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5960x Compared to 2990WX

Len Dananey

Len Dananey

Len Dananey

Associate
Joined
23 Aug 2019
Posts
502
Hey guys,

I was told the other day to hold out for the new Intel CPU's which are out quite soon, however I have read up on these new Cpu's and I may be wrong but they are not very impressive according to reviews. (Expected not very good going by the released spec sheets). I do want to upgrade my CPU and motherboard and pretty certain all the rest will work fine still. I watched a few videos on the 2990WX and it looks really decent, am I wrong? For gaming purposes is this a complete waste of time moving to that CPU?

Thanks
 
For gaming that is the wrong direction really - with workstation/server CPUs there are all kinds of potential cross core latency and scheduling considerations coupled with the often lower max boost clocks in tasks which aren't utilising the full number of cores the CPU can offer. I would say that was a side-grade at best for gaming.
 
For gaming purposes a silly move IMHO. A very decent upgrade would be either a 9900k or 3900x. Both have massively better clock speeds and improved IPC.
 
Rroff said:
For gaming that is the wrong direction really - with workstation/server CPUs there are all kinds of potential cross core latency and scheduling considerations coupled with the often lower max boost clocks in tasks which aren't utilising the full number of cores the CPU can offer. I would say that was a side-grade at best for gaming.
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Oh ok thank you Rroff. Are there any CPU's you would change to if you currently had a 5960x mate? Or should I wait for the new Intel chips like I was told. I am not saying they are wrong, not at all I have not bought a chip for 3 years so I am behind the times with them.
 
Some benchmarks here that show both CPUs - with atleast some attempt to make the 2990WX run better in games (some reviews don't use the best RAM or test with gaming mode, etc.)

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_threadripper_2990wx_review,24.html

Len Dananey said:
Oh ok thank you Rroff. Are there any CPU's you would change to if you currently had a 5960x mate? Or should I wait for the new Intel chips like I was told. I am not saying they are wrong, not at all I have not bought a chip for 3 years so I am behind the times with them.
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Depends on your usage - I'm guessing you don't have 32GB of RAM just for LOLs, etc. to be honest though for overall use including gaming most stuff out right now is probably somewhat a side grade from what you have - you'd see more benefit from something like a 2080ti.
 
3900X wouldn't be a bad upgrade but off the top of my head you are probably talking ~15% increase in performance in general for gaming with some situations possibly closer to 30% but others not much different.
 
Len Dananey said:
How do you find your 3900x mate?
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I'm very impressed with it. I did come from a 2600k though :D But seriously it's an absolute beast of a CPU, games or otherwise it handles it very well.

Not sure if your CPU is overclocked or not, if not then an OC will go a long way if you have done decent cooling.
 
andy_mk3 said:
I'm very impressed with it. I did come from a 2600k though :D But seriously it's an absolute beast of a CPU, games or otherwise it handles it very well.

Not sure if your CPU is overclocked or not, if not then an OC will go a long way if you have done decent cooling.
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That is a good point actually - I was kind of assuming overclocking in play but if you aren't into overclocking a move from a 5960X to a 3900X would represent a fairly decent upgrade for gaming. (Something like 3.5 v 4.6 boost clocks difference alone).

EDIT: Aslong as you don't have issues with the 3900X and boosting hehe.
 
Rroff said:
That is a good point actually - I was kind of assuming overclocking in play but if you aren't into overclocking a move from a 5960X to a 3900X would represent a fairly decent upgrade for gaming. (Something like 3.5 v 4.6 boost clocks difference alone).

EDIT: Aslong as you don't have issues with the 3900X and boosting hehe.
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Yes my 5960x is overclocked to 4.5ghz stable mate. Thanks for the advice, I will have a think.
 
Len Dananey said:
Yes my 5960x is overclocked to 4.5ghz stable mate. Thanks for the advice, I will have a think.
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That is a tough one then as a lot of the benchmarks don't take it into account overclocked and it has a fairly low stock boost clock compared to gaming performance at 4.5GHz.
 
Len Dananey said:
Yes my 5960x is overclocked to 4.5ghz stable mate. Thanks for the advice, I will have a think.
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That's a good OC. You would see some improvement from a better CPU, but yours still has legs yet for another year or two easily. I think your money would be better off in a 2080ti, but at the same time that's not going to give you a night and day difference in performance either!

Overall you have a pretty killer PC for gaming, any upgrades are going to be mostly single digit increases.
 
No point in upgrading. I'd wait for DDR5 if were you, actually get something for all the money an upgrade will cost. And considering how graphics keep getting pushed harder & harder it will be a long time until the GPU(s) are not gonna hold back your 5960x.
 
It all depends on use really. If gaming is the primary concern then the 2990wx is a waste of time really.

The 5960x is an 8 core cpu, which is fairly modest by modern standards for a high end CPU.

Either the 3900x, or forthcoming 3950x will be fine, they would offer similar or better gaming performance and far superior multi threaded performance.
The Zen2 threadrippers will almost certainly be fine, if not a bit overkill.

The next generation (sic) of intel processors would also work well, be that mainstream or high end.

In fact it’s rarely been a more exciting time to be in the market for a new CPU.
 
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