15% Single-Core Leap: Ryzen 9 9950X3D & 9900X3D Benchmarked

Following their official announcement earlier this year, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D are expected to hit the market soon, likely in early March, around the same time as the RX 9070 series graphics cards. Now, we're finally getting our first look at their benchmark results.

 The benchmark scores, as expected, come from GeekBench. Both CPUs were tested using a Gigabyte X670 AORUS Elite AX motherboard and 32GB of DDR5-4800 memory.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D achieved scores of 3363 in single-core and 20465 in multi-core tests on Geekbench.  This represents an improvement of approximately 14.5% and 9.3% in single-core and multi-core performance respectively, compared to its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D.  The multi-core performance uplift seems to be less impressive.

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D scored 3274 in single-core and 19227 in multi-core tests.  Compared to the previous Ryzen 9 7900X3D, this is an increase of around 15% in single-core and 4% in multi-core performance.

In comparison, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D demonstrated the most significant performance jump, with single-core and multi-core scores increasing by roughly 20.5% and 19.3% respectively over its predecessor.

It's likely these aren't the final, optimized scores, so we should wait for in-depth reviews to get a complete picture.

Both the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X feature 16 cores and 32 threads, along with 16MB of L2 cache and 64MB of native L3 cache.  The X3D version further adds a 64MB 3D V-Cache, bringing the total cache capacity to 144MB, consistent with the previous generation.

The boost clock speed is 5.7 GHz, identical to the Ryzen 9 9950X, and the Thermal Design Power (TDP) also remains the same at 170W.

Similarly, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D mirrors the Ryzen 9 9900X with 12 cores and 24 threads, 12MB of L2 cache, and 64MB of native L3 cache.  It also incorporates a 64MB 3D V-Cache, resulting in a total cache of 140MB.

The maximum boost clock speed is slightly reduced from 5.6GHz to 5.5GHz, while the TDP remains at 120W.

Regarding performance, official claims state that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D offers an average performance uplift of 8% across 40 games compared to the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X3D.  In specific titles like CS2, the improvement can reach up to 58%.  Games such as Far Cry 6, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, and Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation see gains of around 30%.

When pitted against its competitor, the Core Ultra 9 285K, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D purportedly delivers a dominant performance, leading by an average of 20%.  Watch Dogs: Legion shows the most significant lead at up to 64%, while Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and Far Cry 6 all exceed a 40% performance advantage.

In terms of productivity, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D also holds its own.  Across 20 applications, it demonstrates an average performance increase of 13% compared to the previous generation.  Against the Core Ultra 9 285K, it maintains an average lead of 10%, with particularly impressive gains in Photoshop (up to 47%) and 7-Zip (a 33% advantage).