I've got the spare cash: 5950? Opinions?

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Spirit_Retro

Limp Gawd
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Apr 1, 2010
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Looking for open opinions here....

So I do a lot of virtualization, some music production (hobby level), video production (some pro work), simulation (physics), Amateur Radio (signal modulation/demodulation), and of course gaming (usually older titles).

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to a 5800x from a 3700x. And it's been worthwhile for me. The current rig is a ASUS TUF Gaming x570 plus with a AMD 6700 GPU and the system is running under water cooling.

Bearing in mind that the 3700x has gone to a friend and the 5800x can be repurposed:

Locally I can grab a 5950x for about $500.00 flat and I've got the extra cash....

My last rig, which was retired last year, is a 9590 rig which served very well since being built in 2015. That was a good choice for me because of it's threaded performance. Everything I do professionally demands threads or cores. It's currently underclocked and running as a virtualization host (Has a domain controller, a couple of Linux desktops virtualized for development tasks, and a file server for source code).

I tend to move old equipment into server usage when I'm done with it.

All that being said: Should I pull the trigger on the 5950?? On one hand I could use the extra cores and I've got enough PSU to handle everything. On the other hand there's a new platform coming out with Zen 4- but that move will cost significantly more than $500.00.

At the same time picking up 16 extra threads would double my ability to process the kind of data I work with.

I'm sort of conflicted trying to make a decision here: What would you do?
 
I would do some research on your main apps and workflows and see if they scale well with the extra cores----and then see if that extra performance/time saved is actually notable and then if its actually needed*. And then I would also look at a used 5900x to split the difference.

*I.E. if your pro-level video renders are fine running while you sleep. Or if you need stuff to realistically be started and done, during the day.
 
Most of the time I need more iops or ram unless I'm doing something explicitly core contention heavy like blasting everything to see what the newest Secuirty Onion release does or doesn't do for me.
It's like running TCP and UDP scanning scripts with no socket timeout from multiple instances or cranking cpu only hash cracking.
 
No reason to wait and pay for DDR5.

If you do a lot of virtualization RAM amount should be important to you, no?
 
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I'm planning on upgrading my 3900X to a 5950X probably before the end of the month. I absolutely have a use for the extra cores and because I'm already running a high end X570 build with 64GB of DDR4, upgrading to AM5 anytime soon doesn't appeal to me.

I also uhh, may have bought an Arctic Cooling 420mm AIO in preperation for this upcoming 5950X buy.
 
TheSlySyl said:
I'm planning on upgrading my 3900X to a 5950X probably before the end of the month. I absolutely have a use for the extra cores and because I'm already running a high end X570 build with 64GB of DDR4, upgrading to AM5 anytime soon doesn't appeal to me.

I also uhh, may have bought an Arctic Cooling 420mm AIO in preperation for this upcoming 5950X buy.
Click to expand...

Well, I went ahead and did it. And it's everything I thought it would be. It was a good decision.

As a side note the 5800x was hotter... a lot hotter. Or I got the silicon roulette prize. But when running the cores full out with PBO my 5950x temps top out at 70c. With PBO off it's running in the low 60s. Machine is idle as I type and the temp is 37.3c.

The 5800x ran at 80-85c full load with PBO. So no upgrade of cooling for me.
 
Yeah,I don't think that the 5800X actually generates more heat than the 5950X. The 5800X heat source is a single off-center chiplet so it's harder to get rid of the heat that it does generate.
 
As someone who does not use their PC for half the stuff you listed but has a 5950X, go for it! It's a great chip. The most I have pushed mine is running VMs, web browsing, music and gaming at the same time... it didn't even miss a beat.

Plus, if you luck out with silicon, the 5950X can gain a good chunk of performance by doing a custom PBO Curve and does not get too hot at all under an AIO.
 
Main reason I'm upgrading the cooling is:
1. I got a Freezer II 420mm AIO off of official Arctic B-stock on ebay for $70. 😁

2. The cooler currently on the 3900X (Thermalright Le Grand Macho) is gonna be going with the 3900X as I upgrade my partner's build with it. She's gonna be getting my 3900X and 1080ti soon, which is frankly ridiculous for her 1080p monitors.
 
Good move. I have a 5800x and 5950x rig. The 5950x has 128GB DDR3200 and runs very well with heavy loads. Above all it's SILENT! :-D
 
Pretty pleased with this- my idle temps:

1655404584170.png
 
TheSlySyl said:
My Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 arrived today, so I put the order in for my 5950x and it arrives tomorrow. I'll have everything installed by the end of the week.
Click to expand...
Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 is just frickin' awesome...you'll love it!

Since I have one...now I want to upgrade my 3900X to a 5950X :)
 
bluestang said:
Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 is just frickin' awesome...you'll love it!

Since I have one...now I want to upgrade my 3900X to a 5950X :)
Click to expand...
What temps did it keep your 3900X at? Just curious.
All my parts are here but I suspect that it's gonna take a pretty big rebuild to install the Liquid Freezer II, so I haven't dedicated time to it yet.
 
They say people never upgrade CPUs without a new mainboard - they are wrong. I left my FX 8350 rig behind for:

Asus Prime B350-Plus (needed PCI slots) & Ryzen 1700 & 16G DDR4-3000 RAM (lucky on launch to have RAM work at XMP speeds)
--> 2700X
--> Crosshair VI Extreme
--> 3900X & 32G DDR4-3600 RAM CL16
--> 3950X
--> 5950X

Old parts trickled down to other machines and family members, and I do a lot of video encodes for my Plex Server (now running the 3900X). Each step upgrade has been very noticeable.
 
mvmiller12 said:
They say people never upgrade CPUs without a new mainboard - they are wrong. I left my FX 8350 rig behind for:

Asus Prime B350-Plus (needed PCI slots) & Ryzen 1700 & 16G DDR4-3000 RAM (lucky on launch to have RAM work at XMP speeds)
--> 2700X
--> Crosshair VI Extreme
--> 3900X & 32G DDR4-3600 RAM CL16
--> 3950X
--> 5950X

Old parts trickled down to other machines and family members, and I do a lot of video encodes for my Plex Server (now running the 3900X). Each step upgrade has been very noticeable.
Click to expand...
Same. Went from a Ryzen 1700 -> 3900X -> 5950X (Also went from X370 to X570) and each one has been a noticeable improvement. Plex is part of why but I also host a minecraft server and just some straight up video streaming/editing that takes as many cores as you can throw at it.

The 5950 is installed, my arctic liquid freezer II is mostly installed (Of course my B-Stock was missing a component... already reached out and they're sending me a replacement. I have something else holding it in place for now). My computer is near its final form!

I'm 95% certain that my Liquid Freezer II isn't making enough contact with my CPU because I'm using some thumb nuts that I found that aren't the official ones so they didn't even really tighten that well, but its not getting over 80C load with all cores at 4.3ghz during Cinebench.

My idle temps are ridiculous at the moment at around 50c though, so i'm hoping when I get the actual thumb screws those will go down.
Even more impressive is how I'm gonna be bringing my "old" X370 board out of retirement to install that 3900X into for my wife. I know that with recent bios updates its more than good enough for a 3900X, so absolutely nothing is getting wasted.

I think I even have enough spare parts that I can build that R7 1700 into something. I gotta figure out what I want to do with that.
 
Did you remove the protective film from the LFII 420? LoL it's been known to happen...I did it once when disrupted by my kids during an install ;)
 
bluestang said:
Did you remove the protective film from the LFII 420? LoL it's been known to happen...I did it once when disrupted by my kids during an install ;)
Click to expand...
Haha, yeah, i removed it. The cooler was missing these things:
1655486366128.png

I had some nuts that kinda fit (from my Le Grand Macho, weirdly enough) but they aren't really an exact, tight fit. But they're enough that its holding the cooler down in place. However I'm definitely gonna replace them with the official ones as soon as I get them.
Definitely not the optimal solution.
1655486508017.png
 
My Brother-In-Law had been using a 2700X and a GeForce 960 to do his Blender renders and he said it was unbearably slow. He inherited my old 3950X and he was skeptical it would have much of effect on his pipeline.

It blew his socks off. Double the cores and threads, at a higher frequency, and with a much better IPC. He said multi-minute renders are down to a much more reasonable several seconds.
 
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