AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Review: Total Domination

[cabalco]

LOL @ all the fanboyism, This is not the first time that AMD CPUs beat Intel cpus. Remember the K6-2, the Athlon XP? Or the Athlon 64? Good to see AMD back on top. Now lets see how long it lasts..

 

[Markoni35]

There's one record that Intel still holds: The number of security holes per mm2 of the chip. I think no other chip on the planet has so many security holes per millimeter square like Intel CPUs. Hopefully, that's the record that Intel will keep holding. Don't overtake them in that department, AMD. Stay clean. Just say no!

 

[JimboJoneson]

Corona Benchmark...... sounds so weird in 2020, doesn't it? )

Haha .. an unfortunate product name ... one of the best renderers though and my personal favourite (I do some 3D stuff).

 

[Markoni35]

Haha .. an unfortunate product name ... one of the best renderers though and my personal favourite (I do some 3D stuff).

Thanks for the tip. Haven't been doing 3D stuff for a long time (mostly Terragen and 3ds Max) but if I ever start rendering stuff again, I'll try Corona.

 

[QueueCumber]

Hello, is there any way you can post how you set up the BIOS for the 5950x? Like what was changed from default settings?

I'm having issues hitting the scores you're hitting with the 5950x and x570 Godlike with DDR-4-4000MHz Ballistix (18CL).

I've tried everything I can think of but I still end up around 10% lower in performance compared to your same setup. I have tried the Support BIOS and the Beta BIOS and neither changed a thing for my performance.

I really hope this isn't just crappy retail chips versus hand-picked chips for reviewers, because 10% difference is enough for me to flip the chip on Ebay and return the new build components. Things were running much more stable on my 10700k and it isn't too late to just switch back and make some decent money on the 5950x. I wouldn't be saying these things if I wasn't supremely disappointed with the performance differentials between reviewers with these chips and the real life version I received.

You're one of the only reviewers with the same exact setup as me basically, so please HELP. If I set mine up the same way as yours (including bios versions and setups), I can at least eliminate those as issues and focus more on whether it is a bad CPU. Thanks!

 

[Lionvibez]

Hello, is there any way you can post how you set up the BIOS for the 5950x? Like what was changed from default settings?

I'm having issues hitting the scores you're hitting with the 5950x and x570 Godlike with DDR-4-4000MHz Ballistix (18CL).

I've tried everything I can think of but I still end up around 10% lower in performance compared to your same setup. I have tried the Support BIOS and the Beta BIOS and neither changed a thing for my performance.

I really hope this isn't just crappy retail chips versus hand-picked chips for reviewers, because 10% difference is enough for me to flip the chip on Ebay and return the new build components. Things were running much more stable on my 10700k and it isn't too late to just switch back and make some money on the 5950x...

For 10% ?

Why did you even bother switching from the 10700k which sounds like a recent build?

And are you using the same motherboard they are?

 

[QueueCumber]

Why no 4k benchmarks

Because generally, the GPU becomes the bottleneck and the CPU goes under-utilized at 4k.

 

[QueueCumber]

For 10% ?

Why did you even bother switching from the 10700k which sounds like a recent build?

And are you using the same motherboard they are?

Yes, same mobo.

Honestly, I wanted to have the last SLI system, as I've been an SLI enthusiast since day one (or even before GPUS, as I had the Voodoo tandem cards and Riva TnT back in the day... lol). The x570 is one of the few options that allows 4-slot NVLink Bridge. There are no LGA1200 alternatives, or I would have gone that route and saved a lot of money. I tried. There is nothing out there unless you switch to 9900x and such.

I need two systems at home with 3090s anyway, so I figured I would spend a little extra and get the same cards so I could play with the SLI but also move it to the other system when needed. I had the 10700k sitting around because I replaced that with a 10900k in my other setup and was going to sell it on ebay (I won the lottery and it can run 5.1 ghz on all cores--Actually, I did well with the 10900k also as it is running 5.2Ghz all cores, and can run benchmarks at 5.3GHz).

I just want to get this 5950x up to snuff. I would say it is a mobo issue and maybe BIOS updates will fix it, but in this case there is someone who is using basically the same setup and getting better scores (in this review). It would really help a lot to know how it was setup in BIOS and elsewhere to achieve those results. It would help me figure out if I have a setup issue or lost the silicon lottery.

Here is one other odd thing. At default settings with just PBO enabled, I am getting lower single-core than the review, but my multi-core score is higher by around 900 points. But, it is the 2000 points lower score on 3DMark Time Spy CPU benchmark is what is really bothering me the most. I'm getting scores in the 12k rather than 14k no matter what I do. Sometimes it is as low as 11k. I see other people with 5950s getting 14k plus!

 

[QueueCumber]

I take it back. I am now getting terrible multi-core scores in Cinebench as well..... (8700 mark). This is super disappointing.


Now it is down at 5k!!! This sucks.

 

[Lionvibez]

I take it back. I am now getting terrible multi-core scores in Cinebench as well..... (8700 mark). This is super disappointing.


Now it is down at 5k!!! This sucks.

Are you using the High performance power profile and not balanced?

 

[QueueCumber]

Are you using the High performance power profile and not balanced?

Which profile? The Power & Sleep settings (I always have this on performance)? Or a different one?

I just restored BIOS to default and uninstalled and reinstalled AMD Ryzen Master and now it is up at 9968 multi-ciore. I turned on Auto OC and now the multi-core score is at 11,168 and single-core is 623. This is close to where I started at (610 or so...)

My CPU score on Time Spy is still abysmally low for this CPU. It is at 11,239 as compared to 14k+ for most people who just plug the chip in and run it.

 

[Johnny Rebellion]

The gaming benchmarks are less than worthless. Nobody buys the top of the line CPU and GPU and uses a 1080p monitor. Comprende? 1440p and 2160p please.

 

[Squid Surprise]

The gaming benchmarks are less than worthless. Nobody buys the top of the line CPU and GPU and uses a 1080p monitor. Comprende? 1440p and 2160p please.

Alas, yet another noob who doesn’t comprehend “CPU bound” vs “GPU bound”...

Please do some reading and then you can come back and apologize to the writer...

 

[QueueCumber]

Anyone else with the same issue: It is likely a memory issue. I swapped out my 4000 MHz ballistics and put in 3600Mhz ballistics and my cpu score jumped on Time Spy to 13529 without any PBO or OC on the CPU. Bummer. The memory was like $450 for two sticks. Back to the store it goes. I had two sets here and was going to run all four, but apparently the 5950x or x570 have issues with both sets (so likely just incompatible...).

Thankfully, I have two setups to switch stuff out like that, but it is a little ridiculous they advertised 4000Mhz as the sweet spot, but it is the sweet spot for bad performance in this case... lol

 

[Squid Surprise]

Anyone else with the same issue: It is likely a memory issue. I swapped out my 4000 MHz ballistics and put in 3600Mhz ballistics and my cpu score jumped on Time Spy to 13529 without any PBO or OC on the CPU. Bummer. The memory was like $450 for two sticks. Back to the store it goes. I had two sets here and was going to run all four, but apparently the 5950x or x570 have issues with both sets (so likely just incompatible...).

Thankfully, I have two setups to switch stuff out like that, but it is a little ridiculous they advertised 4000Mhz as the sweet spot, but it is the sweet spot for bad performance in this case... lol

Was it actually running at 4000Mhz? Perhaps BIOS needs to be manually OC’d to get it to use that setting?

 

[QueueCumber]

Was it actually running at 4000Mhz? Perhaps BIOS needs to be manually OC’d to get it to use that setting?

It was running at 4000MHz tied to the fabric clock at 2000MHz. It didn't crash, but it definitely wasn't working correctly. I had some runs where the memory seemed to get worse and worse. I had 3DMark CPU scores going as low as 4.5k when playing around with it.

I am reading now that 3600MHz is recommended for now until mobo bios updates occur to fix 4000MHz issues, but even then not everyone will be able to hit the 2000MHz fabric clock speeds. To be safe, I ordered 3800MHz memory, assuming I likely did not win the lottery on the CPU I have here.

 

[Squid Surprise]

It was running at 4000MHz tied to the fabric clock at 2000MHz. It didn't crash, but it definitely wasn't working correctly. I had some runs where the memory seemed to get worse and worse. I had 3DMark CPU scores going as low as 4.5k when playing around with it.

I am reading now that 3600MHz is recommended for now until mobo bios updates occur to fix 4000MHz issues, but even then not everyone will be able to hit the 2000MHz fabric clock speeds. To be safe, I ordered 3800MHz memory, assuming I likely did not win the lottery on the CPU I have here.

Ahhh... lousy BIOS... Hopefully AMD will address that shortly....

Since they're already planning on providing an update for older motherboards in January, I'd wager that's probably the timeframe for an update for yours as well.

Keep us posted on here though - I for one will be interested to see if/when it gets fixed.