[SOLVED] Best AM4 CPU in 2023?

[Japcsali]

Hello everyone, first post here.
Given the new Cyberpunk requirements, I am looking to upgrade in the CPU department. My current motherboard has a socket for AM4, so I am looking for CPUs compatible with that.

Currently I can't choose between AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X .
Sometimes I like to play Paradox games too, and supposedly clock speed beats number of cores/threads.
In reddit threads I also saw repeatedly the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU. Despite it being (almost) pretty close to my current AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU on paper, in in game benchmarks it's doing incredibly well. Of course it can be any other CPU not mentioned here, if it's better.
Unfortunately I grew up in an era where there was only one core, so choosing CPUs was easy and now I am kinda lost, so would appreciate the help.

Thank you in advance!

 

[drea.drechsler]

What is 'best' for you depends almost entirely on your use case.

If gaming is the primary use case then the 5800X3d is all you need to know for "best CPU on AM4". The only reason to consider a 5950X or 5900X is if you have heavily threaded content creation or engineering simulation useage in time constrained work scenarios. But gaming performance won't be up to the standards of the 5800X3d.

A 5800X is cheaper than any of those three and decent enough all-around as it performs well in content creation and engineering simulation where the X3d can't deliver. Although, an even cheaper 5700X can be pretty much just as good as a 5800X once tweaked with PBO and optimized CO curves. For budget cases, 5600X and 5600 work the same and have good enough gaming performance, although much weaker in the heavily threaded tasking with 25% fewer cores & threads to work with.

Complete platform performance payoff depends on chipset, though. If your current board is a 300 or 400 series chipset it won't enjoy PCIe gen 4 NVME or GPU that requires a 500 series chipset.

 

[Japcsali]

What is 'best' for you depends almost entirely on your use case.

If gaming is the primary use case then the 5800X3d is all you need to know for "best CPU on AM4". The only reason to consider a 5950X or 5900X is if you have heavily threaded content creation or engineering simulation useage in time constrained work scenarios but gaming performance won't be up to the standards of the 5800X3d.

Otherwise a 5800X is a decent enough all-around as it performs well in content creation and engineering simulation where the X3d can't deliver, although a 5700X can be pretty much just as good as a 5800X once tweaked with PBO and optimized CO curves. For budget cases, 5600X and 5600 work the same and have good enough gaming performance, although much weaker in the heavily threaded tasking with 25% fewer cores & threads to work with.

Complete platform payoff depends on chipset, though. If your current board is a 300 or 400 series chipset it won't enjoy PCIe gen 4 NVME or GPU, that will require a 500 series chipset.

Hi, thank you for your reply.
I probably should have been more detailed in my request. I am a bit hesitant with the 5800, because the base clockspeed is lower than on my current 2700X and that bugs me the wrong way. (especially because of the mentioned Paradox games). I also read that it runs pretty hot (and I live in a pretty bad country, regarding summer temps wise). I should probably consider a third party cooler for it, but then it would come out a bit more expensive than just a stock 5900.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hi, thank you for your reply.
I probably should have been more detailed in my request. I am a bit hesitant with the 5800, because the base clockspeed is lower than on my current 2700X and that bugs me the wrong way. (especially because of the mentioned Paradox games). I also read that it runs pretty hot (and I live in a pretty bad country, regarding summer temps wise). I should probably consider a third party cooler for it, but then it would come out a bit more expensive than just a stock 5900.

Base clock is pretty much irrelevant, so don't worry about that. Zen 3 CPU's (and Zen 2, for that matter) work significantly different from Zen 1 and 1.5 CPU's and Intel CPU's. These CPU's don't really work at their base clocks, they work at their boost clocks.

Zen 2 and 3 CPU's aggressively boost individual cores to maximum clocks whenever a processing task comes along then just as aggressively return the core to a deep sleep when it's done. The next task goes to a different core allowing the first one time to cool down. Maximum clock boosts are adjusted based on available thermal and motherboard power headroom. In gaming, with good cooling, the processor will be aggressively boosting cores to maximum clocks because the workloads aren't very heavy, are short in duration and being relatively lightly threaded there's always another core to assign the workload that's cool and can boost to a maximum clock.

In sustained heavily threaded workloads the CPU die will heat up and clocks will lower. How much depends on cooling but only in the absolute worst case, i.e., poor cooling and very high ambient where the CPU is operating at or around it's Tjmax, would it ever approach base clock speeds. That's not likely to occur in simple gaming unless cooling is significantly substandard, worse even than the stock cooling setup.

And yes, a 5800X3d, or 5800X and 5700/X too for that matter, can be pretty hot since it's a single CPU die with 8 cores on it. Better cooling...a 240mm AIO at least...is doubtless a good idea in high ambient. But 5900X and 5950X also run very hot (12 and 16 cores respectively) in heavily threaded work especially. They'd need massively upgraded cooling (360mm AIO) to perform at all well in high ambient temps. With them you also have to consider your motherboard as it may need supplemental cooling for the VRM.

 

[Math Geek]

Stated clock speed is not that important since PBO will boost it anyway if your cooling is up to the task. Pure gaming as said above is the 5800x3d all day.

I have a 5900x but I needed the extra threads for multiple vm's. Gaming is near the bottom of need list for me.

In the end the differences between them are not major.in gaming. Handful of fps here and there for the most part. The GPU is more important for the eye candy

 

[Japcsali]

Base clock is pretty much irrelevant, so don't worry about that. Zen 3 CPU's (and Zen 2, for that matter) work significantly different from Zen 1 and 1.5 CPU's and Intel CPU's. These CPU's don't really work at their base clocks, they work at their boost clocks.

Zen 2 and 3 CPU's aggressively boost individual cores to maximum clocks whenever a processing task comes along then just as aggressively return the core to a deep sleep when it's done. The next task goes to a different core allowing the first one time to cool down. Maximum clock boosts are adjusted based on available thermal and motherboard power headroom. In gaming, with good cooling, the processor will be aggressively boosting cores to maximum clocks because the workloads aren't very heavy, are short in duration and being relatively lightly threaded there's always another core to assign the workload that's cool and can boost to a maximum clock.

In sustained heavily threaded workloads the CPU die will heat up and clocks will lower. How much depends on cooling but only in the absolute worst case, i.e., poor cooling and very high ambient where the CPU is operating at or around it's Tjmax, would it ever approach base clock speeds. That's not likely to occur in simple gaming unless cooling is significantly substandard, worse even than the stock cooling setup.

And yes, a 5800X3d, or 5800X and 5700/X too for that matter, can be pretty hot since it's a single CPU die with 8 cores on it. Better cooling...a 240mm AIO at least...is doubtless a good idea in high ambient. But 5900X and 5950X also run very hot (12 and 16 cores respectively) in heavily threaded work especially. They'd need massively upgraded cooling (360mm AIO) to perform at all well in high ambient temps. With them you also have to consider your motherboard as it may need supplemental cooling for the VRM.

Hi, thanks for the detailed answer. Looks like pricewise the 5800 wins too.
One more question if I may, you mentioned for cooling a 240mm AIO, but my retailer bundling that CPU with a Noctua NH-D15 which is 2x140mm. Would that be enough? Technically the AC is close to my PC so I guess I can I limit ambient temps to 25 degrees.

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Stated clock speed is not that important since PBO will boost it anyway if your cooling is up to the task. Pure gaming as said above is the 5800x3d all day.

I have a 5900x but I needed the extra threads for multiple vm's. Gaming is near the bottom of need list for me.

In the end the differences between them are not major.in gaming. Handful of fps here and there for the most part. The GPU is more important for the eye candy

Thanks for the answer. Before I switch positions I also used to run VMs and rendered some videos, but that was done by my current AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, so I guess performance even in that regard will just become better

 

[Math Geek]

The nh-d15 is more than enough for the CPU. I have a peerless assassin 120se on my 5900x and it stays plenty cool. The noctua is even better cooler.

Vms don't necessarily need the speed n power. You just need extra resources to give to them. Depends on what your VM is doing but it'll be based on better CPU so it'll do a bit better

 

[Japcsali]

The nh-d15 is more than enough for the CPU. I have a peerless assassin 120se on my 5900x and it stays plenty cool. The noctua is even better cooler.

Vms don't necessarily need the speed n power. You just need extra resources to give to them. Depends on what your VM is doing but it'll be based on better CPU so it'll do a bit better

Thanks, I am glad to hear that. Now just to convince myself if a stop-gap upgrade is worth it or should I just rock my current one a few more years, haha

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hi, thanks for the detailed answer. Looks like pricewise the 5800 wins too.
One more question if I may, you mentioned for cooling a 240mm AIO, but my retailer bundling that CPU with a Noctua NH-D15 which is 2x140mm. Would that be enough? Technically the AC is close to my PC so I guess I can I limit ambient temps to 25 degrees.

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Thanks for the answer. Before I switch positions I also used to run VMs and rendered some videos, but that was done by my current AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, so I guess performance even in that regard will just become better

I agree..NH-D15 will be quite good enough for a 5800X. Just be sure to arrange fans and their speed so that it's getting air from outside the case to work with and not ingesting hot exhaust from the GPU while gaming. That can be difficult to achieve in a tight case (mATX for instance) making an AIO a good choice if it has a location for front mounting the radiator so that it's guaranteed to use cool outside air.

 

[Math Geek]

I went from a 3600x to the 5900x and it is a noticeable upgrade. Decent bit faster. From a 2700x you'd see even better jump. For the cheap price I think it's worth it. You can't upgrade any more on AM4 so to me the 5900x is my stop gap until I upgrade a few years from now with a whole new platform

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

What is the Motherboard make, model and chipset?
(why is everything reminding me of ICQ from the late 90's) B350/X370/B450/X470/B550/X570

Because that may have an effect on who well the CPU performs using PBO or not

 

[Misgar]

I have an NH-D15 on my 7950X. Works fine when rendering but I leave PBO and CO disabled because I like stability. Power dissipated in CPU during Handbrake is 184W. I agree 360mm water would be more effective for overclocking, but I prefer air coolers.