AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT review - Introduction

AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT
A notch faster in very specific workloads

We review the new XT model Ryzen 9 3900XT. Released by AMD as a respin of the 3900X model, the XT processors are optimized to bring a bit more bite to single-threaded and medium threaded workloads. And that makes this a difficult to review product as, in the full all-core workloads, it really is not that much faster than the regular X model. This month it has been exactly a year since the regular models of the respective tested products have been tested. Currently, in the summer of 2020, things are slow as COVID-19 has brought the world to a halt. AMD figured, let's spice things up a bit and release some refresh processors. They went back to the drawing board and started optimizing three of their best selling processors. 

What's XT all about?

AMD has been a little secretive about what they have done with the new XT SKUs, but these are highly binned (sorted for best perf) units, which then have been tweaked to bring an extra push in single-threaded and medium multi-threaded workloads. Yes, that is a weird line to read, but you should not make a mistake in thinking that the XT versions will be faster on all-core workloads than the X version, nope, it's more or less the same. It's the single and up-to 80% of the thread loads where AMD can more efficiently distribute that allowed voltage budget. For the 95W up-to 105W range processors they can push a full TDP allowance of 142 Watts for, I think it was, 56 seconds. So if you have 6 out of 8-cores utilized, that same wattage budget is now assigned to the six fastest cores. So in the mid-segment of threading, there simply is more power available. And that's really in a nutshell what the XT processors are all about, single and lower but not full count threading gets higher frequencies and more voltage. With this optimization, AMD can remain within the original TDP. These are the three new SKUs, AMD is keeping the price the same as the initial launch prices of the non-XT models:

Thermal Solutions

AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT retail box processors include a Wraith Spire cooler. The AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT and AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT processors do not. Even with a liquid cooling kit, you'll reasonably quickly hit 70, even 75 Degrees C on these SKUs, so please use proper cooling. AMD is betting high here, recommending the use of an AIO solution with a minimum 280mm radiator or equivalent air cooling to experience these products at their best. 

Ryzen Series 3000 in General

Ryzen series 3000, was developed under the codename 'Matisse', it is fabbed on a 7nm node with a new chiplet design. Ryzen has been an unbeaten run for AMD ever since the first generation Ryzen was launched. Intel might still be having the advantage of faster per core frequencies. Still, their processors have had it rough with an immense amount of security vulnerabilities and, de facto, that has been affecting not just on their reputation but, with all the security patches, also performance. AMD has been far less affected. Continuing the story, over time, AMD got up-to-snuff with proper memory support. While Intel was and still is faster in super-high-end game performance due to their high Turbo clocks, a lot of you waited and sat things out as 7nm would be the fabrication node where all hope and differences are to be found. Well, Ryzen 3000 is here, and it is exciting, offering twice the density at half the power, at roughly 1.25x the performance. Gamers, in particular, should be well-served as the combination of increased IPC at 15% as well as increased Turbo frequencies should bring game performance up-to-snuff with the competition. This article uses a base narrative for Ryzen 3000 processors; in this review we scored the 12-core and 24 threads Ryzen 9 3900XT.

• Ryzen 9 3900XT (12c/24t) priced at 499 USD

We’ll go into detail on the next pages. The Ryzen 3000 series 5, 7, and 9 processors are six up-to sixteen-core processors, competitively priced combined with a proper performance increase over the last generation products.