AMD Ryzen™ 9 9950X 16-Core, 32-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor

I benchmarked the performacne of FPGA development tools for an AMD 9950X system against an Intel iCore9 13900K system. The relative performance was mixed.The tools tested were Xilinx Vivado, Atlera Quartus Pro, Siemans Questa and a tool of my own, HDLmaker. Both systems were running Ubuntu 22.04. The Intel system was using the standard Ubuntu kernel, the AMD system was using the mainline Ubuntu kernel. The standard Ubuntu kernel lacks Ethernet drivers for the AMD board, the mainline kernel fully supports it.The Intel iCore9 13900K is faster for Vivado and Quartus Pro, The AMD 9950X is faster for Questa and HDLmaker.EnterpriseAMD Ryzen™ 9 9950X 16-Core, 32-Thread128G CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR5 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 6000MHzGIGABYTE X870 AORUS Elite WIFI7 AMD AM5 LGA 1718 MotherboardSAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD 4TB, PCIe Gen 4x4 | Gen 5x2 M.2 2280Ubuntu 24.04Kernal 6.14.0-061400-genericYorktownIntel Core i9-13900K - Core i9 13th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core128G CORSAIR Vengeance 64GB (2 x 32GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 5600 (PC5 44800)GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX LGA 1700 Intel Z790 ATX Motherboard with DDR5Crucial P3 4TB PCIe 3.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSDUbuntu 22.04Kernal 6.8.0-52-genericVivado: 1Enterprise: synth_design: Time (s): cpu = 00:36:12 ; elapsed = 00:35:42 . Memory (MB): peak = 26506.137 ; gain = 23587.469 ; free physical = 81568 ; free virtual = 447284Enterprise: route_design: Time (s): cpu = 01:39:32 ; elapsed = 00:50:47 . Memory (MB): peak = 17087.441 ; gain = 1562.531 ; free physical = 77223 ; free virtual = 443027Yorktown: synth_design: Time (s): cpu = 00:32:39 ; elapsed = 00:32:12 . Memory (MB): peak = 26503.715 ; gain = 23592.078 ; free physical = 25669 ; free virtual = 109780Yorktown: route_design: Time (s): cpu = 01:43:56 ; elapsed = 00:50:48 . Memory (MB): peak = 17180.012 ; gain = 1554.500 ; free physical = 21966 ; free virtual = 105577Vivado: 2Enterprise: synth_design: Time (s): cpu = 00:19:07 ; elapsed = 00:19:01 . Memory (MB): peak = 13239.812 ; gain = 10322.176 ; free physical = 97811 ; free virtual = 446595Enterprise: route_design: Time (s): cpu = 01:21:12 ; elapsed = 00:38:40 . Memory (MB): peak = 19368.762 ; gain = 0.000 ; free physical = 89228 ; free virtual = 437844Yorktown: synth_design: Time (s): cpu = 00:18:10 ; elapsed = 00:18:06 . Memory (MB): peak = 13231.773 ; gain = 10319.141 ; free physical = 19164 ; free virtual = 108350Yorktown: route_design: Time (s): cpu = 01:19:05 ; elapsed = 00:32:39 . Memory (MB): peak = 19666.379 ; gain = 0.000 ; free physical = 10503 ; free virtual = 99516Vivado: 3Enterprise: synth_design: Time (s): cpu = 00:22:29 ; elapsed = 00:22:23 . Memory (MB): peak = 13740.703 ; gain = 10819.066 ; free physical = 101952 ; free virtual = 447429Enterprise: route_design: Time (s): cpu = 01:45:11 ; elapsed = 00:54:54 . Memory (MB): peak = 19997.387 ; gain = 0.000 ; free physical = 93311 ; free virtual = 438528Yorktown: synth_design: Time (s): cpu = 00:21:39 ; elapsed = 00:21:38 . Memory (MB): peak = 13243.625 ; gain = 10321.988 ; free physical = 15590 ; free virtual = 107900Yorktown: route_design: Time (s): cpu = 01:36:03 ; elapsed = 00:43:00 . Memory (MB): peak = 20184.555 ; gain = 0.000 ; free physical = 7075 ; free virtual = 99039Questa:Enterprise: 57.441u 5.322s 1:04.50Yorktown: 69.688u 8.815s 1:18.79Quartus_pro:Enterprise: Elapsed time: 00:26:08Yorktown: Elapsed time: 00:25:54HDLmaker:Enterprise: 66.094u 12.343s 1:19.03Yorktown: 72.277u 16.625s 1:29.01

I was trying to hold out for the 9950X3D but with the short supply and very high demand going for $800+ from scalpers I decided to go with an open box 9950X for half the price and I'm so glad I did!I've been live streaming on Streamlabs simultaneously playing the Doom: The Dark Ages and this CPU handles it with ease and never gets warmer than 60C!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟FIVE STARS HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

I'm going to be real. I accidentally bought this because I meant to get the X3D version. That said, I have not been let down by this CPU. Sure, if I had returned it, gotten the X3D I meant to, I would get more FPS in games. But since I do also have some producitivity needs, it really performs damn good for me

This chip is an absolute beast! I bought this for my new gaming build, and it can easily handle anything you throw at it. With the right voltage optimization and cooling, it can run pretty cool as well.I considered getting the 9900X before getting this, but I’m glad I got the extra 4 cores. The 32 threads means I can play pretty much any game I want without having to worry about the CPU being the bottleneck, and I can run VMs and still have CPU resources to spare.AMD has really outdone themselves with this chip, and I couldn’t be more satisfied with it! The price might seem high, but it’s worth every cent.

I built a new workstation for at home and I wanted a high end processor. This processor is amazingly fast. It does run hot, so you need to do liquid cooling. I went with an iCue Titan 360. Works extremely well. Been an AMD fanboy since the early 2000's.

Just like what everyone else says, it is a fast cpu that gets the job done. I have had no issues with it. A bit slower than a 14900k on single thread apps but faster on all thread apps. Runs reasonably cool in my case with the 360 AIO from BeQuiet!

This is a brilliant processor at a reasonable price. So why not 5 stars? Well the reason is the 9950X3D. Yes, it carries a considerable price premium, but it has the same base clock speed (4.3GHz) and the cache is able to mitigate the limitations of intra-chiplet communications. The result is that, in business applications, the 9950X3D is approx 2% faster than the 9950X. But the real gain comes in gaming where the 9950X3D is, at time of review, simply the fastest gaming CPU on the market. Hence the premium price.I installed my 9950X on an ASUS ROG STRIX X670E A-gaming motherboard with 32GB of high performance DDR5 memory. There were no issues configuring the board or loading Windows 11 Pro. I thoroughly recommend using a water-to-air heatsink for this CPU and motherboard combination. The problem is that most modern gaming cards seem to use through-card cooling, which means hot air is blown direct onto a chip-mounted heatsink! Not good news! A water-to-air cooler, mounting the fins at the front or top of the machine, solves this issue. The 9950X (or X3D version) needs good heat dissipation!Overall, this is a cost effective CPU that offers fantastic performance and is easy to setup on the 670E chipset motherboards. Memory ran at the recommended sweet spot without problems, and provided you employ just two sticks of RAM, you should have no problems.AMD CPU's have the momentum from Intel. I was even able to buy a 9060XT (16GB) at close to the RRP!Can I recommend this CPU? Absolutely. Even doing data science and perform mathematical transforms on Very Large Datasets, I see no slow down in performance after several hours of maxing-out the cores. Would I buy the 9950X3D over the 9950X? Yes, but unless you are a hardcore game, the 9950X is the better choice when you're on a budget.