AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Benchmark Review

[Music] welcome back to harvard unbox today we're taking our first look at the new ryzen 5000 series starting with a review of the flagship part the ryzen 9 5950x of course we also have the ryzen 950 900x the ryzen 75800x and the ryzen 5 5600x on hand and you'll see reviews of those parts over the next few days pretty similar to how we released our intel 10th gen core series content i also feel that these new amd processors are such a significant leap forward they each deserve their own dedicated review also deserving a quick shout out is the fact that harvard unboxed is now on float plane so that's an alternative to patreon for supporting the channel and getting access to some pretty cool stuff such as our live streams discord chat behind the scenes content and more we'll also be uploading our videos early to flight plan in high bit rate 4k so you're getting early access to much of our content over there so if you're interested the link for both floatplane and patreon are in the video description now back to the 5950x as you'd expect this is a 3950x replacement and as such it packs 16 cores with smt support meaning has 32 threads the msrp has been increased a bit from 750 us up to 800 us so it is quite an expensive cpu for the mainstream am4 platform amd is justifying the price hike with what they're claiming to be dramatically improved performance especially when it comes to gaming the highlights include boost clocks of up to 4.9 gigahertz and a 19 ipc improvement thanks to a new design that sees the core complexes expanded to 8 cores with a new 32 megabyte l3 cache topology and all of this has been achieved using the same old tsmc 7 nanometer process there are quite a number of architectural improvements here but rather than go over all of that i'm just going to jump right into what i suspect many of you are really here for the benchmarks so with that let's go over the test conditions and then we'll jump into all the glorious blue bar graphs for testing all amd cpus the msi x570 godlike has been used mostly because it was one of the four x570 motherboards to receive bios support from amd although prior to release other am4 motherboards have received zen 3 support amd was limiting reviewers to one of four models to help speed up any troubleshooting issues should a problem arise something that struck me during my testing and i found quite amazing is the fact that i was able to run zen zen plus zen 2 and zen 3 cpus all on the one motherboard although official first gen support isn't listed it does work on most x570 motherboards in the case of the x570 godlike i could slot in either a say a ryzen 5 1600 or the new ryzen 9 5950x they both worked perfectly and that means you can install four generations of cpus on a single motherboard that's pretty amazing stuff on the other hand for testing the intel processors of the same period you'd require three separate test systems anyway all amd and intel test systems were configured with four eight gigabyte g skill triton z ddr4 3200 cl 14 memory modules for a 32 gigabyte capacity then for cooling i'm using the corsair iq h150i elite capalx aio as most of these cpus don't come with the box cooler also on hand i have the brand new asus rog crosshair 8 dark hero which is a modified slash upgraded version of the original board though it is still suggested to be coming in at 400 us for the wi-fi 6 version so how does the dark hero differ from the original plain old hero i'm sure many of you will be happy to hear that the x570 chipset fan has been removed the cooler design though is actually surprisingly similar they appear to have just replaced the fan with more heatsink which is great but you have to wonder why this wasn't done in the first place the other major upgrade has been made to the vrm the 16 ir 35 55 60 amp power stages that make up the vrm have been swapped out for 16 90 amp ti power stages so a significant upgrade to the board's current capabilities asus has also tweaked the board's aesthetics by removing the shiny silver bits replacing them with matte black bits get it dark hero anyway this is a great looking high-end x570 motherboard that should easily match the vrm performance of the extreme 700 models such as msi's x570 godlike and hopefully soon i'll get a chance for some updated x570 virum thermal testing then finally please note for all the productivity testing we're using the geforce rtx 2080 ti but for all the gaming benchmarks i've gone back and updated all of our numbers with an rtx 3090 and i've also added some new games in the process this was a crap ton of work but i think for this release it was worth it so let's get into the graphs first up we have cinebench r20 and here we see that the 5950x is the first desktop cpu to be featured on a mainstream platform that breaks the 10 000 point barrier out of the box so that is quite incredible when compared to the 3950x we're looking at a 10 performance uplift which frankly is a very impressive generational improvement when compared to intel's best mainstream offering the core i9 10900k we're looking at about an almost 60 percent increase in performance though amd is also offering 60 more cores but the real showstopper here is that single core performance as here the 5950x is 20 faster than the 3950x and quite incredibly 17 percent faster than the 100k again intel's best mainstream desktop cpu this kind of single thread performance is no doubt going to bode well for gaming just before we move on here is a look at how the 5950x clocks in each of the center bench r20 tests for the multi-core test where all cores are heavily loaded the 5950x clocks to around 3.95 gigahertz so 4 gigahertz if you round up though we did see 4.2 gigahertz in blender as this figure is workload dependent amd advertises a base clock frequency of 3.4 gigahertz so in either test we are well above that amd also advertises a max boost clock frequency of 4.9 gigahertz and this should be achieved in single core or lightly threaded workloads again depending on load in the cinebench single core test the 5950x typically operated at 5 gigahertz or 5 050 megahertz to be exact so that's megahertz over the advertised spec amd obviously wanted to ensure that the max boost frequency was not only achieved but often exceeded to avoid the drama seen with zen 2 and its boost clocks the 5950x was just 8 percent faster than the 3950x in the seven zip compression test that's still a nice generational performance improvement though but keep in mind it also cost seven percent more so we're not really seeing an improvement in the price to performance ratio here the decompression margins are a little more impressive this time the 5950x is seen to be 14 faster than the 3950x and that metal is almost 80 percent faster than the 10900k so a mega performance uplift there and based on the current retail pricing the 5950x should only cost around 35 percent more the ryzen processors still largely dominate aes encryption performance and the scysoft sandra benchmark is one of the more balanced tests that said the zen 3 architecture offers a little more improvement over zen 2 here but even sorry the 5950x was 71 faster than the 10900k with blender we're seeing only a small improvement for the 5950x over the 3950x here it was just six percent faster still that meant it was almost 50 faster than the 100k making it the better value part interestingly we see a huge performance uplift in the v-ray benchmark here the 5950x is 20 faster than the 3950x and a massive 62 percent faster than the core i9 10 100k so this is exciting news for those using v-ray who don't want to dish out big dollars on a threadripper system the 5950x also offered big performance gains in corona beating the 3950x by a 20 margin and again that meant it was around 60 faster than the 10900k here's a look at code compilation performance and we're only seeing a very mild performance improvement for the 5950x as it was 7 faster than the 3950x though it was also 50 faster than the 10900k the davinci resolve studio 16 benchmark is more reliant on gpu performance though as you can see here the cpu still makes a difference but we're only seeing a four percent boost with the 5950x over the 3950x even so that meant the new ryzen processor was 19 faster than the 100k and that is quite a significant performance improvement the performance uplift in premiere pro is also fairly mild at least relative to the 3950x here we're looking at just a 5 performance improvement and that sees a 15 increase over the 100k which again is a reasonably decent margin unlike what we see with the video editing software photoshop is a program that relies predominantly on single thread performance and as a result the 5950x is able to offer strong performance gains over the 3950x here we're looking at an 18 performance boost and that meant it was 10 faster than the 100k so a pretty impressive result after effects is another application that relies heavily on single core performance and again we're seeing a strong performance advantage with the 5950x here it was 20 faster than the 3950x and 15 faster than the 100k now here's a quick look at power consumption and i've got to say it's extremely impressive what amd has managed to achieve here the 5950x uses the same seven nanometer processors the 3950x and yet amd's engineers were able to not only improve performance but also reduce power consumption at the same time for greatly improved efficiency so despite boosting performance by six percent we're also looking at a five percent reduction in power usage for the total system that's a pretty incredible result moreover we're looking at a 25 reduction in power usage when compared to intel's 10 core core i9 10 900 k okay time for the game benchmarks and again please note we're testing with an rtx 3090 starting with far cry new dawn at 1080p we find a 10 performance uplift for the 5950x over the 3950x not bad though that does still make the 5950x six percent slow in the 100k i'd say they're identical with the 2080 ti but this next-gen flagship gpu pushes performance back in intel's favor at least in this title moving on to tom clancy's rainbow six siege and here we find a seven percent performance improvement for the 5950x over the 3950x again not bad but not really amazing either and this meant the new 16 core amd processor was still six percent slower than the 10900k which will no doubt disappoint some amd fans watchdogs legion is the newest game added to our battery of gaming benchmarks and this one shows a 14 performance increase for the 5950x over its predecessor that made it just two percent slower than the 100k so here we're seeing performance that is certainly close enough to call a tie so that is great to see frame rate performance in f1 2020 is also extremely close between the 10900k and 5950x here amd again trailed by just a 2 margin allowing the rtx 3090 to pump out 272 fps it's also well worth noting that we're looking at a super impressive 21 performance uplift over the 3950x that is a truly incredible generational leap and these results are kind of a big deal in horizon zero dawn the 5950x edged out the 100k albeit by just a two percent margin perhaps more impressive though is the 14 increase over the 3950x that is a very nice gain indeed unfortunately we are only seeing a 5 performance boost in borderlands 3 for the 5950x over the 3950x but that's enough to place the new 16 core cpu within a stone's throw of the 10900k basically we're seeing it match the 10 600k in the end it was just four percent slower than the 10900k and generally anything within a five percent margin i deem close enough to call a draw well i got to say this one this one blew me away previously intel enjoyed a fairly reasonable performance advantage in death stranding as the 100k was almost 20 faster than the 3950x the 5950x though is a whopping 34 percent faster than the 3950x and that meant it was also 12 percent faster than the 100k that is a big win and it's pretty remarkable especially given we haven't seen the margins reversed to anywhere near that degree in intel's favor the 5950x also nudged ahead in shadow of the tomb raider and please note we're not using the built-in benchmark here the footage shown in the top left corner of the graph is where i'm testing this game so here the 5950x was just four percent fast in the 100k so basically the same performance but it was also a 24 improvement over the 3950x another game where i was completely blown away by the results this new ryzen processor was giving me was hitman 2. here we're looking at a 34 generational performance leap 34 this saw the 5950x push the rtx 3090 to 167 fps making it 10 faster than the 100k that is double digit gains over intel in a title where amd used to do quite poorly another game where the 5950x performs very well is star wars squadrons here it pushed the rtx 390 up to 312 fps on average and that placed it on par with the 100k though the 1 low performance was 9 stronger then when compared to the 3950x we're looking at a massive 26 percent performance increase i actually had to re-test sirius sam4 three times before i believed for the results i was getting here the 5950x was 13 percent faster than the 100k and an insane 48 faster than the 3950x that's one hell of a performance leap from one generation to the next pretty crazy amd went from heavily lagging behind intel to leaving them well behind and rounding out the game benchmarks here's a look at the performance across the 11 game sample and as you can see the 5950x and 10900k are identical in terms of performance this also means on average the 5950x was 19 faster than the 3950x and as i've said a number of times now that is a huge generational performance leap and it goes well beyond anything we've seen in the last decade now let's look at the overclocking performance i was able to hit an all-core frequency of 4.7 gigahertz with my 5950x using 1.375 volts and based on what i'm hearing from other reviewers this sounds like a fairly typical overclock now this booster performance in cinebench r20 by 20 so that is a very substantial performance increase in a core heavy workload however as expected it's not ideal for single core workloads as here the 5950x stock clocked as high as 5 gigahertz so we have reduced the peak operating frequency by six percent and this resulted in the single core performance dropping by five percent but again in core heavy workloads like what we see here in blender the increased all core frequency is of great benefit here we're seeing an 18 performance increase which again is quite remarkable of course the downside to overclocking is increased power usage and therefore thermal output the 4.7 gigahertz all-core overclock increased the total system usage by 40 percent as the 5950x was now sucking down around 140 watts more still when compared to the stock 100k it doesn't look all that bad as it was 74 faster unfortunately my overclock wasn't particularly useful in games as here we're losing a bit of performance it was only four percent slower but that's not ideal for those overclocking for maximum game performance having said that though oddly enough performance in far cry new dawn is slightly improved we're only talking about a few extra frames here but given what was seen in rainbow six siege i wasn't expecting to see this kind of result now just quickly here's a look at temperatures and the operating behavior of the ryzen 9 3950x and 5950x both have been tested in a 21 degree room using the corsair iq h150i elite catalytics aio on the msi x570 godlike installed inside the corsair obsidian 500d atx case here we're seeing that the 5950x actually ran 67 degrees cooler than the 3950x under the same test conditions despite running at slightly higher clock speeds using the same seven nanometer process part of this will be down to the seven nanometer process maturing but amd is also claiming some architectural optimization as well these enhancements also allow for slightly lower vehicle which again will have helped to reduce the power consumption and therefore the thermals now just lastly here's a look at price to performance of just the processors the 5950x should land at 800 u.s and that means upon release it will cost 70 u.s more than the 3950x and here we're seeing that in terms of price versus performance that puts both cpus on par and both are better value than the 100k but slightly worse than the other lower core count intel parts such as the 10600k and 10700k but of course when talking about core heavy productivity tasks they are in a completely different league here we're seeing that despite the strong single core performance the 5950x works out being a little more expensive than the 3950x and 10900k in photoshop though that's probably not too much of an issue for this high performance cpu as the times money mentality is generally applied here as expected the 5950x is a pretty weak value proposition when it comes to gaming as typically speaking games don't come anywhere close to utilizing even half of the 5950x that said at a 70 us premium it is better value for gaming than the 3950x even if we look at the average performance seen across the 11 game sample and use that data for a price to performance comparison we see that while the 5950x beats the 1350x it's worse value than everything else still as i've said that's not surprising given that games can't come close to taking full advantage of a 16 core 32 thread processor amd really did put intel in a tough spot this time last year when they released the ryzen 9 3150 x it easily beat the core i9 at 1900k and core heavy workloads thanks to the fact that it packs twice as many cores and when it came to low resolution maximum fps type gaming with something like an rtx 2080 ti there often wasn't that much in it though at times the intel cpu was up to 20 faster which is a significant margin and therefore we recommended the 9900k for those seeking maximum gaming performance with very little interest in productivity performance and the 3950x really saw intel suffer on two fronts not only did the 16 core processor take the mainstream desktop performance crayon but it also eliminated intel's cascade lakex agdt platform though not single handily i might add the second and third gen threadripper processors were the final nail in that coffin point is the 3050x was kind of a big deal and exceeded all of our expectations at the time now we're just a year on and we have an even better processor a much more well-rounded processor that family takes the performance crown away from intel sure intel still edged ahead in a few games but overall performance leveled out across the 11 game sample and we saw some pretty strong winds for the 5950x and titles such as death stranding sirius m4 and even hitman 2. of course if you are mostly interested in gaming performance the ryzen 9 5950x really is overkill you'll be getting a similar level of performance with the cheaper 5900x and even the 5800x man in most games probably even the 5600x won't be far behind and that's actually another really exciting part that i can't wait to show you the performance of and of course you will see our dedicated review soon point is spending 800 us on a 5950x just for gaming is a bit pointless it's not pointless it's just you're not getting the most bang for your buck that's for sure but also going with a call heavy processor no longer hampers performance either so it is a viable option for gamers with deep pockets of course where this new 16 core processor really shines is for those who want to work and play and right now there is no better option for tackling both of those tasks as for the 800 price while it is disappointing to see amd increase the cost of their flagship am4 part by 50 i also feel as though there's more than enough on offer here to justify the 7 price hike we do believe that we're at the end of the road for the am4 platform so the 5950x investment loses a bit of its potential value there as the upgrade path is effectively dead but if you want the best processor for under a thousand dollars us this is quite plainly it now for those of you already rocking a ryzen 9 3950x the 5950x really isn't worth the upgrade and chances are if you're gaming with a high-end gpu you're doing so at a high resolution where you'll almost always be entirely gpu bound for example at 1440p there will be very little difference between the 3950x and 5950x with an rtx 3090 and i expect to see no difference at 4k then when it comes to productivity performance the gains really don't justify the investment on the other hand if you're coming from a second gen ryzen processor the upgrade for both gaming and productivity will be huge and if you're after seriously strong productivity performance then the 5950x will be a great option as long as you're ready to part with 800 us on that note it will be very interesting to see what happens with pricing for the 3950x over the next few months if it does drop off a bit then it could become a really great value option so keep an eye on that if you are upgrading from a first or second gen processor you'd expect the 3950x to retain its value if the 5950x availability is weak but i'm hearing that that is not the case with strong supply for these new ryzen 5000 series processors so fingers crossed that that is the case anyway it's great to see amd take yet another big step forward with their zen architecture and with this one they can now finally claim to be industry leaders i'm looking very forward to checking out the rest of the product stack we have all the processes on hand as i said earlier in the video and tomorrow you will be getting another ryzen review at the normal time slot so that is going to do it for this one again if you'd like to join us over on patreon or float plane the links for both of those are in the video description the new float plan account now gives you access to our content when it's ready basically we're just going to upload videos and release them there when they are ready rather than schedule them as we do on youtube because with floatplane we don't have to worry about the algorithm and any of that kind of stuff so when it's ready you can watch it so a bit of a nice bonus for those over on floatplane but either floatplane or patreon will give you access to our monthly live streams exclusive discord chat behind the scenes content and more anyway if you don't want to do that that is perfectly fine and as usual i would like to just thank you for watching this video right till the end i'm your host steve and i'll see you again next time [Music] you

Channel: Hardware Unboxed

Views: 220,783

Keywords: hardware unboxed

Id: zsfvRw74h30

Length: 23min 37sec (1417 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2020