AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core, 24-thread Unlocked Desktop processor with Wraith Prism LED Cooler

So I have stuck with AMD since they released their Ryzen series CPUs. Back in the day (pre 2000 and into early 2000s) I used the Athlon processors exclusively. Eventually switched to Intel processors, and since about 2016 have stuck with AMD Ryzen exclusively. Every time I upgrade I am happy I decided to stick with them. I overclocked this Ryzen 9 3900x which I overclocked to 4.2ghz (able to go to 4.5 but haven't tested that out yet). Just as with my last Ryzen 7 2700 that was overclocked for the 1.5 years I used it it has been incredibly stable. I do not use the wraith cooler, I have a dual chamber water cooler as these CPUs run a bit hotter than the Ryzen 7 (8 core) CPUs - of course I used a water cooler with that as well due to overclocking. You could get away with the cooler and overclocking possibly but it is best just to use the water cooler just in case. The processing power is incredibly. I have it coupled with a 2080ti and 32 gigs of 3200mhz ram. I do video editing, graphics, and sound editing for work. Heavy CPU and graphics card usage in those processes and this computer runs perfectly. I would stack this against any intel chip in the same range... this one beats it in speed and price. In Ryzen Master software currently it is fluctuating between 36 degrees C, and 38.6 degrees. With my Ryzen 7 2700 which was overclocked to 4 ghz and with my other water cooler (single chamber) it was usually between 24-30 C. so we added 4 more cores, and more power per core. I have not noticed a significant increase while running games/software but the limit is 95 degrees C so it is not really something you need to worry about. I highly recommend this CPU. This is expensive when looking at CPUs like the Ryzen 7 2700x and similar, but 430 dollars or whatever it was is well worth it. My old PC (which has been rebuilt and still has a GTX 1070) is still a modern PC that is capable of a lot and this current one will be for several years really. Short of upgrading the video card to the 3090 within the next year (maybe) I do not foresee any real need to upgrade the CPU for at least 3-4 years. As far as money goes - sometimes we need to be reminded of perspective. My fiance was getting a laptop the other day and wanted to spend 500-650 max. She is a traveling medical worker. So a laptop will be very important to her and used a lot as she goes from city to city. So I explained that we drop upwards of 1000 dollars or more on our phones every 1 to 2 years without much thought at all. yet when we are buying electronics that will need to have a lot of power and hold up and be used as much or more we get very cheap. I spent 2000 dollars on a laptop back in 2012 and have upgraded it here and there (ram and hard drive) and it still runs extremely well. I use it for a lot of things. Had I spent 500 dollars it would have been useless by now. So if you have the means, do not cheap out and buy a 300 dollar option for your CPU - you will end up spending that much or more very soon. Always buy beyond what you need when building a PC if it is doable for you. I have had systems that ran flawlessly for many years, and ones that played the latest games at high settings with decent FPS, and ran adobe software wonderfully. I will update this review when I test an OC of 4.5 ghz and give you the details on cinebench for both the 4.2 and 4.5 OC.

I absolutely love this CPU (3900X), having come from an old I7-2600K that served me well OC'd way over it's spec. I've got plenty to say about it. It's great at gaming and productivity. Intel can push individual cores higher, but their low core counts and larger process makes them very hot and bottle-necked at multithreaded applications. Be sure to read the warning below about the socket and swapping heatsinks. Thermals When I first got this, I noticed it ran very warm! I read all kinds of complaints on forums of people that couldn't run this cool, or that couldn't OC it. I've been fortunate on both fronts. I went into the UEFI and brought the CPU VCore down to 1.298V while also overclocking to 4.3GHz (all cores). I've never had stability issues with these settings, although I may have simply won the "silicon lottery." The stock cooler is very aesthetic and works pretty well for a stock cooler, but I swapped out the CPU cooler for a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition, which brought the top temps down by ~10C under load, which I think is pretty respectable. WARNING!!! If you apply a heatsink to this CPU, and then remove it, there's a very high chance that the CPU will pop right out of the socket, glued to the heatsink and in the process bend pins. Bent pins on this processor are *VERY HARD* to fix (at least tedious to bend back without breaking off). The socket retention system on the AM4 socket compared to Intel's is complete garbage!!! I had bent about 3 pins pulling my heatsink off after just a little wiggling of the heatsink on the surface of the CPU by pulling off the heatsink while the CPU was still stuck to it. Yes, the retention arm was still down, and yes, I ensured it was installed correctly before putting on the heatsink. This is just a quirk of this socket. If removing the heatsink, very carefully wiggle it around side to side to try and get air in-between the CPU and heatsink so it doesn't rip out the CPU from the socket. If you're impatient, you probably could just pull the heatsink straight up with the full intention of taking the processor with it, and then lay the heatsink with the processor straight up for removal, but I really wouldn't recommend it (unless that was a last resort). Over Clocking I wouldn't say I'm an expert over-clocker, but I've overclocked my systems for sometime, so I can at least give some starting advice. First, two things kill your CPU faster than anything else: heat, and over-voltage. There are a dizzying array of settings that can be played with in today's UEFIs. The ones to pay attention to are: VCore, CPU ratio, DRAM FCLK, and DRAM voltage. This is a CPU review, so let's stick to VCore and CPU ratio. My advice is to try lowering the voltage on this chip first! This is to reduce the heat put out by this blazing hot blowtorch. I dropped my to VCore 1.298V. Once you've verified that you can boot at whatever voltage you've dropped it down to, now try and overclock by changing the CPU ratio from the stock 3.8GHz to something a bit higher, like 4.3GHz. That's what I've been running with great stability. If you're going for pure performance, then you're going to want to stick with the normal VCore voltages and then push your CPU ratio, but you'd better have a great cooling solution that can handle the extra heat this will produce. Good luck!

AMD Ryzen 3900X runs very hot with the stock cooler as most reports suggest. TDP on the 3900X is 105W and 95C which is a high temperature threshold which users have reported CPU can reach under normal operations; at 95C the CPU will either down-clock to cool down or may fail if you have automatic safety features disables. I have a high air flow case with multiple fans and radiators to cool my components so my CPU temp has not reached above 82C and usually stays below 70C under normal operations. Frequency fluctuates depending on load because I have kept most of my clock and performance settings stock; it is not abnormal for CPU to be running at 4.2-4.5 GHz consistently with temperatures hovering around 65-68C at fairly low fan speeds which keeps them quiet. Idle temperature changes on a dime but stays around 40-55C at low fan speeds. My PC works great although I had to spend a bit of time getting everything configured to work properly. Works fast and the 12 cores/24 threads help with multi-tasking and processes that utilize multiple cores to process data. Benchmark tests may help you select the appropriate CPU for your particular case; 10th generation Intel Core i9 processors can run at faster frequencies which contributes to their lead in certain benchmark results such as video games; the AMD Ryzen 3900X has more cores which affects benchmark results relying on multi-core processing such as video editing or music encoding. The AMD Ryzen 3900X can run hot with stock cooler which will reduce your performance; many recommend good aftermarket cooler to keep CPU running fast and cool. Edit on February 19th, 2025 I installed XMP 2.0 capable Random Access Memory (RAM) on my computing machine which is officially supported by the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor up to a speed of 3200 MT/s. I invested some time and tuned my computer to run a memory clock speed of 1600 MHz in dual channel mode. The machine runs great with 64 GB of RAM installed. I have not had any stability problems after finding / tuning to the correct settings. I use two modules of DDR4-2666 and two modules of DDR4-2133 high performance RAM in a high performance over-clock rated motherboard.

The new Ryzen 3000 series chips are amazing. I was looking to replace my aging Haswell (4th Gen) Intel Core i7 4790k with something more modern - and when I read about the new Ryzen 3000 series, I waited an extra 6 months to re-build my PC...and boy am I glad I did! I cut encoding times for a 1080p 2 hour movie from 2 hours (near real-time) to < 30 minutes!! And through the power of the PCI-e 4.0 that this enables (when paired with an X570 motherboard), my storage access is now running at 5GB/sec write and read (with a PCI-e 4.0 enables NVMe SSD). Everything is blazing fast even when I have a ton of stuff running. If you’re looking for the ultimate chip for content creation, coding, and a very good option for gaming also (even if it gives up a few FPS to the highest end intel chips), look no further!! And it even comes with a passable cooler (if you don’t mind a bit of noise and don’t plan to overclock) with nice RGB LEDs built in. Quick note for early adopters with first generation X570 boards - several boards (mine included) want to give this chip more power than is really needed. On stock BIOS settings (with automatic voltages), it was providing upwards of 1.5v under load, which would cause the chip to get towards or above 80C, even with a high-end AIO water-cooling system. I put in a manual voltage offset of -0.20 so it doesn’t go above about 1.3V - at that voltage, it performs wonderfully and even under sustained 100% load it never goes above 69C. I gave up a few points in high end benchmarking but in real world loads (even encoding), it’s comparable performance and should improve longevity.

In a word? IT'S A MAD BEAST. I have wanted something that could handle 4k and 8k video (codecs really play a part as all are not handled the same here). If you work with adobe products and you want a smoother performance then this CPU is for you and I never even see it go over 20% usage even when rendering. It's so good. As newer CPU's come out, this will be cheaper and will even be better value for money. Its mops the floor with its intel equivalent. Pros: * its fast, is beefy and its gonna chew through most of what you are struggling with now. A great balance for gaming and productivity. * Comes with a cooler (honestly it is the best looking stock cooler you will ever own) which manages to keep it tamed, just make sure to buy a case with high airflow. I dont recommend the NZXT cases because they dont have good front airflow. * Cooler comes with pre-installed thermal paste which is brilliant and it is very easy to install. (Look at the X570 motherboards for this CPU) Cons: * It gets hot. Oh it bakes very quickly so you will have to either buy an after market cooler or AIO to keep it cool over long periods of time if overclocking. Otherwise it's fine with the stock cooler Very impressed with the R9 3900x so far. I will be good for the next couple.of years for sure.

pros - ultra smooth gaming performance , excellent frame pacing - 12 cores / 24 threads around 4.2 (all core boost) stock , future proof for many years - good b450 boards will handle this chip with ease such as my b450 tomahawk max - price $130 lower compared to 9900k and comes with a good heatsink , works very well actually , adds value has nice rgb effects that can be controlled with cooler master app - besides being slighlty slower in gaming , this cpu destroys the 9900k all around with 4 more cores and 8 more threads - can undervolt and auto OC this chip easily cons : - if your pushing high frame rates especially at 1080p , this chip can get toasty, depending on your case airflow and ambient temp, a custom fan curve and manual vcore adjustment can help with this - Such a amazing gaming cpu , having fun with it, performance is solid and stable , you can undervolt this cpu if you want better temps , I found lowering the vcore to 1.25 -1.30 from Msi's default 1.47, improved temps with sacrificing a little bit of single core performance , Game Boost in MSI bios sets the vcore to 1.35 and puts this cpu in HIgh performance mode in windows locked @4.2 with fan speed on full speed

This, is an amazing CPU. Lets go over things, though. PLEASE, PLEASE, keep your brackets/adapters that it(doesent) come with(mine didnt) it probbably came/is on your motherboard. I had to use a extra part from a spare wraith prism to attach the cooler. Im not sure if most motherboards come with those brackets, but i don't remember any coming on mine. You might want to order ahead some wraith prism brackets in advance if you don't have any(you can google to find the amazon link for them) otherwise, the cooler will NOT clip into the motherboard(because it doesn't have any place to actually clip into it) I would look up some youtube showcases about the prism cooler, you'll see what i mean. --- Pros. - Very quiet, except when under load(detail later in the review) - Absolutely SHREADS any game you put at it(seriously, i was running a csgo game at under 20% usage) - Most motherboards support it, but i had to update my BIOS(x370 gaming plus) - VERY CUSTOMIZABLE COLORS with the Wraith Prism software. Although you need another cable for it to work(included in box) - decently easy to install - booted up first try, though probably luck - no screws! just clips -- Mehs/Cons -- Color USB header/ Color control cable is 180 degrees from the actual power cable, making cables run over my graphics card and onto the bottom of my motherboard, making cable management super annoying if you want to control the color on your cooler. Pretty much every motherboard places their usb headers at the bottom of the motherboard, but its annoying running a whole cable over the top of your PCI-E slots to connect to the cooler.(if you want to control the colors with the software, you will have to connect the pre-included cable to your motherboard at the bottom usb input.) (see photo(s) that big cable is actually my CPU power, wrapped with the tiny cable im talking about) -- Brackets/adapters to fit the cooler do not come in the box, but thats my fault i guess for not keeping them when i got my motherboard. --- Thats about it! Amazing cpu. -- not as hot as people are saying here, with the stock cooler im hitting 60C and some slight 70C moments, idles for me at 36-40C. Some people are saying it IDLES at 60c, though i have good air flow in my case and a fresh windows 11 build.

Absolute powerhouse of a processor! My husband used this for his PC build and it’s been flawless. lightning‑fast performance, handles gaming and multitasking like a dream, and stays cool with the included Prism LED cooler. It’s been running strong for 5 years without a hiccup. Couldn’t recommend it more.