The Red Team promises that the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is the ultimate gaming CPU, the best and fastest of the Zen 3 processors. But can it justify its enormous cost with its unparalleled gaming performance?

We have praised AMD's new Ryzen 5000 series processors, which further enhance the already strong multithreading and content creation performance of the Ryzen 3000 processor, extending AMD's lead over Intel's competitors under this kind of load The key point we really wanted to see was how AMD's performance would compare to Intel's. What we really wanted to see was whether the Zen 3 chip's gaming performance had made enough of a leap to allow AMD to take the coveted gaming crown.

As you can see from our reviews of the Ryzen 7 5800X and 5900X, the answer is "yes," the Zen 3 processor is now capable of matching or surpassing Intel's competition in gaming. Add in lower cooling requirements, power consumption, platform dominance, and the aforementioned multi-threaded processing power, and it is clear that AMD has emerged as the winner. The question that remains is whether the flagship 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X with a rated boost clock of 4.9 GHz is the ultimate gaming CPU as AMD claims.

You can read all about the architectural highlights in our review of the Ryzen 9 5900X; one of AMD's primary design goals was to reduce core-to-core latency, one of the attributes that affects gaming performance. The large L3 cache goes a long way in reducing the need for excessive memory accesses and data shuffling through the Infinity Fabric and I/O die.

While the amount of L3 remains the same, what sets the Ryzen 5000 apart from the previous generation is its placement. Unlike the Ryzen 3000, which was effectively 2 x 16MB, every core on the die can now access the entire 32MB cache without incurring latency hits. This alone is responsible for much of AMD's newfound gaming performance.

The 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X is the top model in the Ryzen 5000 series. It has a base clock of 3.4 GHz and a boost clock of 4.9 GHz. 8-core die with 32 MB each of L3 cache for a total of 64 MB. compatible with X570, B550, and even A520 motherboards, as well as with X470 and B450.

Many users will notice the lack of BIOS support, so pay close attention to which BIOS you are using; with the exception of the 5600X, all models lack the included cooler, and with prices on the rise for all series, the excellent value seen in past Ryzen generations is lessened. excellent value is less and less.

Still, with Intel maxing out at 10 cores and planning to return to 8 cores with next year's Rocket Lake, 16 cores in a mainstream socket is pretty impressive.

The Ryzen 9 5950X's TDP remains an impressive 105W, and while AMD would officially like to increase this, we must remember that the 5950X is supposed to remain compatible with the cheaper B450 and A520 boards. The Threadripper Zen 3 processor, with its low power constraints, should be a surprise to all who see it. [However, the 5950X's power consumption remains impressive, consuming less power from the wall than the Intel Core i9 9900K despite having twice as many cores. It does get a little hot under full load, but the 240mm AIO is enough to cool it down. However, if you want to overclock, you will need a 360mm RD or be prepared to endure fairly aggressive fan rotation.

Overclocking a Zen 3 processor with a large number of cores can provide a significant multi-threaded boost, but the 5950X can already boost up to 4.9 GHz (and even over 5 GHz) under light loads, such as during gaming, so to maximize gaming performance We generally recommend leaving it on auto or letting the PBO do the work; achieving 4.5GHz on all cores at 1.25V was easy, but under sustained load the temperatures spiked into the 80°C range.

Small form factor PC enthusiasts should also not overlook the underrated ECO mode. A 65W 5950X in a small system is sure to be attractive to many users, especially the creatively inclined.

Using the latest AGESA 1.1.0.0 Patch C BIOS, we had the opportunity to test the Ryzen 9 5950X on a brand new Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard. This allowed us to boot and benchmark at the Infinity Fabric clock of 2033 MHz. This clock is a 1:1 ratio to memory, which is a DDR4-4066 memory clock. Impressive. Could this be AMD's new normal where DDR4-4000 becomes the sweet spot for performance, as AMD certainly made a lot of noise about before launch, but so far support has been skimpy and limited to a few boards and chips in the new silicon lottery.

So how does the Ryzen 9 5950X perform? As expected, it's a one-horse race when it comes to multi-threaded performance: anything that can scale up to 32 threads is laughed off with underwhelming efficiency. Unless you jump up to a more expensive enterprise solution, Intel has nothing to compete with the 5950X.

When it comes to gaming, the Zen 3 architecture is another big step forward from the Zen 2 and Ryzen 3000 series chips. While it hasn't really destroyed Intel, it has removed the narrative of gaming dominance that kept Intel ahead in the eyes of many users. In fact, in some cases the 5950X lags slightly behind the 5800X, making it a bit difficult to recommend it as the ultimate gaming CPU, despite AMD's claims.

This brings us back to the question we posed at the beginning: despite a top-level boost clock of 4.9 GHz, it sometimes trails its 8-core little brother, the 5800X, by a small margin. This is likely due to a combination of topology under-optimization by some game engines, underutilization of cores, and power limitations of the socket.

However, purchasing a 5800X and putting the money saved toward a faster GPU would lead to more tangible improvements in game performance.

CPUs are not just for gaming. With lower cooling requirements, superior power efficiency, platform dominance, unrivaled multi-threaded processing power, and extremely competitive gaming performance, the 5950X is king.

Intel did not slow down overnight, and pure gamers should not feel the need to upgrade. Until that happens, AMD is a really big deal.