Ahead of tomorrow’s availability of the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPUs in retail channels, today the embargo lifts on being able to deliver Ryzen 9 9950X3D reviews and performance benchmarks. Simply put, for Linux creators, developers, enthusiasts, and others running technical computing workloads and other similar tasks on their desktop, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D with its 16 cores / 32 threads and 144MB total cache makes for an excellent desktop CPU. In this review are around 400 Linux benchmarks looking at the captivating performance and competitive power efficiency of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D.
Up today is the Phoronix review of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D under Linux. While both the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D are launching tomorrow, AMD has not provided review samples to reviewers for the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D processor. But I do intend to buy a Ryzen 9 9900X3D on launch day (assuming availability…) so stay tuned for AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D Linux benchmarks/review hopefully later in the week on Phoronix. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors follow the 8-core Ryzen 7 9800X3D that launched back in November.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D features 16 x Zen 5 cores for a total of 32 threads, features a 4.3GHz base clock, and a 5.7GHz maximum boost clock. There is a 16MB L2 cache and a total of 128MB of L3 cache thanks to AMD 3D V-Cache found on one of its two CCDs. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D has a default TDP of 170 Watts. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is unlocked for overclocking if that interests you.
This AM5 processor otherwise is quite similar to the Ryzen 9 9950X and other Ryzen 9000 series Zen 5 desktop processors but is now their top-end SKU with 3D V-Cache. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is expected to hit worldwide availability on 12 March at $699 USD compared to the Ryzen 9 9950X currently retailing for around $545 USD.
With my AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D testing over the past few weeks it’s been working out very well under Linux. With an updated BIOS the processor works just fine in existing AM5 motherboards and with any relatively recent Linux kernel you should be in good shape. With Linux 6.13+ there is the AMD 3D V-Cache Optimizer driver available and in a separate article this week I’ll be looking at its impact for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D — in this review today all the CPUs were at their default driver settings.
The CPUs recently all (re)tested for this comparison included:
– Ryzen 7 7800X3D
– Ryzen 7 9700X
– Ryzen 7 9800X3D
– Ryzen 9 7900
– Ryzen 9 7900X
– Ryzen 9 7900X3D
– Ryzen 9 7950X
– Ryzen 9 7950X3D
– Ryzen 9 9900X
– Ryzen 9 9950X
– Ryzen 9 9950X3D
– Core Ultra 5 245K
– Core Ultra 9 285K
All the benchmarks were carried out on Ubuntu 24.10 with the Linux 6.13 kernel for a fresh upstream kernel experience.
From there around 400 different benchmarks were carried out for a very diverse look at the performance capabilities of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D on Linux. Thanks to AMD for supplying the Ryzen 9 9950X3D review kit for today’s embargo lift to be able to provide these timely Linux performance benchmarks.
