We put the 9950X3D through numerous gaming and productivity benchmarks, efficiency tests, and more

The Highlights

• 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU with a 5.7 GHz max advertised boost clock and 128MB of L3 cache
• The 9950X is a better value for pure productivity and the 9800X3D is a better value for pure gaming
• The 9950X3D is a compelling CPU for both heavy production workloads and gaming
• Original MSRP: $700
• Release Date: March 12, 2025

Table of Contents

• AutoTOC

Intro

The quick version up front: The 9950X3D is comparable to the 9800X3D in most gaming scenarios, sometimes trading places; in production, it’s similar to the 9950X. The biggest change has been to the setup, which AMD says should now be simplified from prior dual-CCD parts with one faster CCD and one extra V-cache CCD. Historically, setting this up properly has made it necessary to isolate drives. If you were to install a 7600X and upgrade to a 7950X3D later, the easiest thing to do would be a clean Windows install (although there were ways to avoid this). That should be fixed now, but we’re still keeping all our drives isolated.

AMD is launching its R9 9950X3D CPU. This is a 16-core, 32-thread part with a listed MSRP of $700. The $600 MSRP 9900X3D will be launching alongside it, but wasn’t sampled, which is normally not a good sign.

Editor's note: This was originally published on March 11, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.

Credits

Test Lead, Host, Writing

Steve Burke

Testing

Patrick Lathan
Mike Gaglione

Camera, Video Editing

Vitalii Makhnovets

Writing, Web Editing

Jimmy Thang

But as we all know, MSRP often doesn’t hold at launch as new silicon gets sold at higher prices. We just uploaded an entire video digging into that. In either case, for these CPUs, we definitely wouldn’t pay over MSRP since the 9950X (read our review) is available regularly for $545, with the 9800X3D (read our review) for gaming at $480 (which is MSRP) as we write this. That may change, of course.

Today, we’re reviewing the 9950X3D. It’s been a long review cycle the past 3 months, so we’re going to keep this one simple and focus on the numbers.

9950X3D Overview

Let’s get straight into it today. We’ll start with the specs.

The AMD 9950X3D is part of the Zen 5 architecture that launched with the 9700X (read our review) and other CPUs last year. The 9800X3D swooped-in a little later and cleaned-up what was a confusing and messy launch, largely making major moves for gaming CPUs and giving us something to be excited about as it’s a really good CPU.

The 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU with a 5.7 GHz max advertised boost, 4.3 GHz base clock, and L3 cache at 128 MB. TDP target is 170W.

For comparison, the normal 9950X also has a max advertised boost of 5.7 GHz, base of 4.3 GHz, and TDP of 170W. These are shared. The cache changes, at 64 MB of L3.

The 9950X3D has two CCDs, with one of the two CCDs bearing extra cache. This is stacked vertically. As we described in the 9800X3D review, the cache this time is flipped so that it’s closer to the substrate than the lid, pushing the cores closer to the IHS. In the 9800X3D review, we demonstrated how this helped significantly with cooling.

9950X3D Testing

We’re keeping it incredibly simple this time. As always, you can find our test bench information published here. 

For gaming tests, we have all new data including the latest Windows updates and microcode for everything. That means we’ve refreshed the data set and wiped out what we had, so every CPU you that has been run was done in the last 3 days or so. We got the important ones in there. For production, we were able to salvage a lot of data since it’s the same.

We’ve been completely buried by one GPU after another in an onslaught of benchmarks and follow-ups the last few weeks, so for this one, we’re sticking to the basics.

Let’s just get into it.

Frequency Tests

Frequency - Blender All-Core

Frequency analysis is up first. We do this testing to ensure the CPUs are functioning as expected and to help explain the performance later.

First up is the Blender all-core workload. In this test, the 9950X3D had a frequency plot that started at about 5250 MHz, but settled closer to 5020 MHz to 5080 MHz during testing. This chart is intentionally zoomed-in to make it easier to see, so the scale purposefully does not start at 0.

For comparison, the 9950X non-3D (read our review) had higher peaks, but similar valleys. It ranged from 5010 MHz to 5080 MHz. In terms of average frequency over the course of the test, the 9950X3D averaged 5038 MHz all core to the 9950X’s 5036 MHz, but the X3D CPU did so with fewer peaks and more level frequencies in the middle of its range. We think this will be beneficial to it in gaming. 

The 9800X3D 5220 MHz all-core, putting it well above both. This will help it in some specific workloads, but obviously the lower core count will set it back elsewhere.

Frequency - Cinebench 1C

The next chart is for frequency in a Cinebench single thread workload. This has the 9950X3D up in the range of 5650 to 5725 MHz, which hits AMD’s advertised frequency of 5.7 GHz. The 9950X holds its frequency steadier and with fewer dips between tile cycles, but is overall comparable.

The 9800X3D holds 5225 MHz throughout the test so it’s lower than both when in a single-threaded workload in this situation.

9950X3D Game Benchmarks

Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is up now. This one had the AMD R9 9950X3D at 155 FPS AVG, technically becoming a new chart topper. The 9800X3D was our chart topper last time and is now functionally tied with the 9950X3D as the best CPU on the chart.

The good news is that the 9950X3D doesn’t appear to be suffering from its dual-CCD approach, so parking is functioning properly and the CPU is not hamstrung by its extra threads. 

The 9950X3D outranks the 7950X3D by similar margins as the 9800X3D did: It’s 23% higher average framerate, with lows comparable for the average. The 7950X3D (watch our review) outdid the 7950X, which we’re using old data for but should be no greater than 2-3% different based on our study of this test, by 29%. That’s with proper setup for the 7950X3D this time.

As compared to the 9950X at 101 FPS AVG, the 9950X3D outdid it by 54%. The 9950X is closer to the 7950X (watch our review) for performance, which makes sense. This game really benefits from the extra cache.

In fact, an easy example of this is the 5700X3D (read our review) vs. the 5600X3D (read our review): In some games, the 5600X3D outperforms the 5700X3D because of its higher clock rate. In this instance, the cache and core count was more beneficial than the frequency.

The 5800X3D (watch our review) remains an excellent CPU, up at 119 FPS AVG. The 9950X3D and 9800X3D outrank it by about 30%. As for Intel, it remains uncompetitive here. The 285K is getting crushed by two prior Intel generations for reasons discussed in that review, and that’s with new Windows updates.

Stellaris

Stellaris is one of our favorite CPU benchmarks because it looks at time rather than framerate, which is the most tangible to a user and the most directly influenced by the CPU. Players of 4X or other grand strategy games like Total War with the campaign map, Galactic Civilizations IV with turn pacing (and that’s a great game, if you haven’t played it), and Civilization would also see value here.

For Stellaris, the 9800X3D and 9950X3D both perform at the top of the chart. The 9800X3D outperformed the 9950X3D with a reduction in simulation time of 5%. That’s near error, but not quite. This seems to be a combination of a higher base clock and utilization.

The 9950X3D is definitely working as expected, though, because it’s outperforming the 9950X significantly. The simulation time requirement drops by almost 15%, from 32.3 seconds to 27.6 seconds.

This is the one game where Zen 5 in particular had stronger gains over Zen 4, with the 9700X doing well here and proving that. That’s from IPC uplift overall, where Zen 5 is benefitted.

Intel’s 285K is competitive with the 7800X3D and 9700X, at least. The 14900K (read our review) and 14700K (read our review) are within error of each other.

Dragon’s Dogma 2

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, the 9950X3D leads the chart. It landed at 132 FPS AVG here, passing the 9800X3D by a measurable but irrelevant 3.2%. Both CPUs lead all of Intel’s, although Intel at least lands its prior two generations ahead of the 7950X3D and 7800X3D with the game’s updates. This game really seems to benefit from extra cache, with the 9950X3D leading the 9950X by 46% and the 9800X3D leading the 9700X (although they have other differences) by 41%. Dragon’s Dogma 2 remains heavy on CPUs in NPC-intensive areas.

The 285K continues to impress with how much of a downgrade it is from not only AMD’s current generation, but Intel’s past generations.

We added the older results for the 3700X and 2600 to this chart. We noticed that performance on older generations hasn’t changed much. At most, there might be a 5% change here, but we don’t think so. Even with that though, anything is an upgrade.

Intel has seen the most upgrade since our last round of tests. This game has gotten updates, so it’s possible some of those were targeted at Intel. Windows updates could also affect it. We consistently saw uplift across Intel’s CPUs. That’s shifted the relative ranking of the 14th and 13th gen against the 7800X3D (watch our review).

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail - 1080p

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is up now. In this one, the 9800X3D ran at 380 FPS AVG, with the 9950X3D at 373 FPS AVG. We observed relatively wide run-to-run variance in some of these results, so the error bars are wider than typical. The 9800X3D leads the 9950X3D by just 2%, so they are functionally equal.

The 9950X3D bests its 9950X non-3D variant by 50 FPS or so, or 16% here in average framerate. The 1% lows are also significantly improved, indicating that frametime pacing is keeping up with improvements in the average framerate.

The improvement over the 7950X3D is 5.8%.

Intel’s closest CPUs don’t appear until the 14900K at 310 FPS AVG. This is mostly interesting because there was a time when Final Fantasy’s prior benchmark versions were entirely dominated by Intel, with the clean division halfway down the chart. This is actually what we’re seeing now favoring AMD, relegating Intel to the bottom. That’s flipped in recent years and generations.

Intel’s 285K underperforms against its prior two generations. There was no change in performance against last time for the 285K. Intel’s one advantage in this test is frametime pacing, where the 0.1% lows indicate that Intel’s CPUs generally have more consistent frame-to-frame intervals than AMD’s CPUs, although not by an amount that’d change your experience in a noticeable way.

The 5600X3D outperforms the 5700X3D in this game. This has been known and is because of the higher clock speed on the 5600X3D, which proves more valuable than the extra cores.

Final Fantasy XIV - 1440p

At 1440p, the top of the chart truncates as a result of GPU limitations on the RTX 4090 (watch our review). We’ll move to a 5090 (read our review) for our full revamp of CPU testing for the next major architecture, but for now, this is where we cap-out. We’re sure this is deeply disappointing to all 12 of you who have an RTX 5090.

The 9800X3D and 9950X3D are about the same once again. The 7950X3D is also now about the same, as is the 9700X, thanks to the external limitations. This is a good reminder that the gains once scaling graphics are most seen in time-based situations or in seriously heavy CPU games like Dragon’s Dogma 2, but otherwise, most of the time you’ll get the most uplift from a GPU.

Starfield

In Starfield, we had the 9950X3D at 171 FPS AVG, leading the 9800X3D’s 165 FPS by 3%. The 9800X3D was notably ahead of the 7800X3D and the 9950X3D continued that, though neither had as revolutionary of a gain as we’ve seen in other benchmarks.

The 14900K trails the 7800X3D, improving upon its prior round result in a meaningful way; however, because of the improvements we’re seeing in the prior generations, the 285K now falls back behind Intel’s 14900K in this test. The 285K still regresses and generally embarrasses Intel, trailing even the 13700K (watch our review). Intel has continually tweaked its microcode on these prior generations, so it’s possible that they rolled-out a microcode that had lost some performance at some point and they’ve regained some now with the 13th and 14th series. We update BIOS to the newest version for each round.

Against the 9950X at 124 FPS AVG, the 9950X3D improves by 37%. That’s one of the larger gains. Of course, if you’re not going to use the extra cores, the 9800X3D makes more sense for value.

Cyberpunk 2077 - 1080p/Medium

Cyberpunk 2077 is back in our CPU test suite again with the Phantom Liberty expansion. Tested at 1080p/medium here, the 9800X3D and 9950X3D both ran at about 219 FPS AVG and were well within run-to-run variance at only fractions of a frame per second apart. The 7800X3D trails, but not by much. It’d be roughly the same experience as these two.

The lead of the 9950X3D over the 9950X is 37% again, matching some of the other games. The Intel 200 series outdoes the prior generations here, finally, with the 285K at 170 FPS AVG. Unfortunately, that’s still below the AM4 5700X3D and 5600X3D.

F1 24 - 1080p

F1 24 at 1080p is up now. This one has the 9950X3D and 9800X3D again roughly tied, with the 7800X3D not far behind. The advantage is only 7%. The 9950X3D leads the 9950X non-3D variant by 29%, slightly reduced from the advantage seen in other games. We might be hitting a GPU limit here.

Intel’s 14900K is its closest competition, released in 2023, with the 285K down at 9950X levels. The 5600X3D and 5700X3D results show again that this game likes frequency and IPC to some extent.

F1 24 - 1440p

1440p is almost exactly the same in the bottom half, with the top switching around due to GPU overhead and limitations on GPU scaling. The 5800X3D falls down the ranks as the 14th and 13th gen handle the overhead a little better and with more stable frametime pacing, which helps the average. Otherwise, things are about the same sans limitations of scaling for the 9950X3D.

9950X3D Production Benchmarks

We’re moving on to production tests now. This is where the 16-core CPUs do well. Historically, we’ve seen the X3D variants of all of these CPUs underperform against the non-X3D parts due to power allocation to allow higher boosting. Extra cache doesn’t help in our testing here normally. We’ll see if the 9950X3D breaks that general trend.

Blender Rendering

Blender testing hasn’t changed since our October round. We ran validation on several CPUs and the results came out basically identically, so we can keep a lot of data for more comparisons. This should help those of you on older hardware because we’ve got more present here.

The 9950X3D required 6.6 minutes to complete the render, which is about tied with the 9950X. It was technically faster, but in reality, these are tied. That’s good news for the X3D part, though: Past X3D CPUs, like the 7950X3D, have been technically slightly slower than their non-3D equivalents. That’s not because of scheduling or parking, but because the frequency is slower in an all-core workload.

Another good example is the 7800X3D, which was slower than the 7700X by time required, or 5800X3D as slower than the 5800X. The 9950X3D is the first to break this trend in a big way. Technically, the 9800X3D looked like it was doing that against the 9700X, but the power target was what brought most of that change.

The 9950X3D outperforms the 285K here, with about a 7% reduction in total time required to complete the render.

Chromium Code Compile

Chromium code compile in Windows is another where the data set hasn’t changed, so we were able to salvage it after validation. The 9950X3D required 81 minutes to complete the compile, which is comparable to the time required for the 9950X, but technically improved. This puts it marginally ahead of the freshly retested 285K, with a reduction in time required to compile from 285K to 9950X3D of 4.7% less time required. The 14900K required 88 minutes here, with the 265K at 98 minutes. 

The 9950X3D is the new leader in our compile test. This is not going to be representative of every type of code compile, just like none of these tests is representative of every angle of a use case; however, the way we test it, the 9950X3D is the new leader short of going to Threadripper.

7-Zip Compression

Data for decompression and compression can’t be salvaged, so it’s all new.

In 7-Zip file compression testing, the 9950X3D led the chart at 206,643 MIPs, or millions of instructions per second. That has it just ahead of the 9950X by 3.3%. This is one of the tests where cache can help, depending on its implementation. The 5600X3D and 5600X are good examples of this: The X3D part has a lower advertised frequency, but manages to still roughly tie the 5600X.

The 9950X3D outperforms the 7950X3D by 8.5%, which completed 191K MIPS. The 14900K is next at roughly 189K MIPS, then the 13900K (watch our review). The 285K follows all of these, down at 179K MIPS. 

Core count clearly matters in this test: The 3950X 16-core CPU is outperforming the 5900X 12-core CPU and 9700X 8-core CPU.

7-Zip Decompression

In 7-Zip Decompression, we measured the 9950X3D at 277K MIPS, with the 9950X non-3D at 272K MIPS. You wouldn’t really benefit from the 9950X3D in a meaningful way in either compression or decompression in this workload. The 9950X achieves all of the performance already, so you’d need use cases that more directly leverage the cache to get value out of the 9950X3D.

Intel’s 14900K is its closest competitor, followed by the 14700K and then the 285K.

Adobe Premiere

We saved some of the data for Adobe Premiere as well. The biggest swing was to Intel’s 12th to 14th Gen CPUs here, where we saw some movement from the Windows updates recently. Most of the other parts stayed relatively stationary. Any 12th to 14th Gen CPUs with data prior to this round would move around a bit, so be aware of that; however, just to try and offer some extra data that’s still mostly comparable, we’ve left those parts here. Most of this data is brand new.

The 9950X3D scored 11600 points in the Puget suite aggregate extended scoring for Premiere, which puts it at the top of the chart. It bests the 9950X by 5.8%, with the 14900K closest to it, then the 285K. The improvement over the 7950X non-3D is 7%.

9950X3D Efficiency

We’ll keep power and efficiency testing short this time and just show a couple situations.

Starfield

In Starfield, the 9950X3D ended up at 1.7 FPS/W, putting it behind the 7950X3D and 7800X3D, but tied with the 5700X3D and 9800X3D. The 9950X3D pulled 98.8W when playing this game, and Starfield is one of our games that most heavily loads the CPU (but is still nothing like an all-core Blender workload).

The 9950X non-3D part pulled 168W in this same test, putting it down at 0.7 FPS/W. That means the 9950X pulled nearly 70W more than the 9950X3D, or about a 70% increase in power consumption despite running at a lower framerate. In terms of FPS/W, the 9950X3D is both higher framerate and lower power, and so it is far more efficient. It’s still not as efficient as the low-power 7800X3D, though.

7-Zip Compression

7-Zip compression shows that the 9950X3D can still be power-hungry. In our compression efficiency testing, the 9950X3D pulled 203.8W. That put it at 1014 MIPS/W, which makes it less efficient than about half the chart. The CPU is the best performer, but not for efficiency and that’s because it’s pulling 204W, its efficiency has decreased compared to some others.

The 9950X scored 979 MIPS/W and pulled the same power at 204W, making it less efficient than the 9950X3D. The 7800X3D is a lower performer overall, and in big ways, but has such impressively low power consumption that it ends up being the most efficient.

Of course, if you were serious about running this kind of workload all the time, you’d still want something more powerful than the 7800X3D.

7-Zip Decompression

Decompression testing looks better for the 16-core parts, with the 7950X3D proving incredibly efficient here, followed by an impressive result from the 7950X non-3D with ECO Mode enabled. The 9950X3D ran at 1358 MIPS/W, putting it slightly ahead of the 9950X. They’re still in the middle of this chart though.

9950X3D Conclusion

That’s it. You have the numbers.

For the quickest recap: For gaming, you can think of the 9950X3D like a 9800X3D. We didn’t run into any major issues with the 9950X3D here. That in and of itself is kind of an accomplishment for AMD. The company has really struggled over the years with the dual CCDs, where one has the extra X3D cache on it. Over the years, it’s taken them some time to get to a place where it’s not regressive and where it’s a little easier to set up. The 9950X3D does appear to do that in our experience so far and that is a major improvement for AMD. It’s taken them some generations to get there.  

If you have the funds and are looking to build a purely gaming computer, we think you should scale it down and go for a 9800X3D. It’s just not that big of a difference as the 9800X3D often trades places with the 9950X3D and you save some money. 

Intel, on the other hand, is out of this conversation right now. They are not part of the high-end expensive CPU for gaming build scenario at the moment. 

Meanwhile, the 9950X makes sense for production-heavy builds that don’t have an explicit use for that extra cache. There’s definitely use-cases for this out there. We see a little bit of that in our 7-Zip testing, but for the most part in the things we test, it doesn’t tend to benefit from the extra cache in non-gaming scenarios. 

Where the 9950X3D, and the other X3D 16-core parts, shine is a more limited use case where you have some mix of really heavy production and really heavy gaming. If you do a lot of compression, decompression, maybe render things on the CPU, are heavy into Premiere, or do a lot of code compiles and play a lot of games, then that’s kind of the use case for the CPU. 

If you’re in one camp or the other exclusively, then you can save some money by going for either a 9800X3D or a 9950X.

We wouldn’t pay more than MSRP for the 9950X3D. CPUs tend to stick closer to MSRP, but can still have stupid prices from some retailers or third-party sellers.

Corsair is bringing its popular Custom Lab service to Europe, allowing gamers to create personalised peripherals that reflect their style. Corsair Custom Lab offers a one-stop shop for creating custom gear, allowing users to express themselves through mice, keyboards, and mousepads, with plans to expand the product offerings.

Corsair Custom Lab allows customers to personalise the appearance of gaming peripherals, enabling them to curate a workspace aesthetic that is uniquely their own. Users can select from various colours and themes, ranging from retro gaming designs to futuristic graphics, giving them a canvas for self-expression.

The K65 Plus Wireless gaming keyboard, the M75 Wireless gaming mouse, and the MM300 mousepad are the first products available through Custom Lab in Europe, but expect more to come. Corsair Custom Lab will be accessible through all EU Corsair webstores, with keyboard layouts for North America, the UK, Germany, and France available at launch.

The Corsair Custom Lab platform is now live on Corsair websites in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Poland. Artist series selections currently available on the US website will be offered to EU customers at a later date.

KitGuru says: Corsair's Custom Lab is a nice option for users who want to avoid the hassle of customising keyboards or searching for specific parts in various stores. However, that comes at a price, literally.

With both Nvidia and AMD having launched new-generation graphics cards this year, it is now time to take a look at the state of the market. Nvidia's RTX 50 series GPUs have been available since the end of January and as of last week, the AMD RX 9070 series GPUs are also available. Early stats indicate that AMD is currently outselling by volume.

The team at ComputerBase (via 3DCenter) has revealed the results of its latest survey, finding that around 60 percent of 4,200 readers surveyed have bought an RX 90000 series graphics card over an RTX 50 unit. Of those surveyed, around 25 percent opted for a current-gen Nvidia GPU, while a further 20 percent opted to pick up an older generation graphics card instead.

These results confirm something industry onlookers had already suspected – RTX 50 stock is in extremely low supply and AMD did a much better job building up stock for its RX 9070 launch compared to Nvidia's RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 launches.

As the stock situation fluctuates, we expect these results to eventually change. As Nvidia provides multiple higher-end options compared to AMD, we would expect Nvidia to still accrue more money from GPU sales, even if it doesn't shift as much overall volume over the coming months.

KitGuru Says: Have you attempted to pick up a new-gen graphics card in recent weeks? Were you successful or have you struggled to find stock?

BlizzCon is coming back in 2026! The ultimate celebration of Blizzard's games and the vibrant community that unites players will again grace the Anaheim Convention Center on September 12th and 13th, 2026.

BlizzCon is a cherished tradition for Blizzard and its fans. For many, it goes beyond simply showcasing games. It's where fans celebrate their shared passion for Blizzard's universes. Since its inaugural event in 2005, BlizzCon has been a staple for fans of its work. Now, nearly 20 years later, Blizzard aims to elevate this iconic event to new heights.

After skipping 2024 and 2025 (Blizzard confirmed we wouldn't get one this year), BlizzCon is returning in 2026. Blizzard plans to deliver an exceptional experience for all attendees, building upon BlizzCon traditions such as the Opening Ceremony, in-depth panels, the Darkmoon Faire, friendly competition, and hands-on gameplay.

Expect to learn more details between now and the event's date. Users can always subscribe to BlizzCon's newsletter to be notified when tickets go on sale and receive access to BlizzCon news, special offers, and announcements.

KitGuru says: Have you ever gone to a BlizzCon? Would you like to?

Moon Studios' critically acclaimed Ori series has achieved a remarkable milestone, surpassing 15 million copies sold across Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

Thomas Mahler, the series' director, celebrated this achievement on social media, noting that it's “not too shabby” for a genre that many considered dead when development of the first game started. Funny enough, Steam now receives new metroidvania games every week or so, and in part, that could be explained by how Ori revitalised the genre.

Adding to this accomplishment, Mahler revealed that these sales figures do not include players who experienced the games through Xbox Game Pass. As such, the game has likely been played by well over the 15 million players who've bought it.

In other news, Moon Studios has announced its independence following months of negotiations with what remains of Private Division. The studio is now focusing on its action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked, which is currently in early access. The announcement was made during a recent Wicked Inside Showcase, where the studio revealed what's coming to its latest game.

The studio unveiled the game's upcoming update, “The Breach,” scheduled for release on April 30th, 2025. This update will introduce new content, including new regions like the Lowland Meadows and Marin Woods, weapon archetypes such as Gauntlets and Wands, and various cosmetic and performance enhancements. The update also focuses on replayability, implementing QoL improvements like direct teleportation to your house, an enhanced storage system, and a Hardcore mode.

KitGuru says: Have you ever played an Ori game?

Ever since the release of Palit's RTX 4090 GameRock, I've been waiting to see what the company would do next, and today we finally get our answer. That's because we're reviewing the RTX 5090 GameRock, featuring a bold, eye-catching design and a fat – effectively quad-slot – cooler. Concerns around pricing and availability remain just as pressing as they did when the RTX 5090 first launched, but what can this partner card bring to the table?

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
00:44 5090 pricing/availability – no pre-orders at all
01:21 GameRock design impressions
03:10 PCB and heatsink analysis
04:25 Test setup
04:52 Thermals and noise
06:05 Game benchmarks
06:51 Power – 12VHPWR is a huge concern
10:07 Overclocking
10:50 Closing thoughts

I remember the first time I opened the box of the last-gen Palit RTX 4090 GameRock and couldn't quite believe my eyes. The shroud was almost entirely covered in a crystal-like plastic, and once the system turned on, the RGB lighting was like nothing I'd ever seen before.

Following up something like that can often be tricky, but Palit has gone for what it describes as a ‘chameleon' aesthetic with the RTX 5090 GameRock. It's still incredibly eye-catching, but we take a closer look at the design on the next page.

It's also worth pointing out that I was sent the regular GameRock, rather than the GameRock OC, so my sample ships without a factory overclock – i.e. at reference spec.

First, a quick spec recap. The RTX 5090 is built on the new GB202 die, measuring 750mm², though it's not quite a full implementation of the silicon. Instead we find a total of 11 Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), each holding up to eight Texture Processing Clusters (TPCs), for a total of 85. Each TPC is home to two Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), giving us 170, and each SM still holds 128 CUDA Cores, meaning the RTX 5090 has an eye-watering total of 21760 shaders. We also find 170 RT cores, 680 Tensor cores, 680 Texture Units, and 176 ROPs.

This time around, however, there's no node-shrink, and GB202 remains fabricated on TSMC's N4 node, as per the RTX 40-series. As such, rated clock speed is not increased this generation and is actually touted slightly below that of the RTX 4090, with the RTX 5090 delivering a rated 2407MHz boost clock, compared to its predecessor's 2520MHz boost.

The memory configuration has seen significant upgrades, though. The RTX 5090 now comes equipped with a super-wide 512-bit memory interface, paired with 32GB GDDR7 memory running at 28Gbps, and that puts total memory bandwidth at a staggering 1792 GB/s. L2 cache is also increased to 98MB, up from the 74MB of the RTX 4090.

Considering the large increases to die size and core count, but with no node shrink, it's perhaps unsurprising to see power draw has increased, this time boasting a 575W TGP. This is something we focus on closely in this review, using our enhanced GPU power testing methodology, so read on for our most detailed power and efficiency testing yet.

For well over a decade LEGO has had a strong relationship with TT Games, letting the studio use its IP to craft co-op focused LEGO titles across a range of franchises. Despite this, the company has now announced that it’s gearing up to build its own internal game dev studios.

As reported by the Financial Times (paywalled), LEGO looks set to take a further step into the video games industry, with the company’s CEO ‘Niels Christiansen’ telling the publication:

“We can definitely say as long as we're under the Lego brand we can cover experiences for kids of all ages, digital or physical. [Games development in-house] is something we're building up.”

This comes in the wake of a number of major moves made by the company in recent years across the video games space.

Alongside a reduction in the number of TT Games developed LEGO titles, the company has partnered with Epic for a Fortnite spin-off as well as Sony for LEGO Horizon Adventures.

Given the success they have seen with such partnerships, it is interesting to hear that the company plans to get into video game development directly. Hopefully this doesn’t end with studio closures and mass lay-offs. We will simply have to wait and see.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this announcement? Should the company stick to partnering with others? What would you want to see done differently for these internal titles? Let us know down below.

Apple Arcade was created with the intention to bring wider awareness to the many great video games available on mobile platforms. With a monthly subscription, iOS users can get their hands on a range of interesting and unique games, all of which are free from microtransactions. Following the last major update, the service is set to get 6 new titles next month, including a new Katamari.

Making the announcement on their blog, the Arcade team at Apple wrote: “Six fun games and exciting updates for Apple Arcade are launching over the next month.”

Set to go go live on the 3rd of April, the full line-up of new titles is as follows:

• Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE
• Space Invaders Infinity Gene Evolve
• puffies.
• RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic+
• The Game of Life 2+
• Sesame Street Mecha Builders+

Easily the biggest upcoming addition is that of Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE. The first new entry in almost a decade, this Apple Arcade exclusive takes the classic Katamari format and adds a twist, having players:

“energize the king’s ‘live stream’ by rolling their Katamari to create stars. As users advance, comments from in-game fans appear, and the longer they play, the larger their audience grows. By completing the king’s challenges and boosting their subscriber count, players can unlock dynamic new stages.”

Fortunately for fans of the series, you might not need to purchase an Apple device in order to get a new taste of the King of all Cosmos, as Bandai Namco recently trademarked the name ‘Once Upon a KATAMARI’ – suggesting more games are in the works. Regardless, it is exciting to see the series finally rise from its slumber.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the line-up? Will you check out Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE? What Apple Arcade exclusive has been your favourite so far? Let us know down below.

During Sony’s State of Play last September, the console manufacturer announced that the highly successful HITMAN World of Assassination Trilogy would be coming to PlayStation VR2 in December 2024. Following a slight delay, the game is finally ready for deployment, with the game set to come to PSVR2 later this month.

Announced during the VR Games Showcase, IO Interactive offered fans another look at HITMAN World of Assassination running on PSVR2. Set to launch on the 27th of March, this PSVR2 port won’t be free, however will be relatively cheap at just £8.99 for current owners of the flat-screen version.

Fans of this trilogy might remember the previous VR port made for the OG PSVR / PS4. Given its rather rudimentary hardware, the experience was far from perfect. Fortunately, this new release looks to be significantly more comprehensive, featuring “dual-wielding, full ambidexterity, room-scale implementation, as well as general improved VR experience through new intuitive controls and gameplay mechanics.”

Beyond this, the port also adds “the possibility of performing actions with both controllers at the same time, active reloading, on-body weapon holstering, aiming through the sniper’s scope, and manual interactions to take disguises,” alongside “spatial interactions to touch, grab, and position, integration of the PlayStation VR2 controllers’ adaptative triggers, and many more.”

This marks the 3rd attempt at a VR port for HITMAN, following the aforementioned PSVR1 version and the more recent Meta Quest release. That said, hopefully IOI have managed to hit the nail on its head this time. 3rd time lucky and all that.

KitGuru says: Are you looking forward to this PSVR2 port? Have you tried any of the other VR Hitman experiences? Could this be a system seller if done right? Let us know down below.

Dino Crisis is a beloved series from Capcom which has unfortunately seen little to no activity in decades. Following surveys conducted by the publisher asking whether they’d be interested in more Dino Crisis, Capcom has now registered a trademark for the game franchise in Japan.

As reported by Gematsu, Capcom recently published a trademark listing for Dino Crisis just a week ago as it pertains to video games.

While in and of itself perhaps not a big deal, as explained by Dino Crisis Community Rep Jawmuncher on BlueSky: “The [trademark] system doesn't work like it does in the US, so such a trademark means they must be planning to do SOMETHING with the IP.”

Lending further credence to this, it’s been well under 10 years since the IP was last re-trademarked, indicating that this could be more than just a case of maintaining the property rights.

As mentioned, Capcom has surveyed fans on a number of occasions asking which dormant IPs they would like to see return. With the likes of Onimusha finally getting the attention it deserves once again, perhaps Dino Crisis could be next in line? We can hope.

KitGuru says: Do you think this recent filing means anything? Would you want a new entry or a remake first? Let us know down below.

The new AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D contains one 8-core CCD with 3D V-Cache, and another 8-core processor die without 3D V-Cache, an impressive 144MB of cache and a TDP of 170W.  AMD…

Second generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio devices ran into a wee bit of a problem yesterday.  When owners of the devices tried to use them to stream content they were greeted…

The new flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D desktop processor has nearly arrived, and with it a merging of the best of both worlds from AMD - or so we hope. It really is…

MSI is a fairly new entrant when it comes to PSU components but the manufacturer has made it a priority to upgrade its entire lineup to the latest ATX 3.0 standard. The manufacturer offers its line in three segments, the entry-level MAG, the mid-tier MPG, and the enthusiast-grade MEG series. We previously got a taste of the MEG Ai1300P and the MPG A1000G ATX 3.0 PSU but this year, MSI is finally unleashing its flagship product, the MEG Ai1600T which goes all onboard the ATX 3.1 PSU segment with premium components and a powerful 1600W Titanium rating. MSI MEG Ai1600T […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/msi-meg-ai1600t-pcie5-1600w-power-supply-impressions-titanium-atx-3-1-rgb-it-has-it-all/

Last week, a dutch etailer caused quite a stir after telling RTX 5090 pre-order customers that they would have to wait longer for their graphics cards to arrive. Despite having units in stock, the store claimed that Nvidia had issued a recall of RTX 50 GPUs. We were quickly able to establish that no such recall is or was taking place, and now, customers who have been kept waiting for over a month are starting to get their graphics cards.

One of our YouTube channel subscribers, Ben, got in touch with us about the situation last week, producing proof of purchase for the RTX 5090 at uwgamespecialist.nl, as well as the email from their customer service stating that Nvidia had recalled a number of graphics cards. Ben had purchased the RTX 5090 for 3399 euros in January but despite the card showing as in stock on the retailer's website, he could not get an update on when the card would ship. This eventually led to the now infamous ‘recall' claim. The CEO for uwgamespecialist.nl later admitted in email to KitGuru that there was no recall and promised to get Ben the unit he ordered.

In an email this morning, Ben confirmed to us that he did indeed receive his MSI RTX 5090 Suprim graphics card from uwgamespecialist.nl on Monday. We know of at least one other customer who bought the same graphics card at a similar price, on the same day as Ben, who is also awaiting their unit. It is our hope that they also get their unit in the coming days.

To catch up on the whole story surrounding this situation, be sure to check out the editorial from our Editor-in-Chief, Allan Campbell, HERE.

KitGuru Says: If you are buying an in-demand item like the RTX 5090, be sure to keep an eye on the store you ordered from for any stock updates and raise the alarm if you notice something suspicious, like a dubious recall claim. You'll always be able to tell if a legitimate recall has been issued or not, as product recalls always require a public announcement from the original product manufacturer.  

Following yesterday's leak detailing the RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5050 specifications, the missing piece of the puzzle has finally fallen into place: the RTX 5060. The same leaker has now provided the full specifications of the upcoming GPU.

According to kopite7kimi (via videocardz), all three cards will use the same PG152 board design, which apparently supports two distinct GPUs (GB206 and GB207) and two memory types (GDDR6 and GDDR7). This suggests a unified platform, potentially streamlining production and reducing costs.

As predicted, the RTX 5060 non-Ti appears to be a slightly less powerful variant of the 5060 Ti. It features 3,840 CUDA cores, approximately 25% more than the RTX 4060, a higher 150W TGP, 35W more than its predecessor, and 8 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 128-bit memory bus. While clock speeds remain undisclosed, the core count increase, faster VRAM, and TGP difference suggest a decent performance uplift, at least more than the rest of the RTX 50 series brought compared to its RTX 40 series counterparts.

Nvidia is reportedly planning to announce the RTX 5060 alongside the RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5050 next week. These cards are expected to become available starting in April, but we're unsure if they'll all be released simultaneously.

KitGuru says: Of all three reportedly upcoming Nvidia RTX 50 series cards, which one looks the most interesting to you?

Microsoft has been rumoured to be working on a gaming handheld for decades. Even back during the days of the Xbox 360, there were rumours of an Xbox-style PSP or GameBoy style system. With handhelds now able to offer enough power to run even current-generation games, Microsoft finally looks to be jumping on the bandwagon. 

According to WindowsCentral, Microsoft is working on an Xbox companion handheld device to cap off the Xbox Series X/S generation. In collaboration with an unnamed OEM partner, this Xbox handheld is being developed under the codename ‘Keenan' and it should launch before the end of this year.

The handheld will run Windows 11, like several other handhelds already on the market, but with new ‘device aware' features that allow the OS to shift UI formats based on whether you're using a handheld, laptop or desktop. Think of it similarly to how the Steam Deck launches with the Big Picture UI, but you can opt to switch to desktop mode for more advanced tasks.

The handheld would be the last major hardware release of the Xbox Series X/S generation, as Microsoft is also reportedly moving ahead with plans to ship a new-gen Xbox console in 2027.

KitGuru Says: The issue I have with this strategy if that going via the OEM route almost always leads to increased costs. If the handheld can't compete with the Steam Deck on price, then I don't see any chance for widespread success. 

Konami's big Silent Hill revival has been a success thanks to Blooper Team's highly rated remake of Silent Hill 2. Now, Konami is gearing up to announce the next game in the franchise. 

This week, Konami will hold its latest Silent Hill Transmission stream, during which we will get new details on the project known as “Silent Hill F”.

Silent Hill F was first teased back in 2022, but Konami has revealed little else about it since. That will change during the stream on March 13th, as we'll get a fresh look at the game and its “completely new story set in 1960s Japan”.

Silent Hill F is being developed by Neoboards Entertainment, which previously worked on Resident Evil Resistance and RE:Verse. Blooper Team has also confirmed plans to work with Konami again on a new game in the future.

KitGuru Says: Following on from last year's remake, are you looking forward to seeing all-new Silent Hill games? 

ZA/UM Studio made a name for itself years back with Disco Elysium, but we've heard very little from the studio since. It looks like 2025 is set to be another big year for the company, as their next game has now finally been revealed under the codename ‘Project C4'. 

Project C4 is described as a “mind-warping espionage RPG that blends player introspection, deep character-driven dialogue and high-stakes encounters”. Based on that description, it will feature similar gameplay to Disco Elysium, where much of the game centres around character conversations, dialogue options made, dice rolls for skill checks and multiple outcomes to explore.

While the game may also borrow a lot of inspiration from Disco Elysium, it is worth noting that many of the leads on that game no longer work at ZA/UM Studio. Back in 2022, Disco Elysium's game director and art director left the company following a slew of firings and formed a new studio.

There is no word on when Project C4 will release but we expect to learn more about the game later this year.

KitGuru Says: Hopefully whatever behind-the-scenes issues took place following the release of Disco Elysium have been resolved. After all, an Espionage RPG in a similar style to Disco Elysium could end up being a huge hit. 

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved sandbox games that allowed you to manage large areas or populations. Whether it was Theme Hospital or SimCity 2000, a lot of time was spent playing those games. As someone who loves going to museums, big or small, I knew immediately that I had to play this game, and I'm so glad I did. Truly, you can't go wrong with any of the Two Point games, but Two Point Museum excels in areas that other sandbox titles do not. Between their first game and this new title, they have learned what […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/two-point-museum-two-point-at-its-best/