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


AMD Ryzen 9 3950X - Physics, Gaming, And Graphics Tests

For our next series of tests, we moved on to some game-related metrics with 3DMark, specifically the physics benchmark that's part of the Fire Strike test, along with a couple of actual games. For the 3DMark Physics test, we simply create a custom 3DMark run consisting solely of the physics test, which is CPU dependent, and report the results...

Gaming: 3DMark Physics
Taking the GPU out of the Equation

pysics 3950x

The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X had another strong showing the the 3DMark Physics benchmark, outpacing every other processor we tested, whether running in its full-power or lower-power ECO TDP mode.
High Resolution Gaming And Graphics Tests
1080P and 4K Gaming With GeForce GTX 1080

We also ran some high-resolution game and graphics tests on our test rigs 3DMark, Middle Earth: Shadow Of War and Rise Of The Tomb Raider. We used 3DMark's Fire Strike Extreme preset, and both of the games were run in two different configurations -- either 1080p with Medium details, or 4K with High/Very High details. The lower resolution tests are more CPU bound, while the higher resolution tests are more GPU bound.

fire strike 1 3950x


fire strike 2 3950x

In the more GPU-bound 3DMark Fire Strike Test, the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X once again takes the lead, just barely edging out the Core i9-9900KS. Drop the 3950X into ECO mode, and it saps just enough performance to land behind the 9900KS, however.

sow 1080p 3950x


tomb raider 1080p 3950x

The medium-quality, high-framerate 1080p in-game tests show the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X performing quite well, in both modes, but it can't quite keep pace with Intel's fastest processors.

sow 4k 3950x


tomb raider 4k 3950x

When you crank up the resolution and image quality, and shift the performance bottleneck onto the GPU, however, the playing field levels out completely and only two frames per second separates the first and last place finishers.

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