The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Review: AMD's Fastest Gaming Processor
by Gavin Bonshor on February 27, 2023 9:00 AM ESTCPU Benchmark Performance: Rendering And Encoding
Rendering tests, compared to others, are often a little more simple to digest and automate. All the tests put out some sort of score or time, usually in an obtainable way that makes it fairly easy to extract. These tests are some of the most strenuous in our list, due to the highly threaded nature of rendering and ray-tracing, and can draw a lot of power.
If a system is not properly configured to deal with the thermal requirements of the processor, the rendering benchmarks are where it would show most easily as the frequency drops over a sustained period of time. Most benchmarks in this case are re-run several times, and the key to this is having an appropriate idle/wait time between benchmarks to allow for temperatures to normalize from the last test.
One of the interesting elements of modern processors is encoding performance. This covers two main areas: encryption/decryption for secure data transfer, and video transcoding from one video format to another.
In the encrypt/decrypt scenario, how data is transferred and by what mechanism is pertinent to on-the-fly encryption of sensitive data - a process by which more modern devices are leaning to for software security.
We are using DDR5 memory on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and the other Ryzen 7000 series we've tested. This also includes Intel's 13th and 12th Gen processors. We tested the aforementioned platforms with the following settings:
- DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 13th Gen
- DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
- DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen
All other CPUs such as Ryzen 5000 and 3000 were tested at the relevant JEDEC settings as per the processor's individual memory support with DDR4.
Rendering
When it comes to rendering, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D doesn't quite hit the compute performance of the Ryzen 9 7950X, but it isn't too far off, given the discrepancies in power usage. It shows that the 7950X3D is more than capable of rendering workloads in an effective manner.
Encoding
Our encoding section of the test suite is similar to other sections, where the 7950X is the faster and more power-hungry chip, which does output more performance. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D does however put in a respectable performance.
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mikato - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
I noticed that Ryzen 3000 is mentioned several times, but not included in any of the charts. It would've been nice to see one of those in there.kayak - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
I'll wait benchmark with the cache preference in the bios. I'm not fan of these additional layers like microsoft game bar, some people disable it and it looks like it doesnt help for factorio anyway. If bios settings set to cache preference can fix most of problems i'm fine, not everyone use windows.iRacer - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
Your V-Ray bnenchmark scores are all over the place.A current 7950X scores on average 29k vsamples.
How are you getting these values, and how can the reader know the method is proper, given you're sitting on double the real values?
iRacer - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
Gavin, once again: your V-Ray benchmark score do *not* reflect what can be seen here (https://benchmark.chaos.com/v5/vray?search=7950x&a... by TWICE the amounts.How are you reaching these values?
Do i have to ask you officially via email, or can you reply directly?
I am *clearly* an intersted party under anonymity.
If you read and delete the comment, you are well able to reply instead.
iRacer - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
nevermind, nothing was deleted, but the "link" above the post doesn't work and leads to a 404.iRacer - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
*if used right after posting.Gavin Bonshor - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - link
Hi iRacer. I'm certainly not ignoring you.I'm pretty sure I replied to a similar comment in another review.
You are more than welcome to reach out to me via email for a discussion, but we are using V-Ray version 4.10.06
As per our 5950X review/testing as per Dr. Ian Cuttress here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16214/amd-zen-3-ryz...
This correlates with the result/data I have in my testing in this review. You also can't compare results between different versions of the benchmark.
I'll run the latest version when I get a moment tomorrow and let you know. In the mean-time, feel free to email me if you wish to continue the discussion there. It's easier to keep track of via email than it is to trawl through comments.
Thanks!
P.S.: The only time I'll delete a comment I've seen is if it's spam.
mikato - Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - link
"the Ryzne 9 7950X3D doesn't quite hit"Also, this single-sentence paragraph (below) appears on both page 4 and 5. Maybe it doesn't belong on page 4.
"In the encrypt/decrypt scenario, how data is transferred and by what mechanism is pertinent to on-the-fly encryption of sensitive data - a process by which more modern devices are leaning to for software security."
Thank you for your great coverage.
Ket_MANIAC - Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - link
AMD's core efficiency is out of this world. The 16 core 7950X3D performs at the same power level as the 6 core 7600X. This is unheard of and unimaginable!Silver5urfer - Wednesday, March 1, 2023 - link
Late to commment, but I already mentioned.3D V has it's limitations. AMD cannot improve this on Gen 2 with any Clock boost or such. It has same downsides, the Base clock reduction and Max Clock reduction. And the Unlocked Multiplier lock.
This processor is only for those "Gamers" And it does not make sense on the 7950X3D at all. A loss of TDP power window, loss in every thing that scales with Cores + Clocks.
Also Ryzen 7000 / Zen 4 is ultra optimized by default, it has super low voltage. 1.2v max at such high insane 5.x GHz clock rate vs Zen 3. TSMC 5N is a massive gain and also Zen 4 optimization. Now the X3D runs at high voltage. This is opposite of Zen 3 X3D, as 5800X3D ran at 1.3v binned and stock was 1.4v. Now roles are flipped. Meaning Zen 4 is at it's maximum potential.
Ultimately the choice for any PC DIYer is to get Zen 4 over RPL because Intel LGA1700 socket is an engineering failure. You should not resort to modding with Contact Frame on a $700 Mobo. Period. Zen 4 has a limit on PCH Chipset speed, the X670 apart from that, no downsides. I'd pick 7950X over any Zen 4 processor for a Zen 5 upgrade. RPL Refresh is not going to change socket ofc and not gonna do massive changes either, at best DLVR, optimization on TDP and optimization to Base and Boost Clockspeed. Intel 7 is also at it's max, plus it's an EOL design. Look at ADL vs RPL literally they gave E cores garbage and added Cache to have "Marginal" boost in games. and E cores to accelerate MT workloads. Pathetic. And now RPL refresh literally another BS Single digit gain. Look at Zen 3 vs Zen 4. Ultimate lead.
That said, I'm only looking for 7800X3D because it has higher TDP and almost same Clock Rate. Still capped Multiplier, anyways AMD processors are not good for tinkerers that much since you cannot control Clock rate and cannot have fixed Clocks either. At best Curve Optimization and DRAM tuning. So if you are into that stick with Intel.