Hey everyone! I'm in a fortunate position to have picked up some new hardware at reasonable prices, including an SSD, RAM, and a 5090 GPU. Now I'm trying to decide whether to go for the 9950x3D or the 9800x3D/9850x3D, with the 9950x3D being about €200 more. My main usage will be 50% creative work (mainly After Effects and Premiere Pro, with a chance of using Blender) and 50% gaming (while streaming via OBS and using Discord). I'm curious to know if the 9950x3D is pretty much plug and play at this point with correct scheduling and core parking, or if there's a lot of fiddling involved. I'm technically literate enough to handle some adjustments, but I prefer not to constantly tweak settings. Also, have there been any updates from AMD about the rumored 9950x3D2?
4 Answers
If you're focused on creative work, I think the additional cores of the 9950X3D justify the price. Most modern CPUs are designed to be plug and play, just make sure you have a good cooler since they don’t come included. You can easily manage overclocking through boost clocks, or tweak settings for lower temps if needed.
Pretty much! I’ve created a batch file that sets process affinity for Steam to cores 0-15. It works great for most games without needing complex tweaks. It’s a powerhouse for sure; I’ve managed to undervolt it and still hit 5.4-5.5 GHz without issues.
That sounds manageable! Thanks for sharing your experience.
I had a similar experience when I upgraded from a 3950X to the 9950X3D. I just swapped my drives over to a new motherboard, powered up, and everything ran smoothly. I did have to clean some old drivers from the registry after realizing Windows still thought I was using my old motherboard. As for performance, it was a noticeable upgrade for me across the board, especially in gaming and creative tasks.
Thanks for the insights! I’m on a laptop right now but had a 12900K before, so I’m curious about performance. Regarding the motherboard, I’ve heard mixed reviews about ASRock reliability.
Good call on the motherboard choice! Better to be cautious, especially with AMD setups.
Definitely, it often just works without any hassle. Most setups are pretty good these days for general use cases, so you shouldn't have to worry much.
That's reassuring! Do you keep an eye on the core scheduling, or do the games just take care of that?
Got it! I’ve built five PCs before, so I'm familiar with the basics. But I'm really curious about the CCD scheduling issues people are talking about.