AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X Shatters PassMark Records

If the Ryzen 5 5600X left you impressed, the Ryzen 9 5950X will blow you out of your chair. The 16-core monster has catapulted its way to the top of the mainstream processor chart in both single-and multi-thread performance.

The Ryzen 9 5950X scores are no longer available, but German publication ComputerBase managed to grab screenshots of the Zen 3 flagship's results before they were erased. Given the circumstances, it's uncertain if the Ryzen 9 5950X was overclocked or whether it was paired with memory that surpass the official supported DDR4-3200 specification. While we wait on the full review, we recommend you take the PassMark scores with a pinch of salt.

While AMD has been injecting more cores in mainstream chips for a while now, the chipmaker's offerings aren't quite up to par with Intel's parts when it comes to single-thread performance. If these PassMark numbers are accurate, it would appear that Zen 3 has finally tipped the scales in AMD's favor.

AMD Ryzen 5 5950X Benchmarks

The Ryzen 9 5950X is reportedly up to 34.4% faster than the Ryzen 9 3950X in single-thread performance and up to 16% in multi-thread performance. For reference, the Ryzen 9 5950X comes with a 3.4 GHz base clock and 4.9 GHz boost clock, while the Ryzen 9 3950X has a 3.5GHz base clock and 4.7 GHz. It was to expected that the Ryzen 9 5950X would be superior chip.

In comparison to its Intel rival, the Ryzen 9 5950X seemingly delivers up to 16.3% higher single-thread performance than the Core i9-10900K. Now, you have to remember that the Core i9-10900K features a 3.7 GHz base clock and a whopping 5.3 GHz boost clock. We're not underestimating Zen 3, but it's a bit hard to swallow that the AMD chip with a 400 MHz lower boost clock would outperform the Core i9-10900K. For now, we'll have to trust PassMark's metrics until we get the chip in our lab for thorough testing.

Possessing substantially more cores, the Ryzen 9 5950X's multi-thread performance doesn't raise any eyebrows. The 16-core processor purportedly offers up to 87.8% higher multi-thread performance than the Core i9-10900K. Intel doesn't offer more than 10 cores on its mainstream processors so the Core i9-10980XE, which is a HEDT (high-end desktop) SKU, will have to be the point of comparison for multi-thread performance. Despite being at a two-core disadvantage, the Ryzen 9 5950X's multi-thread performance is apparently faster than the Core i9-10980XE by up to 33.5%.

If Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) can deliver, Intel could be in big trouble since it's Comet Lake-S army will likely not be able to fend of Zen 3. It looks as though even Intel's upcoming Rocket Lake processors might not be enough.