The AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Deep Dive Review: 3700X and 3900X Raising The Bar
by Andrei Frumusanu & Gavin Bonshor on July 7, 2019 9:00 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible.
It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |||||
| AMD 3000*1 | R9 3900X R7 3700X |
MSI MEG X570 Ace |
7C35v12 7C35v11*2 |
Wraith Prism | G.Skill TridentZ 4x8 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 16-16-16-36 |
| AMD 2000 | R7 2700X R5 2600X R5 2500X |
ASRock X370 Gaming K4 |
P4.80 | Wraith Max* | G.Skill SniperX 2x8 GB DDR4-2933 |
| AMD 1000 | R7 1800X | ASRock X370 Gaming K4 |
P4.80 | Wraith Max* | G.Skill SniperX 2x8 GB DDR4-2666 |
| AMD TR4 | TR 1920X | ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
0078 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
G.Skill FlareX 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| Intel 9th Gen | i9-9900K i7-9700K i5-9600K |
ASRock Z370 Gaming i7** |
P1.70 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| Intel 8th Gen | i7-8086K i7-8700K i5-8600K |
ASRock Z370 Gaming i7 |
P1.70 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| Intel 7th Gen | i7-7700K i5-7600K |
GIGABYTE X170 ECC Extreme |
F21e | Silverstone AR10-115XS |
G.Skill RipjawsV 2x16GB DDR4-2400 |
| Intel 6th Gen | i7-6700K i5-6600K |
GIGABYTE X170 ECC Extreme |
F21e | Silverstone AR10-115XS |
G.Skill RipjawsV 2x16GB DDR4-2133 |
| Intel HEDT | i9-7900X i7-7820X i7-7800X |
ASRock X299 OC Formula |
P1.40 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
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| PSU | Corsair AX860i Corsair AX1200i |
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| SSD | Crucial MX200 1TB **Crucial MX300 1TB |
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| OS | Windows 10 x64 RS3 1709 Spectre and Meltdown Patched **Windows 10 x64 1903 Spectre and Meltdown Patched |
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| *1 Ryzen 3000 series has been tested in a different environment. *2 Initial Review BIOS - Graphs results are marked with ** |
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We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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 |
 |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
 |
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Security Mitigrations
The systems have applied the latest Spectre and Meltdown mitigation patches where applicable. Meanwhile we should note that while the ZombieLoad exploit was announced earlier this year as well, the patches for that have not been released yet. We'll be looking at those later on once they hit.
Article Testing Methodology Update (July 8th):
We ran our original review numbers with the latest available firmware for the MSI MEG X570 ACE motherboard last week (Version 7C35v11). On Saturday the 6th MSI had shared with us a notice about a new version coming out, which became available to download to us on Sunday the 7th, the launch day and date of publication of the review.
We’ve had more time to investigate the new firmware, and have discovered extremely large changes in the behaviour of the frequency boosting algorithm. The new firmware (Version 7C35v12) for the motherboard contains AMD’s new ComboPI1.0.0.3.a (AGESA) firmware.
We discovered the following direct measurable effects between the two firmware versions:
(Note: This is a custom test that uses a fine-grained looping timed fixed instruction chain to derive frequency; it showcases single-core frequency)
We notice a significant change in the CPU’s boosting behaviour, now boosting to higher frequencies, and particularly at a faster rate from idle, more correctly matching AMD’s described intended boost behaviour and latency.
We’re currently in the process of re-running all our suite numbers and updating the article where necessary to reflect the new frequency behaviour.
Article Testing Methodology Update (July 9th):
We've updated the article benchmark numbers on the Ryzen 9 3900X. We've seen 3-9% improvements in exclusive ST workloads. MT workloads have remained unchanged, Gaming had both benefits and negatives. We continue to work on getting updated 3700X numbers and filling out the missing pieces.
Original BIOS results are as of first publication are marked with ** in the graphs.
Article Testing Methodology Update (July 10th):
We've also updated our Ryzen 7 3700X results now. Ultimately our conclusions haven't changed, but AMD does narrow the gap a bit more. For a full summary of our findings, please check out this article.
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beginning - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
I noticed that at the E3 2019 tech day, AMD recommended DDR4-3600 CL16 RAM. I see that 3200 MHz RAM has been used in the AMD testbench. I read the description about avoiding overclocking but 3600 MHz RAMs come with a factory clock of 3600 MHz, right? I know I am missing something. What am I missing?sknaumov - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Do you plan to make some tests of these CPUs on older, cheaper and colder motherboards? It would be very interesting to see results of b450 chipset and whether it is possible to use DDR4-3600MHz with tight timings on these older boards. Or at least provide more info about what has more priority for memory speed and timings on AMD platform - CPU or chipset.viperswhip - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
I am going to wait to build a PC for a bit, however, I am super excited by this launch and disappointed by the video card launch. I expect to have an AMD chip since Intel has no answer for this, and we shall see on the video cards, but if I was building today I'd probably get a 2070 RTX super.PProchnow - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
Here's is Jus' a good ol' boy trying out. No OC off stock Multi but 3333Mhz RAM#1
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13863634
Rather a new rig and it is X470 up to the A.A BIOS and it is MSI Gaming Plus.
OK link #2 is here and I stroked the DDR$ up top 3333Mhz. I also stroked the fan
to stay sub 70C. Wild OCs will take water at least "in The Home" versus LiqN2 Lab.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13865361
BTW where is the Bragging Thread? My MOBO is the MSI X470 Gaming Plus BIOS A.A makes Ryzen 9 go BTW.
I have yet to up the MULTI in case you want to know. I wonder what good Ocers will get with the right stuff.
Single-Core Performance
Memory Score 6431
Floating Point Score 5409
Integer Score 5190
Crypto Score 6888
Single-Core Score 5589
You underst and that RAM set at 1672 is 1/2 the common referred to speed. 3344Mhz is the common nomenclature.
***Single-Core Score ***Multi-Core Score
5589 47755
Geekbench 4.3.4 Tryout for Windows x86 (64-bit)
Result Information
Upload Date July 12 2019 08:16 PM
Views 2
System Information
System Information
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Model Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7B79
Motherboard Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. X470 GAMING PLUS (MS-7B79)
Memory 32768 MB DDR4 SDRAM 1672MHz
Northbridge AMD Ryzen SOC 00
Southbridge AMD X470 51
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. A.A0
Processor Information
Name AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Topology 1 Processor, 12 Cores, 24 Threads
Identifier AuthenticAMD Family 23 Model 113 Stepping 0
Base Frequency 3.80 GHz
Maximum Frequency 4.53 GHz
Maxiking - Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - link
Why would anyone brag about something ifYou can't reach 5.0ghz +
You can't reach even the boost frequency on a single core
You can't beat consistently competitor's older 14nm cpu architecture which has been on the market since 2016...
You can't beat RAM OC'ing records either because over 3733mhz IF gets actually downlocked and due tu that, "faster" ram performs worse unless you OC 7400mhz, which is not possible even with liquid nitrogen.
PProchnow - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
These are my scores with my Ryzen 9 3900X.#1
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13863634
Rather a new rig and it is X470 up to the A.A BIOS and it is MSI Gaming Plus.
OK link #2 is here and I stroked the DDR$ up top 3333Mhz. I also stroked the fan
to stay sub 70C. Wild OCs will take water at least "in The Home" versus LiqN2 Lab.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13865361
BTW where is the Bragging Thread? My MOBO is the MSI X470 Gaming Plus BIOS A.A makes Ryzen 9 go BTW.
I have yet to up the MULTI in case you want to know. I wonder what good Ocers will get with the right stuff.
Single-Core Performance
Memory Score 6431
Floating Point Score 5409
Integer Score 5190
Crypto Score 6888
Single-Core Score 5589
You underst and that RAM set at 1672 is 1/2 the common referred to speed. 3344Mhz is the common nomenclature.
***Single-Core Score ***Multi-Core Score
5589 47755
Geekbench 4.3.4 Tryout for Windows x86 (64-bit)
Result Information
Upload Date July 12 2019 08:16 PM
Views 2
System Information
System Information
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Model Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7B79
Motherboard Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. X470 GAMING PLUS (MS-7B79)
Memory 32768 MB DDR4 SDRAM 1672MHz
Northbridge AMD Ryzen SOC 00
Southbridge AMD X470 51
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. A.A0
Processor Information
Name AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Topology 1 Processor, 12 Cores, 24 Threads
Identifier AuthenticAMD Family 23 Model 113 Stepping 0
Base Frequency 3.80 GHz
Maximum Frequency 4.53 GHz
Now you can cross ref with others.
Meteor2 - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Nice!willis936 - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
The editor's choice awards are a bit strange to me. Zen 1 didn't receive one even though it was the largest CPU performance increase from a company this century. The i7-4950HQ received an editor's choice silver award even though it had little importance to the industry. And the 3700X, which offers comparable SP performance to competing intel products at a huge discount and smaller power budget gets the same editor's choice level as the i7-4950HQ?willis936 - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
I know it was a different editor at the time, but the selective excitement is a bit of a bummer. eDRAM was exciting to see at the time and then nothing ever came of it. The enthusiasm of chiplets under the new editor comes through much less. That too is fine. However if the rating system is what it is then I don't think it's much to argue that chiplets are much more disruptive than eDRAM and is already making much larger waves.Maxiking - Monday, July 22, 2019 - link
AMD fraund getting finally the attention it deserveshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x03FyPQ3a3E
check at 05m25s