Ryzen 9 9950X And 9900X Review: AMD’s Flagship Zen 5 Chips Tested
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X & 9900X: CPU, Memory, System, And Browser Benchmarks
When configuring our test systems for testing, we first make sure all firmwares are up to date, and then we enter each system's respective BIOS / UEFI and set the board to its "Optimized" or "High Performance" defaults. We then save the settings, re-enter the BIOS and set the memory frequency to the maximum officially supported speed for the given platform without overclocking. After that, we format the SSDs and install and fully update Windows 11 Pro.
When the Windows installation was complete, we installed all of the drivers necessary for our components, disabled auto-updating and OneDrive, and installed all of our benchmarking software. When that process was done, we performed a disk clean-up, cleared any temp and prefetch data, processed idle tasks, and optimized all of the SSDs using Windows' built-in tools. Finally, we enabled Windows Focus Assist to minimize any potential interruptions and let the systems reach an idle state before invoking any tests.
We should also note that we've completely revamped our test beds for this launch and all of this data is fresh. All systems were as up-to-date as possible with the latest BIOS/UEFI firmware, drivers, software and updates as of the last week of July 2024. Intel has since released the 0x129 microcode update to address its Raptor Lake woes, which we've re-tested, but it had a minor impact on performance.
Intel's current high-end Core i9-14900K remains the multi-threaded champion according to Geekbench, but the Ryzen 9 9950X and 9900X finish just behing it. In the single-threaded test, however, AMD's latest desktop chips take the crown, besting every other processor we tested.
The Ryzen 9 9950X and 9900X performed very well in the PCMark Applications test. The 12-core / 24-thread Ryzen 9 9900X edges out the previous-gen 7700X, but actually ends up trailing the mainstream chips. The Ryzen 9 9950X zips to the top of the chart, however, takinig the pole position and leading the pack overall. Note, however, that all of these processors are plenty fast for Microsoft Office applications and the actual user experience won't differ much with scores this high.
Our results with Crossmark were somewhat of a mixed bag. Here, the Ryzen 9 9950X trails only the Core i9-14900K, and even then it's by the smallest of margins. The Ryzen 9 9900X, however, actually ends up trailing the 7700X and landing in the middle of the pack, just a notch ahead of the Ryzen 5 9600X.
When the Windows installation was complete, we installed all of the drivers necessary for our components, disabled auto-updating and OneDrive, and installed all of our benchmarking software. When that process was done, we performed a disk clean-up, cleared any temp and prefetch data, processed idle tasks, and optimized all of the SSDs using Windows' built-in tools. Finally, we enabled Windows Focus Assist to minimize any potential interruptions and let the systems reach an idle state before invoking any tests.
We should also note that we've completely revamped our test beds for this launch and all of this data is fresh. All systems were as up-to-date as possible with the latest BIOS/UEFI firmware, drivers, software and updates as of the last week of July 2024. Intel has since released the 0x129 microcode update to address its Raptor Lake woes, which we've re-tested, but it had a minor impact on performance.
HotHardware's Test Systems:
SiSoft SANDRA 2023 Benchmarks
We began our testing with the latest version of SiSoftware's SANDRA 2021, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. We ran four of the built-in sub-system tests that partially comprise the suite with the new Ryzen 7000 series processors (CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Memory Bandwidth, and Cache and Memory Latency). All of the scores reported below were taken with the CPUs running at their default settings, with 32GB of DDR5 RAM running at an effective 5,600MHz, in dual-channel mode, on the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero motherboard (with BIOS 2204).
SANDRA's CPU Arithmetic test puts the Ryzen 9 9900X slightly higher than 690GOp/s with the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X topping 873GOp/s. The Multimedia test has the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X finishing at 5.592Gpix/s and 6.763Gpix/s, respectively, with the higher-end 16-core chip obviously pulling ahead. These scores are much higher than their Ryzen 7000 series counterparts, likley due to the larger L1 cache and increased cache bandwidth. Aggregate memory bandwidth with the two processors hovers around 56GB/s and memory latency, with the particular G.SKILL kit we used, is approximately 66-67ns. Despite the use of slightly faster memory (DDR5-5600 vs. DDR5-5200), bandwidth is only slightly higher versus the Ryzen 7000 series.
| Ryzen 9 9950X Processor Arithmetic |
Ryzen 9 9950X Multi-Media |
| Ryzen 9 9950X Memory Bandwidth |
Ryzen 9 9950X Cache & Memory |
| Ryzen 9 9900X Processor Arithmetic |
Ryzen 9 9900X Multi-Media |
| Ryzen 9 9900X Memory Bandwidth |
Ryzen 9 9900X Cache & Memory |
SANDRA's CPU Arithmetic test puts the Ryzen 9 9900X slightly higher than 690GOp/s with the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X topping 873GOp/s. The Multimedia test has the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X finishing at 5.592Gpix/s and 6.763Gpix/s, respectively, with the higher-end 16-core chip obviously pulling ahead. These scores are much higher than their Ryzen 7000 series counterparts, likley due to the larger L1 cache and increased cache bandwidth. Aggregate memory bandwidth with the two processors hovers around 56GB/s and memory latency, with the particular G.SKILL kit we used, is approximately 66-67ns. Despite the use of slightly faster memory (DDR5-5600 vs. DDR5-5200), bandwidth is only slightly higher versus the Ryzen 7000 series.
AIDA64 Memory Bandwidth, Memory Latency & Cache Latency
AIDA64's CPU Cache and Memory benchmarks measure memory bandwidth during read, write and copy operations, in addition to memory latency, and cache bandwidth and latency.
Ryzen 9000 series processors support slightly faster memory (DDR5-5600 vs DDR5-5200), which results in higher bandwidth all around accroding to AIDA64. Write bandwidth is measurably higher, and memory read / write bandwidth is slightly improved as well.
Although all of the AMD systems used the exact same memory kit, configured with the exact same timings, the Ryzen 9000 series processors higher memory clock afford them somewhat better latency, with the Ryzen 9 9900X and 9950X both outpacing thier previous-gen counterparts.
L1 and L2 cache latency is roughly the same between the Ryzen 9000 and 7000 series, though L3 latency is slightly improved with the Ryzen 9 9900X and 9950X in comparison to the 7000 series.
One of Zen 5's main improvements is "double the cache data bandwidth" between the L1 and L2. AIDA didn't quite report 2X higher L1 bandwidth, but the Ryzen 9000 series is significantly improved. L3 bandwidth, however, varies considerably and actually has the 9900X trailing previous-gen parts. We should also mention that we saw higher than expected latency with the Ryzen 5 9600X, which we're still looking into. We suspect AIDA may need some updating for full compatibility with Ryzen 9000, but since these numbers were repeatable, we're reporting them. If anything changes in the future, we'll be sure to update.
Although all of the AMD systems used the exact same memory kit, configured with the exact same timings, the Ryzen 9000 series processors higher memory clock afford them somewhat better latency, with the Ryzen 9 9900X and 9950X both outpacing thier previous-gen counterparts.
One of Zen 5's main improvements is "double the cache data bandwidth" between the L1 and L2. AIDA didn't quite report 2X higher L1 bandwidth, but the Ryzen 9000 series is significantly improved. L3 bandwidth, however, varies considerably and actually has the 9900X trailing previous-gen parts. We should also mention that we saw higher than expected latency with the Ryzen 5 9600X, which we're still looking into. We suspect AIDA may need some updating for full compatibility with Ryzen 9000, but since these numbers were repeatable, we're reporting them. If anything changes in the future, we'll be sure to update.
Geekbench v6.3 CPU Benchmark
The GeekBench CPU tests stress only the processor cores in a system (not the graphics card/GPU), with both single and multi-threaded workloads. The tests are comprised of encryption processing, image compression, HTML5 parsing, physics calculations and other general purpose compute processing workloads.
Intel's current high-end Core i9-14900K remains the multi-threaded champion according to Geekbench, but the Ryzen 9 9950X and 9900X finish just behing it. In the single-threaded test, however, AMD's latest desktop chips take the crown, besting every other processor we tested.
UL PCMark 10 Applications Benchmarks
Next, up we have some full-system testing with PCMark. We're reporting all test results from the PCMark 10 Applications benchmark suite, which uses actual Microsoft Office applications, in addition to the Microsoft Edge browser. The workloads are specific to each Office application (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), and the Edge tests simulates real-world web browsing.
The Ryzen 9 9950X and 9900X performed very well in the PCMark Applications test. The 12-core / 24-thread Ryzen 9 9900X edges out the previous-gen 7700X, but actually ends up trailing the mainstream chips. The Ryzen 9 9950X zips to the top of the chart, however, takinig the pole position and leading the pack overall. Note, however, that all of these processors are plenty fast for Microsoft Office applications and the actual user experience won't differ much with scores this high.
Bapco Crossmark Benchmark
Crossmark is a cross-platform benchmark from Bapco that's available for Windows, Android, iOS and MacOS. Like PCMark, Crossmark measures overall system performance and using real-world applications. It provides an overall score based on the results of its Creativity and Productivity benchmarks and system responsiveness tests.
Our results with Crossmark were somewhat of a mixed bag. Here, the Ryzen 9 9950X trails only the Core i9-14900K, and even then it's by the smallest of margins. The Ryzen 9 9900X, however, actually ends up trailing the 7700X and landing in the middle of the pack, just a notch ahead of the Ryzen 5 9600X.
Browser & Web App Benchmarks: Jetstream 2.2 And Speedometer 3
Next up, we have some numbers from the Speedometer 2.0 and Jetstream 2 tests available at browserbench.org. The Speedometer Benchmark Suite uses a wide array of latency and throughput benchmarks to evaluate web application performance, while Jetstream evaluates Javascript and WebAssembly performance; both tests take all of their individual results and tabulate them into a final score.
These benchmarks measure performance of an array of browser-based technologies used on modern, rich web applications. Scores in these benchmark are an indicator of the performance users would see when browsing the web and running advanced web apps. All of the systems were tested using the latest version of Google Chrome, with default browser settings, on a clean, fully-updated install of Windows 11.
The Ryzen 9 9950X and 9900X performed very well in our browser-based tests. The Ryzen 9 9950X finishes at the top of the heap in Speedometer and is right up towards the top on JetStream. The Ryzen 9 9900X is right there in the mix at the top of the charts as well.
These benchmarks measure performance of an array of browser-based technologies used on modern, rich web applications. Scores in these benchmark are an indicator of the performance users would see when browsing the web and running advanced web apps. All of the systems were tested using the latest version of Google Chrome, with default browser settings, on a clean, fully-updated install of Windows 11.
7-Zip Data Compression / Decompression Tests
The 7-Zip benchmark measures compression and decompression performance using the LZMA method, which leverages the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm to perform lossless data compression. The benchmark produces a final rating in GIPS (giga instructions per second).
AMD's Zen 5 architecture puts up highly competitive single-thread performance here, with exceptional multi-thread performance as well. Once again we see the Ryzen 9 9950X topping the charts, with the 9900X clearly outgunning the previous-gen 7900X and hanging with a couple of Intel's current best.
AMD's Zen 5 architecture puts up highly competitive single-thread performance here, with exceptional multi-thread performance as well. Once again we see the Ryzen 9 9950X topping the charts, with the 9900X clearly outgunning the previous-gen 7900X and hanging with a couple of Intel's current best.
