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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rocky12345 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
Great review thanks. I do have to nit pick though. You seem to be scolding AMD for the Zen 2 CPU's slightly going over the stated power limits. I found this a bit odd because of you look at Intel CPU's and how they sated their power limits. You will hardly ever see them coming even remotely close to the stated power limit because their CPU's under full load are pulling much more power than stated by Intel.Example the 9900K/9900KS have been seen pulling almost double the power as stated by Intel under stock conditions. Yes I understand AMD & Intel list their TDP power limits differently and on the Intel side those numbers mean very little unless you lock them at their base clocks without ever letting them go into turbo boost mode.
kc77 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
I noticed that as well. I'm noticing less and less TDP comparisons.ajlueke - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
" the motherboard choice (as well as the cooling it uses) will matter."AMD has really been pushing the idea that VRMs and cooling will affect Ryzen 3000 series performance (likely to sell X570 motherboards), but I haven't come across any actual supporting data.
In my experience, the Ryzen 3000 series winds up voltage bound by FIT, well below excessive temperature or PPT, TDC, EDC bounds. Such that any additional headroom, like from a custom loop or better VRMs accomplishes nothing.
Now, the statement I quoted above is pretty definitive that it does matter. So I imagine, there is data supporting it. Care to share?
rickderick7 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
I bought AMD Ryzen 9 3950X last week, and set it up on my CPU , but since then my printer stopped working. Is that something related to this device? I even tried setting up the printer again with the below steps in the link, but still no luck. I need my printer working as before.Could someone advice on this?
Thanks
Rick
rickderick7 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
I bought AMD Ryzen 9 3950X last week, and set it up on my CPU , but since then my printer stopped working. Is that something related to this device? I even tried setting up the printer again with the below steps in the link, but still no luck. I need my printer working as before.https://123hp-com-setup.us/123hp-oj5255-wireless-s...
Could someone advice on this?
Thanks
Rick
Drazick - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
It has nothing to do with the CPU be it Intel or AMD.Supercell99 - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
All these comments and I haven't read one useful one yet.Rudde - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
It appears that AMD's PPT power limit is 35% higher than their TDP.Drazick - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
It is about time we move to Quad (4) Memory Channels in consumer computers.csell - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
Or DDR5 RAM. I expect the DDR5 RAMs to arrive first.