320W power, frequencies over 5.5GHz across all cores, 40% faster than 14900K

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU was tested at 5.5GHz all-core and again, using an unlimited power profile pushing 320W of power.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X was overclocked to 5.5GHz across all 16 cores at 253W, and was also tested with unlimited PPT settings at 320W power consumption.

The final bombshells of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU benchmarks have been dropped by Anandtech Forum Member, Igor_kavinski Which was showing us how the flagship 16-core processor performs at different TDP limits in the Blender benchmark. So far, it has shown PPT results of 60W, 90W, 120W, 160W, 230W, and now, we have two new entries, one at 5.5GHz at 253W and one at PPT unlimited.

The chip that Igor’s source uses is an engineering sample that should have slightly lower clocks than the chip available in stores. At 60W, the chip was able to get close to the Intel Core i9-12900K with a boost to 4084MHz, and at 90W, it was able to outperform the Ryzen 9 5950X with a boost to 5053MHz. At 120W, the chip outperforms all current-generation processors from Intel and AMD with a boost to 5555MHz, and the same goes for the 230W result, which takes things up a notch with a clock now reaching over 5.6GHz.

With the PPT Unlimited mode, the maximum frequency saw no change but the clock speeds across all cores were higher, topping out at 5.5GHz which in the case of the PPT 230W was around 5.4GHz. There’s also a fixed frequency boost of 5.5GHz which was achieved at PPT 253W to match Intel’s maximum power rating for its Core i9 CPUs. Keep in mind that the other chips tested here are running at their maximum power ratings. Only the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X ES CPU was tuned. To sum it all up:

• Ryzen 9 9950X (Unlimited Presentation) – 5621MHz Peak Clock / 80°C Temperatures
• Ryzen 9 9950X (253W PPT / 5.5 GHz OC) – 5500MHz Peak Clock / 61°C Temperatures
• Ryzen 9 9950X (230W PPT) – 5620MHz Peak Clock / 62°C Temperatures
• Ryzen 9 9900X (160W PPT) – 5555MHz Peak Clock / 58°C Temperatures
• Ryzen 9 9950X (120W PPT) – 5220MHz Peak Clock / 55°C Temperatures
• Ryzen 9 9950X (90W PPT) – 5050MHz Peak Clock / 49°C Temperatures
• Ryzen 9 9950X (60W PPT) – 4084MHz Peak Clock / 41°C Temperatures

It’s worth noting that these results were achieved using a water-cooled system. AMD officially recommends the AIO with Ryzen 9 9000 series CPUs like the 9950X and 9900X, and we’ve previously mentioned that the Ryzen 9000 chips should run a bit cooler than the Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” CPUs. The cooling seems to be custom and very robust, as keeping the chip below 90 degrees Celsius at a 320W TDP is an impressive feat in itself.

With unlimited PPT, the CPU reached a maximum temperature of 80°C with a peak of 5621MHz and an average frequency of 5378MHz. With a constant PPT overclock of 253W, the CPU reached a maximum temperature of 61°C with an average of 5.5GHz across all cores.

As you might expect, the 253W PPT and 5.5GHz were just as fast as the unlimited PPT configuration as all cores were running steadily at a higher frequency and had plenty of thermal headroom to work with while the unlimited PPT not only consumed more power but also ran hotter.

As such, the final CPU performance saw a 40% improvement over the Core i9-14900K and a 38% improvement over the Ryzen 9 7950X in their base configurations. Performance per power measurement above 230W is negligible and it’s best to stick with 230W PPT if you’re targeting top performance or if you want an extra 5%, going for a 5.5GHz boost across all cores should be good enough rather than going for unlimited PPT.

AMD has been a leader in the efficiency race with its powerful Zen lineup in previous releases, and it looks like that’s going to be true for the next-gen lineup as well. We’re fast approaching the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” desktop processors, which are expected to hit retailers later this month, and we can expect more testing and reviews in the coming weeks.