Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X 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)12 (Dodeca-Core)
Threads3224
Base clock speed3.5 GHz3.7 GHz
Boost clock speed4.7 GHz4.8 GHz
L1 cache96K (per core)64K (per core)
L2 cache512K (per core)512K (per core)
L3 cache64 MB64 MB
Chip lithography7 nm7 nm
Die size2 x 72 mm + 125 mm (IO-Die) mm22x 80.7 + 125 (I/O) mm2
Maximum case temperature (TCase)no data95 °C
Number of transistors19,200 millionno data
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility++
Unlocked multiplier++

Compatibility

Information on Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X 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
SocketAM4AM4
Power consumption (TDP)105 Watt105 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X. 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 286x MMX(+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A,-64, AMD-V, AES, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, SHA, Precision Boost 2
AES-NI++
AVX++

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X are enumerated here.

AMD-V++

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X. Depending on the motherboards, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR4 Dual-channelDDR4-3200
Maximum memory size128 GB128 GB
Max memory channelsno data2
Maximum memory bandwidth51.196 GB/s51.196 GB/s
ECC memory support+-

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card--

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X.

PCIe versionno data4.0

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 30.92
Ryzen 9 5900X 31.19
+0.9%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 1% in our combined benchmark results.


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.

Benchmark coverage: 68%

Ryzen 9 3950X 38971
Ryzen 9 5900X 39313
+0.9%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 1% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 37%

Ryzen 9 3950X 1673
Ryzen 9 5900X 2143
+28.1%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 28% in GeekBench 5 Single-Core.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 37%

Ryzen 9 3950X 10575
Ryzen 9 5900X 11744
+11.1%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 11% in GeekBench 5 Multi-Core.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 20%

Ryzen 9 3950X 6102
Ryzen 9 5900X 6828
+11.9%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 12% in Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 19%

Ryzen 9 3950X 53396
+2.5%
Ryzen 9 5900X 52076

Ryzen 9 3950X outperforms Ryzen 9 5900X by 3% in Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

Ryzen 9 3950X 44
+4.5%
Ryzen 9 5900X 42

Ryzen 9 3950X outperforms Ryzen 9 5900X by 5% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core.

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

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

Benchmark coverage: 14%

Ryzen 9 3950X 4002
+48.5%
Ryzen 9 5900X 2695

Ryzen 9 3950X outperforms Ryzen 9 5900X by 48% in Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

Ryzen 9 3950X 209
Ryzen 9 5900X 250
+19.6%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 20% in Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

Ryzen 9 3950X 2.4
Ryzen 9 5900X 3.1
+32.5%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 32% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

Ryzen 9 3950X 10.8
Ryzen 9 5900X 21.2
+96.3%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 96% in TrueCrypt AES.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 12%

Ryzen 9 3950X 7409
Ryzen 9 5900X 13361
+80.3%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 80% in WinRAR 4.0.

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.  

Benchmark coverage: 12%

Ryzen 9 3950X 168
Ryzen 9 5900X 191
+13.7%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 14% in x264 encoding pass 2.

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.  

Benchmark coverage: 12%

Ryzen 9 3950X 265
Ryzen 9 5900X 335
+26.4%

Ryzen 9 5900X outperforms Ryzen 9 3950X by 26% in x264 encoding pass 1.

Gaming performance

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 30.92 31.19
Recency 14 November 2019 8 October 2020
Cost $799 $549
Boost clock speed 4700 4800
Base clock speed 3500 3700

We couldn't decide between Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X. The differences in performance seem too small.


Should you still have questions on choice between Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 5900X, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Cast your own vote

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite CPU.


AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
Ryzen 9 3950X
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Ryzen 9 5900X

Similar processor comparisons

We picked several similar comparisons of processors in the same market segment and performance relatively close to those reviewed on this page.

User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see how users rate the processors, as well as rate them yourself.


4.5 595 votes

Rate AMD Ryzen 9 3950X on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.5 1840 votes

Rate AMD Ryzen 9 5900X on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions and comments

Here you can ask a question about Ryzen 9 3950X or Ryzen 9 5900X, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.