The comparison highlights whether the upgrade is beneficial.
The comparison highlights whether the upgrade is beneficial.
What I've observed so far, particularly about gaming performance, indicates these two CPUs are nearly identical in efficiency. It's challenging to justify paying an extra $200 for just a few more frames in games. Tasks that demand heavy CPU usage appear to offer greater value, yet even those don't seem sufficient to warrant that amount. Perhaps I'm missing the right comparisons, and I honestly admit that—this is why I'm reaching out now. Is the 5090 merely a more expensive way to boost a couple of frames or am I overlooking something? At the moment, it looks like the 5900x provides the best value for a higher-end CPU in today's struggling market.
The 5950x isn't intended for gaming. Most titles use just a few threads, and we're only beginning to see 12 threads being applied in many applications, let alone 32. Right now, it's mainly for demanding tasks such as Blender, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop.
They all compete quickly in just a few frames. After that, you see overclocking features. At this price it's around the 5900x or an OC version of the 10900k, I believe. Spending less means a slight drop in frames per second, so it depends on your budget and what you expect.
CPU efficiency depends on IPC, clock speed, number of cores and threads. The 5900X and 5950X have similar first two metrics. Although the 5950X boasts a higher boost clock, it doesn't matter much in practice. I'm running my 5900X at 5.1GHz, which is well above the 5950X's stock speed. The real distinction lies in core and thread counts, but only matters if you have a workload that can use them all together. Gaming isn't ideal for this, though some titles handle 12c/24t well. Most games only need around 6c/12t right now, and many productivity tasks won't make the most of the 5950X's 32 threads. Its value really depends on what you run and whether those threads are actually used.
The 5950 is a flagship.. as such it does sport a little more performance than the 5900X. Yeah sure its got some extra cores, but that's not what I am talking about. At TPU there is an Aida64 thread where a bunch of us overclock and run this program. From what I saw of the 5950 is it can achieve lower memory latency, and it can hit high clocks too.. being a flagship means it gets the best of everything. Outside of overclocking? Ehh.. if you don't need the cores, don't get em. I only got the 5900 because the 5800 was too close in price. I have a 5600 and just wanted 5GHz lol. The 5800 could have done it. I bought the wrong CPU But! it is pretty good so no regrats