AMD 7950 or 9950

[GazzaMataz]

I currently have an AMD Threadripper 1920 which has been a workhorse but sadly will not be supported any more in October when M$ stops support for Windows 10. So I have been looking at an AMD 7950 but then the 9950 came out! Not sure of what the real differences (other than price) are between these two chips other than cache? I have looked around on the web for a straight forward answer but cannot seem to find one. So if any one here can tell me which is the better option for 3D animation work that would be delightful

I know that they are both pretty darn good and I don't fancy an Intel CPU.

 

[Rob_B]

Worth £100 more for the 9950X? Its not hugely faster most of the time, you decide

 

[Tetras]

I have looked around on the web for a straight forward answer but cannot seem to find one.

Any workload relevant to this stuff (below) can be significantly faster on Zen 5, especially AVX-512.

The floating point unit is where Zen 5 seems to have a major design focus. Zen 5 is designed to execute AVX-512 instructions over a full 512-bit data-path, compared to Zen 4, which uses a dual-pumped 256-bit data-path. This should significantly speed up AVX-512, VNNI, and other instructions relevant to AI acceleration on the CPU core. The FPU has four execution pipelines with two LS/integer register pipes. It supports two 512-bit loads, and one 512-bit store per cycle, and a 2-cycle FADD. There are updates to the FPU's execution window.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Review - The New Flagship

With 16 cores and 32 threads, the Ryzen 9 9950X, powered by AMD’s Zen 5 architecture, is the fastest desktop processor we've ever tested. In our review, it breezed through application workloads and delivered high FPS rates in gaming. But at $650, it doesn’t come cheap.

www.techpowerup.com

Puget had the same conclusion (emphasis is mine):

In many ways, the Ryzen 9000 series of CPUs feels more like a mid-generation refresh (in the same vein as Intel 14th Gen) than a new entry into the Ryzen lineup. Although they are certainly very competent CPUs, with impressively low power draw in all-core workloads, AMD has delivered incredible performance gains each generation since Ryzen 1000 up until now. Certain applications benefit from the generational improvements, especially some of the renderers we tested and those with heavy AVX512 usage. But many applications don’t. Most end users will want to sit this generation out unless (or until) prices drop and bring the Ryzen 9000 chips into line with Ryzen 7000.

AMD Ryzen 9000 Content Creation Review

Introduction Following some launch delays, AMD has now released their entire AMD Ryzen 9000 Series of processors. These CPUs are based on AMD’s new Zen 5

www.pugetsystems.com

I think Phoronix was one of the most positive reviews (emphasis is mine):

Simply put, I am extremely impressed with the Ryzen 9 9900 series. If you are a creator, developer, or just doing any heavy lifting on your desktop across a range of workloads, the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X proved to be terrific options. These new AMD Ryzen 9900 series processors deliver great generational uplift and better power efficiency than the prior Ryzen 9 7900 series parts and the Intel Core 14th Gen competition. At $499 USD for the Ryzen 9 9900X and $649 USD for the Ryzen 9 9950X these processors are also priced fair.

If you are currently on an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 series platform it may be hard justifying the upgrade to the Ryzen 9 9900 series unless you are engaging AVX-512 heavy workloads, doing very frequent code compilation / creator tasks, and/or care a great deal about energy efficiency. But if you are still on an AM4 platform or an existing Intel Core platform and are a creator, developer, or frequently compiling code (Arch Linux and Gentoo users, among others) and other multi-threaded tasks under Linux, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900 series is wonderful.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X & Ryzen 9 9900X Deliver Excellent Linux Performance Review - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

 

[LtMatt]

Since you are upgrading from an older generation, I’d go for the latest and greatest, 9950X. If you are also a gamer then it’s worth considering the 9950X3D too.

 

[GreatAuk]

For the sake of £100 I think I'd just go for the 9950X. Once you add the cost of a new motherboard and RAM (assuming a mid / higher end board and 64gb RAM, so £500ish) that £100 is only a 10% increase in cost, for a setup that might be around 10% faster depending on application (eg Gamers Nexus found the 9950x to be 12% faster than the 7950x for blender renders).

But then if that £100 would be really useful spent elsewhere then the 7950x is still a great cpu.

That's based on ocuk pricing, if you find other prices for the 7950x or 9950x elsewhere then that may change the calculation slightly.

 

[ATIorNvidia]

9950X

 

[GazzaMataz]

Thanks for all the replies peeps -much appreciated and from watching some of these I think I will be going for the 9950 since it has the faster single core and since I do a lot of animating that speeds up playback speeds without having to keep creating preview renders.