AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Review: A 16-Core Zen 2 Powerhouse

Name: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
Brand: AMD

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, November 14, 2019, 09:05 AM EDT

AMD Ryzen 9 3950X - Speedometer, LAME MT, x265, Y-Cruncher

Next up, we have some numbers from the Speedometer 2.0 test available at browserbench.org. The Speedometer Benchmark Suite uses a wide array of latency and throughput benchmarks to evaluate web application performance, and all of the results are tabulated into a final score. The benchmark measures performance of an array of browser-based technologies used on modern, rich web applications. Scores in this benchmark are an indicator of the performance users would see when browsing and running advanced web apps.

Speedometer 2.0

Web App Performance Testing

All of the systems were tested using the latest version of Microsoft's Edge browser, with default browser settings, on a clean install of Windows 10 Professional x64.

Once again we see the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X take the pole position, whether operating in its default power mode or in low-power ECO mode. Its bigger cache and slightly higher boost clock give it just enough of an edge over the 3900X to push it ahead of the Core i9-9900KS and into the pole position here.

LAME MT

Audio Conversion and Encoding

In our custom LAME MT MP3 encoding test, we convert a large WAV file to the MP3 format, which is a popular, day-to-day use case for many end users, to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content. LAME is an open-source mid to high bit-rate and VBR (variable bit rate) MP3 audio encoder that is used widely around the world in a multitude of third party applications.

In this test, we created our own 223MB WAV file and converted it to the MP3 format using the multi-thread capable LAME MT application in single and multi-thread modes. Processing times are recorded below, listed in seconds. Shorter times equate to better performance.

The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X doesn't fare too well in the single-threaded audio encoding test, where it barely edged out the previous-gen Ryzen processors and trailed all of Intel's offerings. Its superior multi-threaded scaling, however, significantly speeds up the encoding process and it only misses the mark set by the fastest Intel processors by a couple of seconds.

X265 Benchmark

Video Encoding Test

The multi-threaded HWBOT x265 Benchmark is based on the open source x265 encoder that leverages modern CPU instructions to speed video encoding. We tested the CPUs represented here with the 64-bit encoder using the default 1080p workload.

The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X rocked the x265 video encoding test. It takes top honors when running in full-power mode and second place when operating in ECO mode, besting Intel's 18-core Core i9-9980XE and dusting the Core i9-9900KS in the process.

Y-Cruncher

MT Pi Calculator

Y-Cruncher is a multi-core-capable tool that calculates the value of pi to a specified number of digits. In this case, we ran the tool on all threads and had the application calculate the value of pi to 1 billion digits. The values below are the time required to perform the calculation expressed in seconds. As a result, lower values indicate better performance.

The Core i9-9980XE's larger pool of quad-channel memory (and resulting memory bandwidth advantage) give it the edge in this benchmark, but the Ryzen 9 3950X outpaced the rest of combatants, including the previous-gen 16-core Threadripper 2950X.