AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X CPU was tested with an all-core overclock to 5.5GHz and again with an unlimited power profile delivering 320W of power.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X overclocked to 5.5GHz across all 16 cores at 253W, also tested with unlimited PPT settings with 320W power consumption
The final bombshells of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU tests have been dropped by Anandtech forum member Igor_kavinski who has shown us how the 16-core flagship scales at various TDP limits within the Blender benchmark. So far he’s shown off 60W, 90W, 120W, 160W, 230W PPT results, and now we have two new entries, one with a 5.5GHz overclock at 253W and one with unlimited PPT.
The chip Igor’s source is using is an engineering sample that should have slightly lower clock speeds than the retail chip. At 60W, the chip was able to get close to the Intel Core i9-12900K while boosting up to 4084MHz, and at 90W it was able to surpass the Ryzen 9 5950X while boosting up to 5053MHz. At 120W, the chip beats all the current top processors from Intel and AMD while boosting up to 5555MHz, and the same goes for the 230W result, which steps things up a notch with the frequency now exceeding 5.6GHz.
With the unrestricted PPT mode, the max frequency saw no change, but clock speeds across all cores were higher, pushing past 5.5GHz, which in the case of the 230W PPT was around 5.4GHz. There’s also the 5.5GHz static overclock which was achieved with a 253W PPT to meet Intel’s maximum power limit for its Core i9 CPUs. Note that the other chips tested here are running at their peak power values. Only the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X ES CPU is tuned. To sum it all up:
- Ryzen 9 9950X (Unlimited PPT) – 5621MHz peak clock / 80C temperatures
- Ryzen 9 9950X (253W PPT / 5.5GHz OC) – 5500MHz peak clock / 61C temperatures
- Ryzen 9 9950X (230W PPT) – 5620MHz peak clock / 62C temperatures
- Ryzen 9 9900X (160W PPT) – 5555MHz peak clock / 58C temperatures
- Ryzen 9 9950X (120W PPT) – 5220MHz peak clock / 55C temperatures
- Ryzen 9 9950X (90W PPT) – 5050MHz peak clock / 49C temperatures
- Ryzen 9 9950X (60W PPT) – 4084MHz peak clock / 41C temperatures
It should be noted that these results were achieved with a water cooling setup. AMD has officially recommended an AIO with its Ryzen 9 9000 CPUs such as the 9950X and 9900X and we’ve previously mentioned that Ryzen 9000 chips should run slightly cooler than Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” CPUs. The cooling appears to be custom made and very powerful, as keeping a chip below 90C with a TDP of 320W is an impressive feat in itself.
With the unlimited PPT the CPU reached a maximum temperature of 80C while peaking at 5621MHz and an average frequency of 5378MHz. With the static 253W PPT overclock the CPU reached peak temperatures of 61C while averaging 5.5GHz across all cores.
As you might expect, the 253W PPT and the 5.5GHz overclock were just as fast as the uncapped PPT configuration, as all cores were running stably at a higher frequency and had plenty of thermal headroom to work with. The uncapped PPT, on the other hand, not only consumed more power, but also ran much hotter.
As such, the CPU’s final performance saw a 40% improvement over the Core i9-14900K and a 38% improvement over the Ryzen 9 7950X in their stock configurations. The performance per power scaling above 230W is minimal and it’s better to stick with the 230W PPT if you’re aiming for the best performance or if you want that extra 5% then going for the 5.5GHz overclock across all cores should be good enough rather than going for an unlimited PPT.
AMD has been leading the efficiency race with its strong Zen portfolio in recent releases and that looks set to continue with its next-gen lineup. We’re fast approaching the launch of the AMD Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” Desktop CPUs which are expected to hit stores later this month and we can expect plenty more testing and reviews in the coming weeks.