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bear the “Ryzen 9” moniker and one of the initial wave
of Ryzen 3000 CPUs to support the Zen 2
microprocessor architecture—it’s an evolution of AMD’s
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and second-generation Ryzens. That means it’s an
excellent choice for PC-building enthusiasts and
upgraders. It’s not consistently better than Intel’s
comparable Core i9-9900K, but if you need all the cores
and threads you can get, it’s a superb, Editors’ Choice
value among power CPUs, even elbowing in on the
lower-end chips in AMD’s own beastly Ryzen
Threadripper line.
A MASSIVE CORE AND THREAD COUNT
The Ryzen 9 3900X’s standout feature is its massive
core count. Twelve-core CPUs like this one are rare in
the consumer PC world; before this, you had to step up
to AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper line or Intel’s Core
X-Series to see core counts like these. Even most high-
end pre-built gaming desktops come with “just” six- or
eight-core chips. To truly take advantage of the Ryzen 9
3900X’s power, you need to be running the latest
applications designed to operate on as many CPU cores
as possible. (Those tend to be content-creation apps
such as video or photo editors.)
AMD Ryzen 9
3900X
PROS Superb price-for-
performance ratio in
multithreaded
scenarios. Among the
first consumer CPUs to
support PCI Express
4.0. Relatively low
power consumption.
Huge L3 cache. Easy
overclocking tools.
Includes attractive
cooling fan.
CONS Single-core
performance and
1080p gaming a touch
behind on some
benchmark tests. No
integrated graphics.
BOTTOM LINE With
more cores and threads
than its pricey Intel
competitor, AMD’s
Ryzen 9 3900X is a
12-core beast of a CPU
for high-end gaming
rigs or a multimedia
editing stations.