AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core 32-Thread REVIEW
Through no fault of their own, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 processors are entering a hostile environment. These computer chips, in light of AMD’s new Harmony 4 engineering, gloat clock speeds over 5GHz, force to be reckoned with multithreaded execution, and preferable power proficiency over the opposition.
The beginning of the AM5 era is also marked by the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X as well as the other launch chips (Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X). This new motherboard attachment stage empowers quicker speeds in all cases, not only for the actual processors. PC builds with RAM, storage, and discrete graphics cards that will scream now and in the future are now possible thanks to support for DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.
Naturally, Intel does not want you to be aware of AMD’s advancements. Team Blue revealed some intriguing details about its upcoming Raptor Lake processors shortly before the Ryzen 7000 was released, including clock speeds of up to 6 GHz and a chip with 24 cores and 32 threads.
However, AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X, which is the fastest CPU ever made and both answers and raises questions about the future of desktop PCs, deserves your full attention. Our roundup of six essential things to know about AMD’s Ryzen 7000 is a good place to start if you’re looking for a more concise summary. We’ve included comprehensive benchmarks and analysis below.
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What are Zen 4 and Ryzen 7000?
In our initial report following AMD’s announcement, you can learn more about Ryzen 7000, but the most important information is that these chips represent several firsts for AMD: the first to use Zen 4 architecture, the first to be made on 5nm, the first to have integrated graphics, and the first to be made for the brand-new AM5 socket that the company has developed.
Additionally, they are the company’s first move toward LGA desktop processors, which shift the CPU’s pins to the socket. Ryzen 7000 processors can receive more power through an LGA socket, resulting in chips with improved performance. Additionally, if a motherboard socket pin is bent or broken, the repair will be more stressful. On the other hand, the move means that smugglers who attach CPUs to their bodies now have AMD as a reliable option as Intel.)
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higher TDP ratings
As would be expected, Ryzen 7000 processors consume more electricity, which results in higher TDP ratings—or expected wattage drawn when loaded. However, the maximum wattage drawn and the default TDP should not be confused. For instance, the top two Ryzen 7000 processors have a rating of 170W, but their sockets can provide them with as much as 230W. Team Blue has even changed its naming system to reflect the fact that Intel’s chips operate in a similar manner. TDP is currently alluded to as “Processor Base Power,” and a “Most extreme Super Power” is likewise now recorded as a component of processor specs. That amounts to 125W and a peak of 241W, respectively, for the Intel Core i9-12900K, which is the primary competitor of the Ryzen 9 7950X.
As you’ll see in the benchmarks, this flexibility results in significant performance enhancements when the system requires them. Despite having a lower power consumption than Intel and Ryzen 5000 in some key areas, the final result is a substantial improvement over the previous generation of Ryzen chips. In point of fact, the system’s power efficiency is so high that you can manually restrict power usage to Ryzen 7000 CPUs with little effect on performance.
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How we tested
We set up three different test systems to compare our Ryzen 9 7950X sample to its main Intel competitor, the Core i9-12900K, and to the Ryzen 9 5950X, which has since been replaced. CPU specs: These are the specifications for the three flagship CPUs that were benchmarked for this review.
Due to the availability of equipment, the motherboards and memory manufacturers of each benchmark PC were distinct for obvious compatibility reasons. The memory speeds of the two DDR5 systems (7950X and 12900K) were set to 6,000 MT/s for an even comparison. AMD recommends this speed as the current ideal for memory overclocking. In order to maintain uniformity, the CPU cooler, storage, graphics card, power supply, and operating system were all identical on each machine.
Machine 1 (AMD)
Central processor: Motherboard: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: X670E Aorus Master from Gigabyte (bios version 813b)
RAM: G.Skill Spear Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 (Exhibition 1 profile)
Machine 2 (Intel)
Computer processor: Motherboard: Intel Core i9-12900K: ROG Maximus Z690 Hero from Asus (bios version 1720)
RAM: Machine 3 (AMD) G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 (XMP 1 profile) CPU: Motherboard: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: (bios version) MSI MEG X570 1.10)
RAM: All-System CPU Cooler: Corsair Dominator DDR4-3600 (AMP2 profile) Corsair H150i (2,000RPM manual fan speed; SSD: Extreme” pump speed of [2600] GPU: SK Hynix Gold P31, 2 TB, 2000GM Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Organizers Release (driver ver. 516.94)
PSU: Corsair HX1000 1000W 80+ Platinum
Operating system:
Intel Thermal Velocity Boost, Intel Multi-Core Enhancement, AMD Core Boost Performance, and AMD Precision Boost Overdrive were left on autopilot in Windows 11 Home 21H2 (22000.878). To replicate the typical user experience, this default setting was kept so that the system could control speeds and power draw to get the most out of the chips. Resizable bar (otherwise known as AMD’s Shrewd Access Memory) was additionally flipped on, while encryption in Windows 11 was switched off.
We also looked at the data that was graciously provided by our colleague Sebastian Schenzinger of PC Welt, who tested the Ryzen 9 7900X and Ryzen 5 7600X. Although our focus will remain on the 7950X, his test results provide a glimpse into the larger context (and impact) of the Ryzen 7000 launch. This was done due to time constraints and sample availability.
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Performance
You can safely assume that the best performance the company has to offer at launch when you spend $699 on a flagship processor. AMD doesn’t let customers down here — when it wins large against the Intel Center i9-12900K, the Ryzen 9 7950X is proud in regards to how much better it is.
But let’s be clear: During the battle, the 12900K does not roll over. Team Blue continues to lag behind in some battles. In contrast to AMD’s Ryzen 5000 launch, the competition is not completely beaten here. Watch the video above for a more in-depth look at the benchmarks.)
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Can quickly get through a lot of work
When it comes to gaming, you don’t buy the most expensive consumer desktop processor. Nowadays, you buy one because you need a chip that can quickly get through a lot of work. That emphasizes performance across multiple threads, and the Ryzen 9 7950X excels in this area.
In our multithreaded benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 7950X outperforms the Core i9-12900K when rendering and encoding, with a comfortable, substantial lead of double digits. How do you feel? up to sixty percent. At 37%, the smallest win is recorded. Additionally, the 7950X outperforms the Ryzen 9 5950X, achieving gains of up to 48%.
However, the subscores of tests like Geekbench indicate areas where Intel may still retain an advantage, so AMD’s new top chip is not entirely immune to the 12900K. Encryption and machine learning are two examples.) Additionally, look at the distinction in single-center execution and you’ll see the 12900K standing its ground. In our rendering tests, it loses out to the 7950X by a small margin of just a few percentage points.
small performance difference
Given the rumors about the Core i9-13900K’s upcoming release and the small performance difference, the 12900K—or more likely its upcoming successor—will still be the better option for some people. When it comes to Adobe Premiere Pro, for instance, AMD simply cannot prevail. Debut’s utilization of QuickSync to support video altering undertakings gave Intel an almost 20 percent edge in our PugetBench benchmark results.
All things considered, not every person utilizes Adobe Inventive Cloud, nor will surrender the AMD environment. When you upgrade from a 5950X, both single-core and multithreaded work will see measurable improvements.
In a nutshell, the 7950X is a beast of a chip that can keep your projects moving at breakneck speed, but Intel might be a better choice for some applications.
Gaming Conversations
Buying a Ryzen 9 7950X solely for gaming is impractical unless you have money to burn (and actually lighting it on fire is just a little bit too wasteful). However, gaming is still a popular method for evaluating chips, particularly given that owners of flagship chips frequently play after work.
The 12900K prevailed in the battle between the 7950X and the 12900, with AMD outperforming Intel by approximately 1.5% on average across our nine 1080p benchmarks. With single-center execution still significant for some games, this result isn’t a shock — the 7950X’s outcomes here are like our other single-center benchmarks. However, in the real world, this loss is relatively minor. At already high frame rates, you typically see a difference of 3 to 12 frames per second.
You ask, “What about 720p benchmarks?” Because a PC with a 7950X typically runs games at 1080p or higher, we decided to focus on 1080p benchmarks. However, our sister site PC Welt’s test results, which examine how the less expensive Ryzen 9 7900X and Ryzen 5 7600X compare to a variety of competing chips, can provide you with an idea of the Ryzen 7000’s behavior at 720p. If you absolutely need to know what happens when further isolating CPU performance, the results of that test can be found here.
outperforms the Core i9-12900K
AMD’s most recent chips compete with Intel’s flagship processor at 720p; in fact, the 7900X, not the 7950X, frequently outperforms the Core i9-12900K in PC Welt’s game benchmarks. By 4.4 percent, AMD’s second-best chip outperforms the competition. However, keep in mind that individual 720p game outcomes can vary significantly. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, for instance, the 7900X outperformed the 12900K by 25%, whereas in Watch Dogs Legion, the difference is only 1.51 percent.
Concerning gen-on-gen improvement, the 7950X dominates by 5950X at 1080p by as much as 16%, however in a modest bunch of games, it’s around a draw. According to PC Welt’s data, the 7900X outperforms the 5950X by an average of 12% at 720p. Your experience will also differ depending on your individual benchmarks, which vary overall.
Other mandane task
Tasks in the real world When new chips are announced, little is said about how quickly they will work in Microsoft Office apps or Chrome. However, these apps are essential to everyone’s day-to-day lives and, in particular, to some, their sole source of income. Here, performance gains are also important.
The short version is that for Microsoft Office applications, the 7950X outperforms the 12900K by an average of almost 10%. Excel and PowerPoint will gain double digits, while Outlook will only lead by 2%. In the confrontation with the 5950X, the outcome is more exciting; Word saw a performance boost of up to 42%, while the average increase was 20%.
The 7950X is usually the fastest chip for web browsing, but Intel is better at rendering in Chrome (also known as graphics performance). For errands connected with Javascript, HTML, web applications, and that’s just the beginning, the 7950X ends up as a winner — all the more unassumingly against the 12900K, yet by a sizable sum contrasted with the 5950X. Contrasted with the last option, the 7950X posts twofold digit enhancements that compass as high as 33%.
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Power draw and Eco mode (AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core 32-Thread REVIEW )
Previously, discussing power draw was more of an academic activity. You would test to see who was more efficient and to get a general idea of how much power was used, but the results were usually not very important.
That has changed in just the last few years. Chips have started using more power, as was mentioned earlier. The Ryzen 7000 follows suit. The Ryzen 9 7950X and 7900X now enter the lists with TDP ratings of 170W, whereas the Ryzen 9 5950X and 5900X had TDP ratings of 105W. Additionally, TDP ratings have become a baseline for power consumption under load rather than an anticipated maximum. Chips of today have a lot more variability and can use a lot more electricity to achieve higher performance. For the Center i9-12900K, that works out to a base of 125W and a pinnacle of 241W. The 170W Ryzen 9 7950X’s maximum is its attachment power rating, or 230W.
Join this more powerful utilization with increasing power rates, and both power draw and power productivity are as of now not scholarly worries. Benchmarks indicate the monthly impact of a chip on your bank account.
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AMD’s claims of greater power efficiency
The good news is that Ryzen 7000 satisfies AMD’s claims of greater power efficiency when performing multithreaded tasks, i.e., more performance per watt. As shown in our initial set of power draw benchmarks, it is also more energy efficient. In the 10-minute multithreaded Cinebench R23 test, the 7950X renders approximately 33% more frames than the 12900K. In addition, it accomplishes this while using approximately 25W less system power than the 12900K throughout.
The 7950X simply finishes faster in the Blender benchmark when it is not tied to a fixed-length benchmark, allowing the system to operate at lower power consumption for longer periods of time.
As you move into single-threaded and lightly threaded applications, this obvious advantage dwindles. In this case, the 12900K generally outperforms the 7950X in terms of energy efficiency. This, in conjunction with the 12900K’s superior performance in some applications, means that the scorecard may favor Intel depending on the game you purchased and the software you typically use.
Or might it? AMD’s Eco mode could sway you back toward the 7950X if you live somewhere with painfully high electricity rates. You could call it AMD’s ace up its sleeve because this setting adds a flourish to its boasts about power efficiency.
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Power limits
It’s a basic, clear method for setting power limits on a chip; There’s no need to enter the BIOS. You can reduce the power consumption of a 170W chip to 105W or 65W using AMD’s Ryzen Master software, with only a small reduction in performance in single-core and lightly threaded applications. Take a look at the Cinebench R23 single-core results for our 7950X—its score remained virtually unchanged despite our reduction of the TDP from 105W to 65W. PC Welt’s gaming tests can provide additional context. At 1080p, the results of the 7900X Eco mode and the standard 7900X mode are typically within 1% of one another; At 720p, the gap only gets smaller by a few percentage points. Note: For the purposes of PC Welt’s tests, the 7900X was reduced to 65W.) The winner of each game alternated between Eco mode and the stock profile at both resolutions.
Obviously, Eco mode slows down multithreaded tasks, but that’s not surprising because the chip needs more power to run at full capacity. However, if you need to restrict power draw, you have the option.
Final thoughts on AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core 32-Thread REVIEW
The Ryzen 9 7950X is a remarkable beginning to the AM5 era. Zen 4 is supported by AM5’s cutting-edge speeds for other system components and offers significant, measurable improvements in multithreaded task performance and power efficiency. You won’t be disappointed if you make the most of the 7950X’s capabilities; this chip offers performance levels that are previously unheard of. Simply comparing its relative performance to that of the Core i9-12900K and the Ryzen 9 5950X of the most recent generation demonstrates this point.
The Ryzen 7000 is simultaneously perched on unstable ground. It no longer enjoys the same level of security as it did when Ryzen 5000 first launched. It must compete with chips from Intel’s 12th generation as well as Raptor Lake, which is coming soon. In point of fact, at its Intel Innovation 2022 event on September 27—the very day that Ryzen 7000 goes on sale—Intel may reveal information about Raptor Lake. That only gives the 7950X and its siblings a day of focused attention in the spotlight, which is realistic.
However, AMD’s situation is not hopeless. The debut of Ryzen 7000 is more like the opening scene of a new play: Before AMD and Intel took clear turns, with long stops between each demonstration. Presently the story’s getting perplexing, with quicker pacing, an unpredictable plot, more entertainers in front of an audience, and consistent activity behind the scenes.
So sure, Intel has hinted at generation-to-generation increases in single-threaded performance of 15% and multithreaded performance of 41%, respectively. However, the Raptor Lake chips from Intel are also said to be able to boost at speeds exceeding 300W, which is not surprising given the alleged 6GHz clock speeds. Additionally, Team Blue may find this to be problematic.