AMD 2950X as upgrade to Intel 5960x ?

[Jim90]

Hello Folks, just wondering if AMD 2950x would be good upgrade for Intel 5960x. Typical uses are mixed workloads where multiple cores do benefit. Of course higher frequencies would be good but not willing to pay Intel's premium for this. If I'm correct, the 2950x does appear to offer significant gains in both single and multi core benchmarks.
I know there's always going to be something better round the corner so I'd also be keen to hear any predictions for what options that might appear by around mid 2019.

 

[yeti_yeti]

5960x is still an absolute monster of a cpu. Why upgrade, are you not happy with the performance you are getting?

 

[Jim90]

For sure, the 5960x still has many years left and I'm only checking out the current picture. Around the 4-5yr mark after an initial purchase I usually have a look at the latest components to see if any significant technological system leaps have taken place involving cpu and motherboard. With this I'm wondering how the 2950x compares.

Basically
1) if only two cpu's existed, and were released together now and at the same price - 5960x and 2950x and using their respective x99 and x399 subsystems, which one would be preferred and would the preferred selection be expected to perform significantly better in most/all single and multicore workloads?

2) with die shrinks etc incomming (as always), would their benefits expected to be available by mid 2019 such that it would be recommended to wait till then?

 

[yeti_yeti]

2950x would of course be an all around better performer. It's newer and has more cores and threads. However I think, that if you pay $1000 for a processor, you shouldn't have any problems using it for 6-8 years. As annoying as it might sound, I would wait for another year or two, sure 2950x will be marginally/significantly faster in video editing and so on but 5960x is just to good of a cpu to give up after only 3.5-4 years of usage.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

Hello Folks, just wondering if AMD 2950x would be good upgrade for Intel 5960x. Typical uses are mixed workloads where multiple cores do benefit. Of course higher frequencies would be good but not willing to pay Intel's premium for this. If I'm correct, the 2950x does appear to offer significant gains in both single and multi core benchmarks.
I know there's always going to be something better round the corner so I'd also be keen to hear any predictions for what options that might appear by around mid 2019.

Would it be a good upgrade? Debatable.

It will outperform the 5960X for certain... Will the margin it does outperform it be worth the investment? I'm not so sure. If your 5960 is giving you problems... (my 5820k has failed me 2x now...) then it's a different matter.

Zen 2 (3xxx series) may be available by mid year 2019, and it may not be... That is supposed to be an improvement over the Zen+ that constitutes the 2xxx series and might be a more worthy upgrade.

 

[huntlong]

I agree with shrapnel_indie and I’d wait to see what Ryzen 2 has in store. If it’s anywhere as big of an improvement as the rumors suggest it will really be a big shakeup in the market.