AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core, 32-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor

Once I got past the problem of Amazon sending me an AMD CPU box that had the actual CPU stolen out of it, I finally got ahold of this monster and replaced an elderly Skylake build. Let me tell you, Zen 4 CPUs are... incredible. It's just jaw-dropping how much these pure 16-core/32-thread beasts can do, especially with a proper PBO configuration. Unlike the current-gen Intel consumer parts, which seem to be focusing on packing in weird "efficiency" cores and uneven performance curves, a 7950X delivers consistent, constant, gargantuan throughput across all 32 threads. I've done everything from gaming under Proton/WINE, language model merging/inference/quantization, and software development on this system in the 3 months I've had it. The 7950X has never stopped impressing me with how *incredibly* potent it is. There are workloads I used to rent AWS compute instances (at almost $2/hr!) to run, and I can take care of them in minutes on my home machine now. And gaming? Pfft! ZERO problems. Turn everything up to Ultra. I'm not going to have to think about CPU power for another 5 or 6 years, easy. I was an AMD fanboy going back to the AMD 386-20, and I've owned more AMD CPUs than Intel over the decades. But the last time I owned an AMD CPU was in the mid-2000s, an Athlon FX-57 (the last, fastest, single-core Athlon 64). Ever since then, I've been waiting for AMD to ship a "good" architecture. That finally came with Zen 3, but by the time I was ready to buy... Zen 4 was here. And BOY AM I GLAD IT IS. Long story short: if you're even *thinking* about buying the best of the consumer Zen 4 CPUs, you found it. BTW, this is the better of them, between this one and the "3D" one, for applications that are going to stress all the cores simultaneously. The way the 3D thing works looks a little bit faster on benchmarks, but when you are really putting the thing to the test, you'll be glad you went with the real thing.

I built my PC for editing, 3D creation and light gaming. This processor handles very well. I must say I would recommend liquid cooling for this chip. Top notch, I'm satisfied!

I know that in a few short years my "fast" system will eventually become a paper weight, but for right now, this is the best you can get short of the very newest intel chips. Before this I had a Ryzen 5700x, which was a solid processor, but it it's dog slow compared to this. 16 cores and 32 threads mean I can be copying files over the network, be installing dual scans on my hard drive for viruses, and playing games on my computer, all at the same time. Boot is twice as fast, and all my applications load fast and windows 11 is actually snappy and a breeze to work with. Not only that, but the advertised 4.6 ghz rating on the chip is misleading because if you are doing any kind of multithreaded application, the chip stays at around 5.2ghz. The main issue with this chip is the supposed heat range being high compared to other chips, but I've been gaming for a while and haven't hit the "optimal" temperature for the chip yet at 95 degrees centigrade. Having said that, I threw a darkrock 4 cooler on it, and it seems to be working just fine. I go with air coolers if I can, and having a GOOD cpu cooler is pretty much mandatory. Here. Let's put it this way: This computer will heat your room during winter. All in all I am very happy with the performance, and the price is reasonable.

This is an excellent multicore processor with caveats. There are numerous reviews of this processor on the web so I'll just give my thoughts on it. The biggest caveat is the heat. This chip gets hot and without a good cooling solution the chip will hit 95 Celsius very quickly. For cooling I went with a 420 aio and it keeps the cpu in the 60 to 80 Celsius range. I game mostly but with enough productivity to make a 3d v cache not the best solution for my needs. I game on a widescreen so my resolution is more GPU bound anyway. For gaming this processor works just fine, I've had no issues or complaints about performance. My GPU is a 4080 so it pairs well with this level of cores and threads. My only other observation is it's not a quiet pc solution. To keep it cool the fans really have to ramp up so if that's a bother then you might not like this processor. For a good beast of a processor I highly recommend it.

She's a monster! What else can I say? 16C/32T with an LGA design simplifying installation, and includes an IGPU. It's never struggled on anything I've fed this CPU and scores quite high in the synthetics. I'm able to keep the temperatures under control with some tuning, BIOS updates, and an air cooler that is made from the skin of a magic unicorn, and under full load, it still doesn't hit its thermal limit of 95C. It's not an X3D chip, but that's not what I wanted. This CPU should handle anything the average consumer can do during work or play without a problem, and was priced right. It hangs quite nicely with the 9950X and makes that upgrade from this CPU not even compelling unless you are coming from something much older. Power efficiency seems to be there, and it shuts up quite nicely at idle and throttles down a lot when not in use making for leaps and bounds in energy efficiency compared to older CPU's. You'll get a LOT of performance for your dollar if you get this 7950X

Love my Ryzen. Strong as an ox, handles whatever I throw T it with ease

Awesome cpu, very fast, easy to install

So, originally I stated that this 7950x CPU is worse than Intel's i9-13900k in gaming and productivity, well yes, but...a huge caveat: Intel i9-13900k continues to fail. My 1st i9-13900k chip started to fail around 4.5 months mark, and it was really odd issues, such as random windows 11 lock up, or it would restart the system. But, that was my first 13900k chip, and it was already super undervolted and cores were pinned at 5.5 ghz on P-Cores and 4.3 ghz on E-Cores, but it began to fail. Why am I telling you this on 7950X review? Yes, 13th and 14th gen i9s will beat this chip in gaming and multi-tasking...but I noticed 6 months mark is when your 13900k/14900k will begin to crumble, and it also being watt limited to 260 watts and undervolt of 1.28 volts. I returned 7950X, but in reality you have a chip that can be undervolted by using curve optimizer, by simply hitting Negative 20, or even 30, and that will give so much headroom for 7950X, and you can set max temps to something like 85 or 87 if you don't feel like it needs to hit 95C, and it really shouldn't be hitting 95 C (I agree here too) In reality with my 13900k I am still hitting 95-98 C even with severe undervolt, and never exceeding even 1.35 volts. After my first 13900k failed, I got a rma of the same chip from Intel and it begun to crumble at 6.5 month mark, same deal, same symptoms, same undervolts and same precautions on watts. If you value your time, and you do rendering, get either 7950X or 9950X When 13900k works, it smokes 7950x, but when it begins to fail, you will get low GPU usage randomly, that will reset after you restart the computer. You will get random restarts as well, and lock ups with failing 13900k. You will also get anomalies such as disappearing USB ports not recognizing your USB sticks, or going offline randomly. I LOVED 13900k, because it was so responsive, but does it matter if the chip fails. 7950X is solid, if you don't game on RTX 4090 at 1080p, or will be severely bottlenecked by the CPU, and your GPU usage will be very low. 7950X matches pretty good with RTX 4080 in 1080p, but if you game in 1440p, you can combine it with RTX 4090, but titles vary in heaviness, and you will still be CPU limited in some games, and GPU will underperform with 7950x. Even more CPU limited with 9950x though. In short: if you want reliable CPU, just get 7950X or get 7950x3D Long answer: you can wait until Intel releases Arrow Lake, if you want productivity and gaming. The issue is the reliability. I had both 13900k fail on me, and I am tech savvy. Do you want to be in the same boat checking your CPU for signs of degradation after 6 months? It is a weird dilemma of buying something weaker just so you can game and render. Perhaps 7950x3D is better choice here, but 13900k/14900k is bad idea, in my humble opinion. This is coming from a person who has been on Intel for 12 years, and before that 13 years on AMD CPUs. I am trying to look completely objective here, so I rewrote my review. Is 13900k better in gaming and productivity? Yes Is it more reliable than 7950X? Absolutely not. Arrow Lake by Intel will need to be thoroughly tested for next full year, before anyone should be committed to that chip. 9950X by AMD performs worse in gaming than 7950X in a lot of games (due to worse clocks, and thermal envelopes). If you are reading this in August 2024, you are in the dilemma Dilemma is to wait for Arrow Lake, and see how AMD counters it, and when. 9950X was not even stronger than 13900k, and not better than 7950X 2nd dilemma is to see if Intel 15th gen survives full year without burning out, and that is something I did not see with 13900k. I love Intel for many reasons, but I also had no issues being on AMD since 1999 to 2013, I had zero complaints, now that I realize I was probably on AMD close to 2014, making it nearly 15 years. If you game: get 7800x3D, if you render and game, either wait for 9950x3D and Arrow Lake. But, time is the only thing that can show if Arrow Lake is no longer failing like Raptor Lake. Good luck to both companies, but right now is a tricky time to buy new gen CPUs