AMD Ryzen 9 3900X benchmarks leak, performance matches Intel Core i9-9980XE 4X the price
Comments
And now time for yet another Zen 2 leak. We’ve had peeks at the Ryzen 5 3600 and what appears to be something related to the Ryzen 9 3950X, and now it’s the turn of AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core behemoth.
Winging its way as the second most powerful of the 7nm Ryzen 3000 line-up, the Ryzen 9 3900X is 12C/24T, packing a base clock speed of 3.8 GHz and a boost clock of 4.6 GHz. Alongside this, the 3900X has a 70MB L3 cache and a TDP of 105W.
It looks as if the Ryzen 9 3900X is heading for launch on July 7th priced at $499 along with the rest of the Ryzen 3000 line-up and the Navi-powered Radeon RX 5700 series.
| Ryzen 5 3600 | Ryzen 5 3600X | Ryzen 7 3700X | Ryzen 7 3800X | Ryzen 9 3900X | |
| Cores/Threads | 6/12 | 6/12 | 8/16 | 8/16 | 12/24 |
| Base Clock | 3.6 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 3.8 GHz |
| Boost Clock | 4.2 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 4.6 GHz |
| Cache | 35MB | 35MB | 36MB | 36MB | 70MB |
| TDP | 65W | 95W | 65W | 105W | 105W |
| Price | $199 | $249 | $329 | $399 | $499 |
| Release Date | July 7 | July 7 | July 7 | July 7 | July 7 |
Onto the benchmarks then, which have once again surfaced through the Geekbench 4 database. The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X was tested on a system using an X570 AORUS Master motherboard and 16GB RAM. At stock clock speeds, the R9 3900X scored 5905 in single-core performance and 44,849 in multi-core performance.
If we’re to compare this to Intel, the 18-core Intel Core i9-9980 scores around 5400 for single-core performance and 46,600 for multi-core. The Ryzen 9 3900X is 25% of the asking price and has faster single-core performance and is narrowly edged out on multi-core. Gulp.
Unfortunately, there are no GeekBench results for Intel’s own 12-core part, the $1199 Intel Core i9-9920X. However, with six fewer cores, a boost clock of just 4.4 GHz, and a price tag of well over double the 3900X, it would be unlikely to make pleasant reading for Intel.
Moving down a tier to the Intel Core i9-9900K (which at $479 is a more like-for-like comparison in terms of price) and AMD’s potential advantage here is plain to see. The Core i9-9900K comes out on top when it comes to single-core performance. It’s a monster of a CPU in this area, racking up a score of 6216, some 5% faster than the 3900X. However, it’s absolutely spanked when it comes to multi-core performance, scoring just 34,093. AMD’s upcoming CPU has a 31.5% lead in this particular benchmark.
| Ryzen 9 3900X | Core i9-9900K | Core i9-9980XE | |
| Single-Core Score | 5905 | 6216 | 5380 |
| Multi-Core Score | 44,489 | 34,093 | 46,638 |
| Price | $499 | $479 | $1979 |
When we consider that AMD’s R9 3900X is clocked at just 4.6 GHz right out of the box, these are some pretty astonishing results. We’re dealing with a Ryzen CPU here, not an EPYC chip, and it’s rubbing shoulders with Intel’s considerably more expensive HEDT processors. It’s easy to see why Intel’s internal memo hinted they were worried about the threat of AMD.
