The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Review: 16 Cores on 7nm with PCIe 4.0
by Dr. Ian Cutress on November 14, 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 Ryzen 3000 | AMD Ryzen 9 3950X AMD Ryzen 9 3900X |
| Motherboard | ASRock X570 Taichi 2.50 (AGESA 1004B) |
| CPU Cooler | Kraken X62 |
| DRAM | Corsair Vengeance RGB 4x8 GB DDR4-3200 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
| PSU | Corsair AX860i |
| SSD | Crucial MX500 2TB |
| OS | Windows 10 1909 |
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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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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rret - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
we have nearly 400 million dollars - you give us gold award and then we release the money to you. my lawyer will call you...either that or my attorney general. stay close to phone!Kishoreshack - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
That's a good thingI hope we scrap out gold awards in all together
Only recommended is what matters
soo we know all Anandtech recommendations carry same weight
Hope to see you implement this
Oliseo - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
No brown envelope at the usual deadrop.Irata - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Just curious: Were the Intel systems fully patched, including the new JCC Microcode update ?ydeer - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Excellent question.Ian Cutress - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Did I run 30hr+ of tests on each of those Intel processors with a patch from an announcement 24 hours prior? No, of course not.Irata - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
I did not expect this to be honest. Must not be fun testing with the different security related updates from Intel or Bios patches from AMD that come out regularly.Might be worth adding a mention to the review since the JCC and Zombieload 2 updates can have a performance impact (as per Phoronix).
Irata - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Oh, and not to be rude - thank you very much for this through review Ian.Flying Aardvark - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
Can you at notate that in the review in large bold print, and that it's likely to affect performance, possibly dramatically for the Intel CPUs?lukx - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
what where the temperatures? can you use air cooling?