AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU

It's a monster of a CPU, but it's a hungry beast too.

I had a Ryzen 2700X, 3700X, and 5900X before this. I ran them with a Noctua NH-U12A air cooler with PBO on, which is a great cooler BTW. I do not run PBO with this CPU even without PBO and using a NZXT Kraken 280mm AIO it will eventually reach its thermal limit of 95C in Cinebench.

It will reach 80C at times in games, or long decompression or rendering runs etc. I do not like my CPU getting hot for normal use, so I just use vanilla BIOS settings apart from turning EXPO on, which works well enough. I'd like to get idle temps lower somehow though (it idles at roughly 45C).

I'd give it ...view more It's a monster of a CPU, but it's a hungry beast too.

I had a Ryzen 2700X, 3700X, and 5900X before this. I ran them with a Noctua NH-U12A air cooler with PBO on, which is a great cooler BTW. I do not run PBO with this CPU even without PBO and using a NZXT Kraken 280mm AIO it will eventually reach its thermal limit of 95C in Cinebench.

It will reach 80C at times in games, or long decompression or rendering runs etc. I do not like my CPU getting hot for normal use, so I just use vanilla BIOS settings apart from turning EXPO on, which works well enough. I'd like to get idle temps lower somehow though (it idles at roughly 45C).

I'd give it a 5 star score if the idle temps were lower. Hopefully a new BIOS version with better stepping does that. Apart from that it's great.

The highest end CPUs from Intel and AMD these days do get hot enough to boil water. They say it's safe, but I prefer caution. Hopefully that way it lasts a few years like my AM4 stuff did.

8 years ago, I bought AMD’s flagship 1800X, and it served me well, but it was struggling with my daily workload—running VMs, compiling code, and managing massive databases. So, I jumped to the 9950X—skipped the X3D because, well, I couldn’t wait, and gaming isn’t the focus of this rig. More than 4x the performance from double the threads, all for about the same power consumption! Hoping this one lasts me another 8 years. 8 years ago, I bought AMD’s flagship 1800X, and it served me well, but it was struggling with my daily workload—running VMs, compiling code, and managing massive databases. So, I jumped to the 9950X—skipped the X3D because, well, I couldn’t wait, and gaming isn’t the focus of this rig. More than 4x the performance from double the threads, all for about the same power consumption! Hoping this one lasts me another 8 years.

This is faster than the core i5 from 2009 I had previously. Therefore I approve. I haven't melted anything yet which is a bonus This is faster than the core i5 from 2009 I had previously. Therefore I approve. I haven't melted anything yet which is a bonus

I went with this processor over the x3d cause my motherboard i do have does not support it and i did not want too wait for a bios update then end up having the 9950x3d not able to post and update bios anyway.. so check your motherboard is compatible first. (at the time of the 9950x3d release)

In short its upgraded my core count too 16 as i had 8 before so.. its fine by me too use this one over the 9950x3d I went with this processor over the x3d cause my motherboard i do have does not support it and i did not want too wait for a bios update then end up having the 9950x3d not able to post and update bios anyway.. so check your motherboard is compatible first. (at the time of the 9950x3d release)

In short its upgraded my core count too 16 as i had 8 before so.. its fine by me too use this one over the 9950x3d

By: Demspellz 13/03/25

Verified Owner

Exactly what I needed for my heavy workloads. There is a marginal uplift from previous gen but runs cooler and consumes a bit less. I would recommend 240mm AiO for this CPU. Overall happy with purchase. Exactly what I needed for my heavy workloads. There is a marginal uplift from previous gen but runs cooler and consumes a bit less. I would recommend 240mm AiO for this CPU. Overall happy with purchase.

By: JeyJey 14/02/25

Verified Owner