Final Thoughts
So the Ryzen 3000 series is here! Even if you aren’t an AMD fan this launch just seems to have something special about it. AMD has increased core counts, speeds, and has added new things that will actually bring you more performance. It seems that if you are building a new system at least right now AMD is is the clear choice. Before we get into that let’s talk about the Ryzen 9 3900X specifically.
This is a 12-core, 24-thread part, on a mainstream platform! Did you even think when we were on quad-core parts that we would see this high of core counts on the mainstream? You really have to commend AMD on pushing core counts. Having more cores really helps out with multi-core workloads and you can see the Ryzen 9 3900X blows the Intel Core i9-9900K out of the water in multi-core workloads. Having this many cores really makes the mainstream platform viable for professional streaming, video editing, and more. As it stands this is the best performing mainstream processor we’ve tested in multi-core workloads.
AMD has also improved single-core performance quite a lot. The Ryzen 9 3900X beat out the Intel Core i9-9900K in CINEBENCH R20’s single-core test, but ended up losing to both the i9-9900K and i7-8700K in GeekBench 4’s single-core test. You can see the vast improvement over the previous generation though.
Gaming performance is of course very important for many people and the Ryzen 9 3900X did do quite well in our gaming tests. It was still beat by the Core i9-9900K in many of the tests. The thing is each game utilizes a different number of CPU cores and puts a different load on those cores. So some games might perform better on AMD hardware and some might do better on Intel hardware. In our testing we typically saw a 2-6 FPS difference, which really is not noticeable in real-world gaming.
As far as overclocking goes we were able to bring all 12 cores on this chip up to 4.4 GHz with a Vcore of 1.4V. That is pretty impressive and that is with changing a total of 3 settings in the BIOS!
When it is all said and done if you are building a new system this year AMD is the way to go. Not only are you going to get the benefits of higher core counts, but the platform just offers more. The big thing is of course PCI-Express 4.0, which you’ll see storage take advantage of first. If you look at all of the new motherboards launching today they seem to offer more than their Z390 counter-parts. With the previous two Ryzen generations Intel motherboards always seemed better, not only in design, but in features. Now it seems these new X570 boards are on-par if not better than current Z390 boards.
If you are deciding between a Core i9-9900K and the Ryzen 9 3900X we would recommend getting the Ryzen 9 3900X. Yes the Core i9-9900K might beat it in a few games by a few FPS, but the benefits of the higher core count, lower temperatures, and newer platform make the Ryzen 9 3900X an easy choice. Now if you are on a previous generation Ryzen chip or even Intel 8th or 9th generation I wouldn’t say you need to upgrade unless you plan to really take advantage of the multi-core performance of the Ryzen 9 3900X, say if you did a lot of video editing and encoding.
Right now this processor is selling at our favorite online retailer for $499. Overall ThinkComputers gives the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Processor a 10 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award!
Pros:
– 12-cores, 24-threads on the mainstream platform
– Easily beats the Core i9-9900K in multi-core workloads
– Better single-core and gaming performance than previous generation
– AMD Gamecache
– CPU cooler included
– Pretty easy to overclock
– X570 motherboards and PCIe 4.0
Cons:
– None that we found
