Home > CPU Comparison > Ryzen 9 5900X or Ryzen 9 3900X: what's better?

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs Ryzen 9 3900X

59 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
VS
48 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

We compared two 12-core desktop CPUs: the 3.7 GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900X against the 3.8 GHz Ryzen 9 3900X. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments (9)

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
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Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
54.4
(Average)
Value Index
23.6
(Mediocre)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3900X and 5900X
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • 33% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 2263 vs 1699 points
  • Newer - released 1 year and 3 months later
  • 4% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.8 GHz vs 4.6 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Ryzen 9 5900X
vs
Ryzen 9 3900X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench Scores (112th and 159th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Ryzen 9 5900X +33%
2263
Ryzen 9 3900X
1699
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Ryzen 9 5900X +21%
12701
Ryzen 9 3900X
10470
File compression 1170 MB/sec 872.1 MB/sec
Clang compilation 126 Klines/sec 104.4 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 217.8 pages/sec 209.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 362 Mpixels/sec 299.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 232 pages/sec 144.4 pages/sec
Background blur 38.7 images/sec 41.1 images/sec
Photo processing 85.1 images/sec 75.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 31.5 Mpixels/sec 24.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 441 & 801 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Ryzen 9 5900X +28%
3465
Ryzen 9 3900X
2703
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Ryzen 9 5900X +20%
38888
Ryzen 9 3900X
32492
Integer math 139.7 GOps/sec 99.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 77.6 GOps/sec 58.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 257M Primes/sec 213M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 51.5M Strings/sec 48.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 31 GBytes/sec 28.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 498.8 MBytes/sec 448.8 MBytes/sec
Physics 1984 Frames/sec 1782 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 33.1B Matrices/sec 29.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 27058 & 17216 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Ryzen 9 5900X +14%
316.84
Ryzen 9 3900X
278.98

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 11.4 PPW 9.4 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 121 PPW 99.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 370.4 PPW 309.4 PPW
Blender / Watt 3.02 PPW 2.66 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-19 (D)Cinebench 202467 / 893
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-02 (Zoli)Cinebench 202493 / 1254
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-12 (Otamatone)Cinebench 202492 / 981
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-08 (aref)Cinebench 202494 / 1015
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-15 (SnakeyB)Cinebench 2024120 / 380
Add View all (12)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-08 (Heliosgt)Cinebench 202476 / 1081
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-11 (Ethan)Cinebench 202469 / 778
πŸ“˜ 2026-01-30 (Amara)Cinebench 202475 / 986
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-16 (LegendryDrifter)Geekbench 6 CPU1821 / 11106
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-16 (LegendryDrifter)Cinebench 202479 / 1054
Add View all (9)

Specifications

Full technical specification of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 9 3900X

General

Vendor Amd Amd
Released October 8, 2020 July 7, 2019
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Zen 3 (Vermeer) -
Integrated GPU No No
Rival Equivalent - Intel Core i9 11900K - Intel Core i9 9900K
Successor - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (70th and 126th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 12 12
P-Threads 24 24
Base Frequency (P) 3.7 GHz 3.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.8 GHz 4.6 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 12
Total Threads 24 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 37x 38x
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 512K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 64MB (shared) 64MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors 4.15 billions 3.8 billions
Fabrication Process 7 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 105 W 105 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 142 W -
Socket AM4 AM4
Peak Temperature 90Β°C 95Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (83rd and 121st place)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-3200 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 47.68 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support Yes Yes

Misc

Official Site AMD Ryzen 9 5900X official page AMD Ryzen 9 3900X official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
604 (56.6%)
464 (43.4%)
Total votes: 1068

Competitors

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5. AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
6. AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
7. AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs Apple M2
8. AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
9. AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
10. AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X or Ryzen 9 5900X?
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Jay January 22, 2021 at 03:11 PM
I'm building a new gaming/workstation should i wait for stock of 5900x or just get 3900x?
+18 Reply
Avatar
root January 22, 2021 at 06:55 PM
Go for 3900x, it's still a good CPU.
+24 Reply
Avatar
notimportant November 14, 2020 at 04:20 PM
upgrade only if you need to, if its required for your work. if gaming is your mainstay then 3900 is way over the top even now even for 4-8k gaming. if your working with freelance, Designe, compression, rendering or movie editing where every minute is a lost revenue then yes upgrading is the best option but then we still have problems with current generation instability that always corps up and if your working, any downtime is lost revenue that's why i always stay 1 generation behind so I wont have to deal with "Problems" that equal lost revenue, stability is king when it comes to my work rig. oh and there is no such thing as Future Proofing in this industry even if i buy a 5950 today there is no guarantee it wont be a bottleneck for next gen Quadro GPUS or hardware upgrades. buy what you need not what you think you need. running previous generation hardware has saved me so Manny headaches when working, money and made me more money. that being said I'm still running Intel and i wont change from intel for my work rig, AMD has not been trustworthy with Bios and Drivers for their hardware, i still remember when i got swamped in work requests cause people who jumped on the Zen 2 craze couldn't get work done, due to AMD's little unprofessional hiccups, that being said 5800x and 6900xt is going straight in to my gaming ring when you can find them available.
+11 Reply
Avatar
JoeComputer November 1, 2020 at 04:43 AM
I have the 3900x and looking to see if the 5900x is worth the up grade or just go to the 5950x since that thing is a Monster!
+9 Reply
Avatar
Jeff November 5, 2020 at 04:53 AM
It seems that 5900X isn't worth, as the specs are very similar and the benchmarks aren't so different. As 5000 series is (probably) the last one using AM4 socket, i will keep my 3900X and jump to 6000 series / AM5 socket, with DDR5 and PCI-E 5.0. Of course, this is just my opinion.
+19 Reply
Avatar
Chak November 5, 2020 at 07:10 PM
Jeff, I am in the same boat, after seeing some modest increase in FPS in games, the difference is not enough to justify a 500$+ purchase especially since I've only had the 3900x less than a year.
+15 Reply
Avatar
Dan November 9, 2020 at 05:18 AM
Jeff, Your novice interpretation behind these technologies is flawed and wrong. You should read about the IPC gains from the chiplets using one L3 cache instead of 2 L3 caches and how these chips are architecturally different. If you don't understand how to analyze technology or how it functions you should buy whatever is the cheapest thing possible because you're clueless.
+49 Reply
Avatar
Guest User #433 November 25, 2020 at 07:52 AM
Chak, And god only knows when it will actually be here. i am really surprised there is almost no difference between these two chips. Only reason i'm back on intel was the vendor sold me THREE ryzen cpus that had missing pins. And this was not some dodgy small shop. At the time missing pins was a big issue. But i think i will wait.
+13 Reply
Avatar
Memirsbrunnr July 11, 2022 at 11:25 AM
Jeff, I have a 3900x too. However, your method only makes sense/works for those lesser beings that only have one PC. I have 4 PC on my desk and I tend to upgrade them the following way. My gaming system gets the best gear. and get upgraded piecemeal. Then the items that come out of it are transferred and redistributed amongst the not gaming machines. In my case, it would mean I upgrade my 3900x to a 5900x or hopefully a 5900x3D. Then my 3900x will move and take the place of 2600 that is powering my office /work PC. Then that one might go into the headless TRUENAS server that presently has an ATHLON 3000G. So having a multiple-step might make it a good last-time upgrade before going onto the AM5 train. Making it possible to skip the 1st AM5 generation, having much cheaper DDR5 and likely a more stable more matured system.
0 Reply
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