AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, 16C/32T, 3.40-4.90GHz, tray

AMD hat es im Laufe von drei Jahren vom Totgesagten zum Prozessor-Leistungskönig geschafft. Das neue Topmodell Ryzen 9 5950X bricht sowohl in Spielen als auch beim Rendering alle Rekorde - doch geht da noch mehr? In einer speziellen Messreihe klopfen wir nicht nur die Leistung im CPU-Limit ab, sondern sehen uns auch an, inwiefern das standardmäßig aktive Simultaneuos Multi-Threading (SMT) die Spiele-Leistung beeinflusst.

Wie angekündigt hat uns AMD pünktlich zum gestrigen Marktstart der ersten vier Ryzen-5000-Modelle inzwischen auch mit den noch fehlenden zwei Modellvarianten versorgt. Wir komplettieren die Testreihen daher nun um das Topmodell mit 16 Kernen, den AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, und um den AMD Ryzen 7 5800X mit nur halb so vielen Cores. Wie sich die beiden Ryzen-CPUs in der Praxis schlagen, das erfährt man in diesem Hardwareluxx-Vergleichstest auf den nachfolgenden Seiten.

AMD hat sich im Vorfeld sehr selbstbewusst gezeigt und nichts weniger als die beste Architektur zum Spielen und Arbeiten versprochen. Nach Sichtung der Ergebnisse können wir das zweifelsfrei bestätigen. Speziell in Spielen ist die Performance des Ryzen 9 5950X und Ryzen 9 5900X absolut überzeugend und legt die Messlatte weiter nach oben. Nimmt man die moderne AM4-Plattform hinzu, welche bereits seit Sommer 2019 die Unterstützung für PCI-Express 4.0 durch den X570-I/O-Hub bietet, dürfte AMD ein frohes Weihnachtsfest bevorstehen.

Ryzen 5000 mit Zen 3 hält, was AMD verspricht: Ryzen 9 5950X, 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X und Ryzen 5 5600X schlagen im Test Intel Core auch in Spielen. Die Redaktion analysiert AMDs neue „Hammer-CPU“ in umfassenden Benchmarks inklusive Blick auf IPC, Taktverhalten, (IF-)OC und Stromverbrauch.

AMD "Zen 3" is here, and we have with us the Ryzen 9 5950X, the absolute king of the series. This 16-core/32-thread processor is designed to bring the HEDT (high-end desktop) segment down to the mainstream desktop platform; that is, for those who don't care much about a quad-channel memory interface or tons of PCIe lanes.

Many will see today as an historic shift in computing power. With its new Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs, AMD has finally knocked Intel to the floor, and is raising its boxing gloves in victory as the flash bulbs pop and the ref declares a winner. The headline takeaway: Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 9 5950X have trounced Intel’s Core i9.

Thanks to the new Zen 3 core optimisations and SoC design, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X offers a nice leap forward in performance. It offers significantly better single-core and multi-core performance over the last generation, offering a nice boost to both content creation and gaming performance.

We gave it away already in the very first lines of this review; the original ZEN design was bronze, ZEN2 silver, and ZEN3 truly is gold. The release of Ryzen 5000 probably will make a whole bunch of people at Intel nauseous as from every and any angle AMD now is faster. So that last bit you could nag about with a Ryzen proc is gone, strictly speaking from a hardware and performance point of view, of course. Not just that, AMD offers an infrastructural advantage as well with full PCIe Gen 4.0 compatibility throughout the eco-system. Arguably, the one thing we can label as abrogating is pricing; AMD is pushing it by adding an extra 50 USD premium on top of the entire range. In the end, though the consumer market is brutal, if a product is even 5 bucks too expensive, people will not buy it. I suspect that even despite that price premium of 50 bucks, this series still will be a ginormous hit. You've seen the numbers, is it worth it? Well, yes, we think it is. Also, we have to talk about some relativity here. An Intel HEDT platform with 10+ cores two years ago would cost you $1000 easily just for the processor, right now you can purchase as a 12-core beast for $549 or $799 for the 16-core ZEN3 part. To ease that pain of pricing a little, I do have some positive news on this front. AMD will bundle Far Cry 6 with select Ryzen 5000 processors, according to terms and conditions for the AMD rewards program listed on its website. The promotion is valid until December 31; far Cry 6 will be released H1 2021. But enough said about the coins and value.

AMD comes armed to the winter 2020 desktop CPU party with Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 Series chips. Building upon the already impressive Ryzens that have gone before, this series focusses on improving single-thread performance through hard-nosed IPC improvements alongside cleaner, more efficient caching. The sum of those two gains is most readily felt in gaming, where mainstream Ryzen, once the poorer cousin, is now at least as fast as the best that Intel has to offer from its current Core line-up. AMD further extends its lead in applications that take advantage of multiple threads, without increasing the amount of power, so it's a win-win situation for the PCIe 4.0-compatible 5000 Series. Taking each chip in turn, Ryzen 9 5950X has no mainstream performance peer. It's faster than last year's 3950X through better architecture, and its IPC and caching benefits really come to the fore in FHD gaming. Want a chip for every tasks? This is it. Want a chip for massive multi-threaded performance on a regular platform? This is it. Want a great chip for gaming? This is, well, it. In that context, one can excuse the current hike over 3950X. If you can afford the £750 asking fee, go buy and overclock it. Ryzen 9 5900X naturally brings the same goodness to the table. Excelling in gaming thanks to Zen 3, it's much faster than rival Intel's premier 10-core processor for rendering tasks. Pricing is more key for this second-rung chip as it will go into a wider range of enthusiast systems, and £510 seems a fair outlay for a rudely capable processor. While the Ryzen 3000 Series XT chips were a marginal upgrade over the previous generation, Ryzen 5000 Series is far more worthy of investment. Recommended to power users and gamers alike.