3900x vs 3950x for Rendering

[xMIDIMA]

Hello!

So, I wanna upgrade my rig and I wanna know which CPU would serve me better, the 3900x or the 3950x.

I mainly do 3D modeling and rendering. I don't work on big projects like whole streets or anything like that, it's single rooms / houses and objects.
 

As far as prices go (living in the EU), the 3900x goes for 520€ and the 3950x goes for 830€... ~300€ difference.

I'd like to "future proof" my rig as much as possible but using parts where I can see that my money was well spent.
 

Do you think it's worth going for the 3950x for the extra money or will the difference from the 3900x be so low that I should just save my money?

Thank you in advance

[Fasauceome]

If you're a professional, 3950X will pay for itself.

 

otherwise, 3900x.

[Guest]

This depends heavily on how well your program scales with a core increase. There are bound to be benchmarks. What program is it?

As @Fasauceome said, if this machine generates money, it's all about that 300€ paying itself back in the form of time.

[xMIDIMA]

@Den-Fi

I mainly work with 3DSMax, Corona/V-Ray and ZBrush.

As far as the machine paying for itself, I work at a company, this is my home rig where I create some personal work (non lucrative), do some freelance from time to time, and build my portfolio. So what I would want from a 3950x compared to the 3900x is that it would last me, say, 1,5-2 more years working fine compared to the 3900x...if that's even possible. Theoreticaly, of course.

[Guest]

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/V-Ray-Next-CPU-Performance-AMD-Ryzen-9-3950X-1609/

I think this V-Ray focused review sheds a lot of light on the differences.

[xMIDIMA]

@Den-Fi

 

Well, I guess I'm spending the extra cash for the 3950x. Thank you

 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, xMIDIMA said:

@Den-Fi

 

Well, I guess I'm spending the extra cash for the 3950x. Thank you

 

No prob! Hope it serves you well.

[xMIDIMA]

@Den-Fi

Oh, by the way, do you think the H100i cooler or any 240mm AIO would be enough to cool the cpu? probably not gonna OC in the near future.

[Guest]

Just now, xMIDIMA said:

@Den-Fi

Oh, by the way, do you think the H100i cooler or any 240mm AIO would be enough to cool the cpu? probably not gonna OC in the near future.

I have one under water and one on air and they perform similarly. The U12A is cheaper than the H100i.

That said, the H100i would be fine if you're set on an AIO (or already have it and don't want to needlessly replace it). A 280 or 360 would be better though if you're doing long renders consistently.

[xMIDIMA]

@Den-Fi

 

I don't have any atm, but my case only fits a 240mm on top or a air cooler. I was choosing between the NH-D15 or the corsair h100i but was reading a little bit and they were saying you should have a 280mm or a 360mm to cool the 3950 properly. And no, the point of this computer is not to be left day after day rendering thing for 10 hours straight, it's just overall 3D creation work, I'm guessing a full 2-3h render a day at the end of a project.

For that use, you think I'm good with the h100i?

If you have any 240mm AIO that you would recomend over the corsair's one let me know, I'm trying to get the most for the money i'm spending ahah.

Thank you again!

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, xMIDIMA said:

@Den-Fi

 

I don't have any atm, but my case only fits a 240mm on top or a air cooler. I was choosing between the NH-D15 or the corsair h100i but was reading a little bit and they were saying you should have a 280mm or a 360mm to cool the 3950 properly. And no, the point of this computer is not to be left day after day rendering thing for 10 hours straight, it's just overall 3D creation work, I'm guessing a full 2-3h render a day at the end of a project.

For that use, you think I'm good with the h100i?

If you have any 240mm AIO that you would recomend over the corsair's one let me know, I'm trying to get the most for the money i'm spending ahah.

Thank you again!

I haven’t seen any benchmarks with a 240 AIO, so I can’t comment really. I’ve personally used a D15 and U12A and they do a great job. If you’re not using PBO, I’d imagine you’d be fine. You would just lose some boosting headroom since it starts to reign it in around 85C. 
 

I experimented with bad cooling on my 3970X (a 120mm AIO) and basically if it gets toasty it’ll just push clocks down. So under all core load it was doing 3.4GHz rather than its actual base clock to keep temps in line. 

[xMIDIMA]

@Den-Fi

 

Gotcha.

 

Do you work with 3DSmax too? I wonder what boosts the performance overall, cpu and ram or gpu and ram, speacially when i'm on the material editor.. it just freezes sometimes with my current setup. I could even bare the low render times since I don't have deadlines, but i dont REALLY want freezes when editing materials or moving heavy objects around.

 

I got a 6700k, 16GB RAM @2400mhz and a 970 strix OC atm btw.