AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Processor Review – Simply the Fastest Gaming and Productivity CPU

It’s no secret that AMD has been continuously improving its processors in every aspect. As the brand continues to catch up to Intel’s performance, AMD scales its pricing to reflect the industry’s shift from blue to red. Thanks to AMD’s latest Zen 3 architecture, AMD has successfully overtaken Intel with its Ryzen 5000 series processors, not only in performance but in pricing as well. AMD’s latest flagship CPU, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, represents the brand’s performance leadership in the market as it’s the most expensive mainstream desktop CPU to date, priced at $799 US or Php 44,900. But does the overall performance improvement justify AMD’s significant price increase? Let’s find out.

AMD Zen 3 Overview

The Ryzen 5000 series processors are still under the 7-nanometer process node by TSMC but are under an all-new Zen 3 architecture. In AMD’s last press event, Lisa Su talked about the Ryzen 5000 series processors getting a 19-percent Instructions Per Clock uplift and a massive performance-per-watt efficiency. AMD did a ground-up redesign with the Zen 3 architecture to achieve a +19% IPC uplift alongside some functionality improvements over the previous Zen 2 architecture.

Achieving +19% IPC

AMD’s engineering team did remarkable work with the Zen 3 CPUs as they improved the pipeline allowing for faster fetching, reduced latency, and reduced memory and cache dependency.

The AMD Ryzen 5000 series has undergone design changes at the SoC architecture as well. Zen 2 CPUs utilized a union of two core complexes(CCX) per compute die(CCD), whereas Zen 3 processors now feature a unified CCD meaning each CCX can consist of up to 8C/16T & 32MB L3 Cache instead of Zen 2’s 4C/8T & 16MB L3 Cache per CCX. The consolidated core and cache complex on Zen allows better performance, especially on latency-sensitive workloads. The Zen 3 layout design eliminates CCX-to-CCX communication within the die and enables a direct-access pool of the 32MB L3 Cache. CPU intensive games will significantly benefit from Zen’s redesigned CCD and CCX layout

AMD Ryzen 5000 Processors Spec Sheet, Price, and PH SRP

Of course, all of the improvements AMD made with the 7-nanometer Zen 3 architecture needs to be recuperated. AMD boasted a 19% IPC performance improvement, but that comes with a huge asterisk as AMD also hiked up its launch prices compared to the previous generation. We decided to compare the Ryzen 5000 processors against the non-XT predecessors as the XT series are just “refreshed” versions. The Flagship Ryzen 9 5950X is at a price where Intel doesn’t have anything to compete with. The $799 AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is $50 more expensive than the 3950X when it first launched. The Ryzen 9 5900X also receives the same $50 price increase compared to the 3900X.

Our AMD Ryzen 9 5950X review shares some data and information with our Ryzen 9 5900X Review. If you’ve read the latter, we recommend skipping to the last page for our thoughts about the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X.