Using 5950x in 2025. Is it worth it?

Posted by hatedman95@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 20 comments

Hey everyone, so i ihave the following build:

5600 32 3600 CL18 ram DDR4 RTX 3070

Peerless Assassin Mini cooler.

1440p 165 Hz monitor.

I can't really find a X3D CPU in my country so i was browsing online the best CPU i could get for the amount of money i have, so i settled for 5950x.

How bad of a choice is a Ryzen 9 5950x given that i only play competitive games (Arena Breakout, Hunt Showdown, CS2, Delta Force, Forza and Beam.NG)?

I plan on riding until AM6 if possible and replace computer parts as go through the future gen CPUs.

As of now, i am going to replace the GPU in the next following months with a decent one, like 5070 Ti or a 5080. Will i see a bottleneck?

Thanks everyone and i wish you happy holidays!

[-]

Silent_Exit_844@reddit

Don't need to gange cpu, unless the gpu during gamming is bellow 80%. 5070 ti to 1440p I think is more then enought. See this video, may help you to understand better (audio is in Portuguese but you can translate the legends on youtube settings.

https://youtu.be/cnRUajPiV6A?is=39Y7LTj-yRExO8s2

[-]

hatedman95@reddit (OP)

hey!

So i went with this 5950x and capped it at 4 GHz and it's already been a sweet ride. My 1% lows increased and system feels a lot more responsive and to me, honestly, it's great!

I got it on a great deal too, 250€ (after of course, selling the 5600).

I also eyed the 5070 ti, seems like the best card i could pair with this cpu until RAM prices drop tbh, but i got other priorities right now, my 3070 can handle what i play, i undervolted it and seems it stays under 60⁰.

[-]

spiderzz3@reddit

Late reply but i have a 5950x in my gaming pc and after a shit ton of tuning ive managed to get it to perform incredibly well for gaming around or slightly better than a 5800x3d.

A quick and rough overview of what ive done is(pretty sure i missed a couple things), disabled smt and halved my threads for better performance since i dont need 32 threads for gaming, 4 x 8gb of samsung b die ram at 3600mhz and super tight timings, per core CO with the extra 200mhz boost in pbo as well, tuned edc and tdc, aggressive fan profile with a 280mm aio push pull configurstion with arctic p14 max's, HAGS on if i need more frames or HAGS off if its a gpu heavy game, and plenty of windows 11 tweaks to make stuff run faster there too.

All in all i can EASILY play marvel rivals well above 240fps at 1080p, my 3080 12gb sometimes drags the performance below 240 in big fights unless i enable dlss, i can do the finals at a little over 200 fps and in crazy gamemodes like pointbreak or world tour its more like 190-200, unfortuanatly those are the 2 main games i play so i dont have much else to compare it too right now. I do ofc play other games but in stuff like kingdom come 2 im cranking the graphics up and not caring about fps over 60.

I used to have a 1440p 144hz montior but i sidegraded to a 240hz 1080p alienware monitor since it also had better colors and less ghosting, i also really enjoy those 2 competetive fps games and ive put a thousand or two hours into the finals since it launched.

i wanna add i got it off ebay for 150 usd with \~14 bent pins and straightened them out with an xacto knife and a microscope, great deal imo. Almost everything in my build is used, refurbished, or sold broken/as is.

[-]

deadlyviperx@reddit

I have Ryzen 5950x with RTX 4080(5070ti-ish)

5950x and 5800x3d are 10fps apart. Both would bottleneck 5070ti, both are 105watts and both have more Cache than 5600.

[-]

Dumb_woodworker_md@reddit

Its a solid cpu. It depends on your resolution and desired fps. Likely see some, but honestly, You don’t really get much bang forth buck of a 5950 over a 5800/5700 (for gaming). It will work. I’m going to stay on my 7600x for a while.

[-]

lfajkusz@reddit

Hi guys! It's true that you don't get much more performance during gaming (!) for now, but I'd like to note that my 5950x hits a single-core boost of 5040MHz and an all-core boost of 4580MHz without any extreme tuning (PPT: 125W [original: 140W], All-core Curve Optimizer: -18, cooled by a Noctua U14S). Even if we only look at 8 cores, this is higher performance than any 5800x can deliver. Furthermore, as soon as they start optimizing games for more than 6 cores, the 5950x will pull ahead of the 5800x more and more without any further investment. But maybe I'm just being too optimistic. :-)

[-]

hatedman95@reddit (OP)

i game on 1440p and don't max out the 3070 i have. I turn most settings to low, I don't care about graphics that much.

I wanted to maximize the %1 lows, i know it's not an X3D CPU, but i wanted something at least close. I saw the 64 MB cache and thought that this CPU would be the best increase in performance given it's a 16T/32C CPU.

Saw a bunch of benchmarks and it's closer to 5800X3D than my current 5600 (non x).

I wish i could go DDR5, i had the choice to pick DDR5 ram or this CPU so i went with this CPU and game as much as i can on AM4.

[-]

No_Guarantee7841@reddit

Some games do show good improvements whereas others marginal at best https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3b7T5OohSQ&t=660s.

[-]

lfajkusz@reddit

The Ryzen 5950X is a future-proof choice because it’s an exceptionally great processor. It’s perfect for a workstation, and if you want to play games, it will handle those too. If you aren't chasing ultra-high FPS and can settle for slightly less, you’ll have a timeless processor that will still hold its own in 5 years, despite the DDR4 bandwidth limitations. Furthermore, as games start to be optimized for more than 6 cores, you’ll essentially get a 'free' performance boost with every such optimization. There is life beyond the extra cache of X3D processors. After all, X3D is nothing more than a way to mask slow background memory, because compared to that cache, not only DDR4 but even DDR5 is slow.

[-]

nvidiot@reddit

5600 and 5950X are basically same in terms of gaming, and only real advantage is multi-core performance. So if just for gaming purposes, 5950X doesn't do anything. You could return it and use the money saved toward a better GPU.

Don't worry about the bottleneck, 5000 series CPUs aren't that behind to cause a noticeable CPU bottleneck.

[-]

hatedman95@reddit (OP)

Wouldn't it increase the average FPS and 1% lows vs 5600, being that 5600 is a 6C/12T CPU and having 64 vs 32 MB L3 cache?

[-]

nvidiot@reddit

Yes, there is some improvement if we want to be exact, but the improvement is basically in single digit %, so unless you're getting that 5950X for dirt cheap, it's not really efficient use of money. You'll get much larger benefit by putting that money toward a better GPU.

See) https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d/19.html

At 1440p, average FPS improvement is like... about 4.3% uplift.

[-]

Ryan_Rose1@reddit

I have a 5500 and I have the option to buy a 5950x for 110 $ is that when it becomes worth it even if I may not utilize all the cores?

[-]

nvidiot@reddit

This is a different case; 5500 has a halved L3 cache compared to 5600 and above, so there's a noticeable game performance impact.

Upgrade to any better CPU (5600(X), 5700X, 5800XT, 5950X, etc.), is worth it if you can get it cheap used.

[-]

hatedman95@reddit (OP)

i see. Thank you very much for this site.

I plan in the next months to raise money and get a 5070 ti /5080, depending on what price i find them at.

[-]