AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Overtakes Higher-Clocked Core i9-7920X for wPrime World Record

Ryzen 9 3950X @ 5.62 GHz

Ryzen 9 3950X @ 5.62 GHz (Image credit: jordan.hyde99/HWBOT)

As spotted by Shaun Fosmark, Australian overclocker jordan.hyde99 has set a new world record in wPrime 1024M with AMD's Ryzen 9 3900X processor. What's fascinating is the fact that the AMD processor was running a much slower clock speed than the previous record holder, the Intel Core i9-7920X.

The Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-7920X are both equipped with 12 cores and 24 threads, so both chips are on even ground in terms of core counts. The first is based on AMD's Zen 2 microarchitecture and rocks a 3.8 GHz base clock and 4.6 GHz boost clock, while the latter utilizes Intel's Skylake microarchitecture and clocks in with a 2.9 GHz and 4.4 GHz base and boost clock, respectively.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ProcessorCores / ThreadsBase / Boost (GHz)L1 Cache (KB)L2 Cache (MB)L3 Cache (MB)Memory SupportTDP (W)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X12 / 243.8 / 4.6768664Dual DDR4-3200105
Intel Core i9-10920X12 / 243.5 / 4.67681219.25Quad DDR4-2933165
Intel Core i9-9920X12 / 243.5 / 4.57681219.25Quad DDR4-2666165
Intel Core i9-7920X12 / 242.9 / 4.47681216.5Quad DDR4-2666140

Overclocker jordan.hyde99 overclocked his Ryzen 9 3900X to 5,625 MHz on liquid nitrogen and finished the wPrime 1024M benchmark run in 35 seconds and 517 milliseconds to take the crown away from the Core i9-7920X. 

In comparison, the Core i9-7920X previously held the record at 35 seconds 693 milliseconds while being overclocked to 5,955 MHz with the same type of exotic cooling.

Ryzen 9 3900X @ 5.62 GHz

Ryzen 9 3900X @ 5.62 GHz (Image credit: jordan.hyde99/HWBOT)

Although the Ryzen 9 3900X only managed to beat the Core i9-7920X by a negligible margin (less than one percent), the big takeaway here is the clock speed. The Ryzen 9 3900X was able to match the Core i9-7920X's score while running with a 5.8% lower operating clock. This stands as testimony that Zen 2's instructions per cycle (IPC) is higher than Skylake, and subsequent microarchitectures based on the same design, in many workloads.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • joeblowsmynose
    AMD's SMT works a fair bit better than Intel's hyper-threading ... So I'm guessing that the apparent IPC ratio between the two platforms is somewhat variable - depending on several factors, like how many HW threads are saturated.
    Reply
  • PBme
    joeblowsmynose said:
    AMD's SMT works a fair bit better than Intel's hyper-threading ... So I'm guessing that the apparent IPC ratio between the two platforms is somewhat variable - depending on several factors, like how many HW threads are saturated.
    Certainly is not 100% clear but there have been a ton of reviews looking at single threaded benchmarks and seeing that at clock for clock, AMD is slightly superior. Doesn't fully make up for the clock speed on core-for-core basis when comparing to things like the 9900ks.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    Oh man I very badly want a 3900X, I'm probably going to buy an X570 motherboard before Christmas. But now seeing this makes me want one even more!
    Reply
  • joeblowsmynose
    g-unit1111 said:
    Oh man I very badly want a 3900X, I'm probably going to buy an X570 motherboard before Christmas. But now seeing this makes me want one even more!

    I know where my Christmas bonus is going ... 3900X :). Double the rendering performance of my 1700 - its almost unfathomable ... can't wait.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    joeblowsmynose said:
    I know where my Christmas bonus is going ... 3900X :). Double the rendering performance of my 1700 - its almost unfathomable ... can't wait.

    I'd love to get a 3950X but it's a bit too rich for my blood.
    Reply
  • joeblowsmynose
    g-unit1111 said:
    I'd love to get a 3950X but it's a bit too rich for my blood.

    Haha ... same. 3900x fits my bang for buck model a bit better. :) I would have a hard time justifying $1000CAD for any CPU no matter how it performed.
    Reply
  • Gadhar
    I was going to get the 3900x at launch, but the supply was non existent when I went to pull the trigger so I "settled" for the 3700x and have not regretted it. Yes my friend who has the 3900x can render a bit faster than I can, but I don't do video editing full time so I am happy.
    Reply
  • LordConrad
    Wow! I think i'll be replacing my TR 2950x with a Zen 3 TR when It comes out next year (unless they do another plus version). My 2950x really got whooped by Zen 2, but it's plenty fast for now.
    Reply
  • joeblowsmynose
    LordConrad said:
    Wow! I think i'll be replacing my TR 2950x with a Zen 3 TR when It comes out next year (unless they do another plus version). My 2950x really got whooped by Zen 2, but it's plenty fast for now.

    No more pluses on the roadmap ... they only did it with Zen1 because they had to cut a few things off thier "wish list" for Zen1, due to timing constraints, so just added them later as a "plus" revision.

    Zen3 will have some major architecture overhauls -- it should be interesting to say the least. I don't expect the TR parts out till the very end of the year.
    Reply