AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D uses their 2nd Gen V-Cache technology to give the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X an overhaul that transforms its behaviour. Against all the odds it is excellent at gaming and also at productivity tasks. Our benchmark charts in this review will likely bring despair to Intel.

Time stamps

00:00 Start
01:04 Technical data
01:58 3D V-Cache / Chipset Drivers
02:32 Hardware
03:20 BIOS / Latency heatmap
03:47 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core
03:59 Cinebench 2024 Single Core
04:14 Geekbench 6 Multi Core
04:25 Geekbench 6 Single Core
04:31 Cinebench Multi Core Per £ of cost
05:15 CPU Power Consumption
05:28 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core Per Watt
05:59 7Zip v24 Benchmark
06:05 AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth
06:27 3DMark Time Spy
06:45 Far Cry 6 (1080p)
07:02 Far Cry 6 (1440p)
07:10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1080p)
07:29 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p)
07:48 Assassins Creed Mirage (1080p)
07:59 Assassins Creed Mirage (1440p)
08:16 Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p)
08:33 Cyberpunk 20277 (1440p)
08:45 Total War Pharaoh (1080p)
09:02 Total War Pharaoh (1440p)
09:16 Closing Thoughts

Alongside this Ryzen 9 9950X3D, AMD is also releasing the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D that we have reviewed HERE.

If you check out that review you will have the background information you require to understand why moving from two 6-core CCDs in the 9900X3D to 8-core CCDs in this 9950X3D is a much bigger deal than it sounds..

AMD announced the Ryzen 9 9900X3D at CES 2025 which allies twelve cores of Zen 5 goodness with a slab of 2nd Gen V-Cache. This approach works superbly well with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and today we find out how well it works in a grunty Ryzen 9.

Time stamps

00:00 Start
01:33 9900X3D Hardware Specs
02:40 A look at AMD charts
03:58 AMD Chipset Drivers – the importance
04:46 Hardware test setup
05:58 BIOS settings and core latencies
06:30 Cinebench 2024 Single Core
07:21 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core
07:29 Geekbench 6 Multi Core
07:41 Geekbench 6 Single Core
07:53 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core per £ of cost
09:28 CPU Power Consumption
10:00 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core Per Watt
10:42 7 ZIP v24 Benchmark
11:01 AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth
11:20 3DMark Time Spy
11:50 Far Cry 6 1080p
12:12 Far Cry 6 1440p
12:28 Avatar Frontiers of Pandora 1080p
12:50 Avatar Frontiers of Pandora 1440p
13:05 Assassins Creed Mirage 1080p
13:23 Assassins Creed Mirage 1440p
13:37 Cyberpunk 2077 1080p
13:48 Cyberpunk 2077 1440p
14:02 Total War Pharaoh 1080p
14:17 Total War Pharaoh 1440p
14:44 Leo’s views on this launch / 9900X3D
18:17 Closing thoughts

As background reading to this review of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D we suggest you look at our reviews of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D HERE and the Ryzen 9 9900X HERE as AMD has used their clever 2nd Gen V-Cache Technology to enhance the Zen 5 Ryzen 9 9900X. The result, as you will see in our video, is a CPU that AMD claims is ‘The Perfect Processor for Elite Gamers'.

Nvidia and AMD have launched their new graphics cards and we are all set for gaming in 2025, however there have been some shocks along the way. Naturally we expected Nvidia would soak us for a fortune but who would have predicted that Nvidia RTX 50-series would turn out to be an utter disaster? Or that AMD RX 9070 XT looks good? Wow!

00:00 Start
01:19 Unboxing
03:00 The GPU
03:45 The power connectors
06:20 Reasons why
06:35 Missing ROPS – Nvidia reply
08:15 Decision was made easy for Leo

I was so confident that Nvidia's new GPUs would be great that I placed my order for an RTX 5080 Founders Edition before Jensen took to the CES stage for his keynote address, and by the time he finsihed speaking I knew I had made the correct decision. By contrast AMD mucked things up by delaying their launch of RX 9070 XT and that made me sad.

Once the Nvidia reviews started to flow I had to rethink my position. Nvidia 50-series delivered less performance than I expected, despite the huge power draw, and we had reports of melting 12V 2×6 power connectors and chips that were missing ROPs. In the blink of an eye I cancelled my unfulfilled order – availability of Nvidia graphics sucks, hard – and ordered a PowerColor RX 9070 XT Red Devil 16GB Limited Edition instead.

KitGuru says: Nvidia has run into a series of problems with RTX 50-series while AMD RX 9070 XT looks like a winner