Is 3950X worth buying

StackUnderflow · March 4, 2021

It seems like 5950X is around 10-15% better but right now realistically it costs $1100 where as you can get a 3950X for $600 on eBay.

I will do a little gaming and a little work on this PC (running VMs, CAD, light scientific computing (all cores)).

JohnDeereBro · March 4, 2021

Go for the 7 5800x instead. 8 cores will treat you nice . Or if you want, go for a 5900x with 12 cores.

StackUnderflow · March 4, 2021

12 minutes ago, JohnDeereBro said:

Go for the 7 5800x instead. 8 cores will treat you nice . Or if you want, go for a 5900x with 12 cores.

The 5900X is out of stock and elevated prices on eBay are $750... It's passmark score is around the same as the 3950X, but obviously down 4 cores...

I'm replacing a dual E5-2667v2 setup (16c/32t), not sure how I feel about going down in core count with the 5800X, although it does leave an upgrade path (but the 3950X kind of does that too).

I mainly want games to run above 25-45 fps, and I don't care about games running above 60fps.

Though single core performance is probably good for 4X games like Civ6 and Stellaris and that's a genre I like...

SFFDesigns · March 5, 2021

23 minutes ago, StackUnderflow said:

I'm replacing a dual E5-2667v2 setup (16c/32t), not sure how I feel about going down in core count with the 5800X, although it does leave an upgrade path (but the 3950X kind of does that too).

The 5800X is going to be a huge upgrade regardless. It's in stock at AMD direct now I believe (or at least it was earlier today)

StackUnderflow · March 5, 2021

19 hours ago, Hymenopus_Coronatus said:

The 5800X is going to be a huge upgrade regardless. It's in stock at AMD direct now I believe (or at least it was earlier today)

I decided to get the 3950X after sleeping on it...

Decision basically came down to passmark scores:

5800X: 30K, $450

5900X: 40K, $700

5950X: 46K, $1100

3950X: 40K, $600

Basically I was willing to spend 33% more money for 33% more performance but not willing to spend 83% more money (or 40% more as the total cost of the upgrade is $1400) for 15% more performance.