AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Zen 3 CPU Review

1. Ryzen 9 5900X - The Sensible High-End Option2. Zen 3 Architecture and Changes3. Operating Frequencies & Overclocking4. Testing Methodology5. CPU Tests: Cinebench R206. CPU Tests: Blender and V-Ray Rendering7. CPU Tests: 7-Zip Compression & Decompression8. CPU Tests: Handbrake H264 & H2659. Memory Tests: Memory Bandwidth and Latency10. Gaming: 3DMark Time Spy11. Gaming: F1 202012. Gaming: Grand Theft Auto V13. Gaming: Metro Exodus14. Gaming: Red Dead Redemption 215. Gaming: Shadow of the Tomb Raider16. Gaming: The Division 217. Technical: Power Draw, Efficiency, Temperatures18. Value: Cinebench Performance per £19. Closing Thoughts20. View All Pages

Grand Theft Auto V

We use the DirectX 11 mode, anti-aliasing disabled, and the Maximum quality settings.

GTA V spells our first victory for AMD with Zen 3 and this is a noteworthy one. GTA V is an old, but still immensely popular and demanding DX11 title. AMD’s Zen 3 chips beating the Core i9-10900K in this test is notable given AMD’s historic struggles in the Intel-favouring GTA title.

Equally important is the sizable performance increase for Zen 3 versus Zen 2. This now makes the new Ryzen 5000 series chips excellent choice for high refresh rate gaming with GTA V, whereas previously, Intel was the superior option in that use case.

Increasing the graphics workload to 1440P sees the same trend hold true. Zen 3 is still a little faster than the Core i9-10900K and the performance improvement over Zen 2 is sizable.

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