AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU Tested At 160W TDP, Blazes Past 230W Ryzen 9 7950X With 16% Performance Uplift

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X "Zen 5" CPU boasts incredible performance at a TDP of just 160W, blazing past both the Core i9-14900K & Ryzen 9 7950X.

In his ongoing series of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Blender performance tuning and testing, Anandtech forum member, Igor_kavinski has shown us how the 16-core flagship scales at lower TDPs within the Blender benchmark. So far, he has shown 60W,90W, and 120W PPT results, and now, we have a new 160W PPT result that outperforms the Ryzen 9 7950X & Intel's top Core i9 chips.

The chip being used by Igor's source is an engineering sample which should have slightly lower clocks than the retail chip. At 60W, the chip was able to come close to the Intel Core i9-12900K while boosting up to 4084 MHz, and at 90W, it was able to outperform the Ryzen 9 5950X while boosting up to 5053 MHz. At 120W, the chip beats all of the top current-gen processors from Intel and AMD while boosting up to 5555 MHz. Do keep in mind that the other chips tested here are running at their peak power ratings. It's only the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X ES CPU that has been tuned.

So coming to the 160W PPT test, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU clocked up to 5550 MHz which is still 150 MHz below its 5700 MHz official boost clock and the minimum clock speed at load was 4700 MHz. The maximum temperatures reached 59C and we can see that the chip didn't exceed the 160 Watts power consumption.

In terms of performance, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X ES CPU scored 319.7 points in the Monster test, 205.8 points in the Junkshop test, and 152.5 points in the Classroom test in Blender. Compared to the Core i9-14900K, the Zen 5 CPU at 160W was able to outperform it by up to 20%. The CPU also outperformed the Ryzen 9 7950W which has a peak PPT of 230W which is 43.75% higher than the 160W PPT the Zen 5 chip was tested at while delivering up to 16% faster performance.

We also recently saw the comparisons of various AMD Ryzen 9000 Desktop CPUs such as the Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X, and Ryzen 5 9600X at their PBO and default profiles. You can check those out here.

AMD has been leading the efficiency race with its strong Zen portfolio in the past releases and that is looking to be true for the next-generation lineup too. We are fast approaching the launch of the AMD Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" Desktop CPUs which are expected to hit retail later this month and we can expect many more tests and reviews in the coming weeks.