{"video_id":"BfRCEeRiLI4","title":"It's Overpriced and I'm EXCITED - Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition Review","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2026-04-22T18:04:14+00:00","duration_s":790,"segments":[{"start_s":0.08,"end_s":6.879,"text":"The way I see it, you clicked on this video for one of just three reasons. You","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":4.64,"end_s":11.2,"text":"either want to watch tech giants in a CPU dunking contest. You could","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":9.28,"end_s":15.44,"text":"legitimately be shopping for the fastest PC hardware on the planet.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":13.04,"end_s":19.6,"text":"Congratulations, by the way. Or most likely, you just want to eat some","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":17.199,"end_s":24.08,"text":"popcorn and watch the fanboys squabble in the comments about an overpriced CPU.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":21.92,"end_s":30.4,"text":"Well, guess what? Buckle in tight, cuz you're going to see all three today. The","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":26.4,"end_s":32.64,"text":"Ryzen 9950 X3D2 Dual Edition is an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":30.4,"end_s":37.6,"text":"eyewateringly expensive, zero compromised product, and I love it. It's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":35.6,"end_s":41.68,"text":"the perfect purebred show horse to excite geeks like us by pushing the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":39.68,"end_s":47.12,"text":"limits of modern technology while also serving as a reminder that most people","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":44.32,"end_s":50.399,"text":"really don't need one. What everyone does need though is this segue to our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":49.52,"end_s":55.68,"text":"sponsor, >> Acuity Scheduling. It's a flexible scheduling software that offers calendar","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":54.0,"end_s":59.84,"text":"management, booking tools, client communications, secure payments, custom","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":57.199,"end_s":64.68,"text":"branding, and much more. Save 20% today with the code LT20 at our link below.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":71.2,"end_s":77.04,"text":"Hi. If you're wondering why this video is a day late, well, AMD didn't send us","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":74.72,"end_s":80.64,"text":"a chip to review, and they also didn't send a lot of people chips to review.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":78.88,"end_s":84.96,"text":"Make of that information what you will. Anyway, here is our review. Getting","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":83.2,"end_s":90.0,"text":"right into the meat of things, I can understand why AMD struggled to name","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":87.36,"end_s":96.159,"text":"this chip. And they clearly did because what is this thing? Let's break it down.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":92.799,"end_s":99.2,"text":"It's a 9950X, so that means you got 16","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":96.159,"end_s":102.4,"text":"of AMD's latest Zen 5 architecture cores","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":99.2,"end_s":104.799,"text":"and 32 threads. It's 3D, which means it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":102.4,"end_s":108.56,"text":"features a large stacked 3D vcache, which can offer a major performance","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":106.32,"end_s":114.88,"text":"benefit in certain workloads, notably gaming. and it's two and also dual both","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":113.36,"end_s":120.799,"text":"of which seem to mean the same thing because compared to a regular 9950X3D","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":117.92,"end_s":126.56,"text":"non two non-dual the big change that the dual edition brings is that AMD's super","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":123.52,"end_s":128.879,"text":"large 3DV cache now sits on both of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":126.56,"end_s":133.44,"text":"core complex dies or CCDs that are under the gray heat spreader rather than only","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":131.039,"end_s":137.76,"text":"on one of them. That gives the duel a whopping","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":134.959,"end_s":143.28,"text":"192 MGB of level three cache. That's enough to install Windows 95 on your CPU","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":141.04,"end_s":147.12,"text":"three times over. Doesn't really work like that. We just thought it was kind","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":144.8,"end_s":152.08,"text":"of a funny thing to point out. But hold on a second. If 3DV cache is so great,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":149.599,"end_s":156.8,"text":"then why didn't AMD use it across all of their cores in the past? Well, because","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":154.56,"end_s":161.599,"text":"there are some trade-offs. the price for one, but also a considerable 30 watt","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":159.84,"end_s":167.2,"text":"increase to total design power that brings the duel to a sweaty 200 watts","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":164.48,"end_s":171.68,"text":"that in some situations it even exceeded by a significant margin. And this extra","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":169.44,"end_s":177.2,"text":"power seems to have resulted in a small decrease in boost clock speeds.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":175.519,"end_s":181.36,"text":"But hey, that should be more than made up for by the extra 3D cache, right?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":179.36,"end_s":185.76,"text":"Especially in gaming, right? Well, let's talk about that. Out of the gate, things","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":183.2,"end_s":190.64,"text":"are looking good in City Skylines 2. a game we chose more for its ability to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":187.68,"end_s":195.76,"text":"bring CPUs to their knees than its uh community appeal. Here, the Duel leads","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":193.04,"end_s":199.68,"text":"the pack with the other 9000X3D chips in tow behind it. Makes sense. After all,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":198.48,"end_s":206.08,"text":"they're supposed to be good for gaming, right? And we see the same deal in Cyberpunk 2077. Though, it is worth","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":203.68,"end_s":209.599,"text":"noting here that while these high average FPS numbers here are very","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":208.08,"end_s":214.0,"text":"impressive, when it comes to the all-important 1% lows, which represent","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":212.4,"end_s":220.319,"text":"the performance you can expect in the most demanding moments, some older and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":216.879,"end_s":222.799,"text":"uh much less expensive chips are nipping","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":220.319,"end_s":226.879,"text":"dangerously close to their heels. In F124, it seems like any high-end","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":225.519,"end_s":231.2,"text":"processor from the past couple generations is going to do you just","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":228.64,"end_s":235.28,"text":"fine. Shout out to the venerable 5800 X3D by the way, which is rumored to be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":233.12,"end_s":240.08,"text":"returning for a celebration of the AM4 socket's 10th anniversary. Then in The","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":237.36,"end_s":243.599,"text":"Last of Us Part One, the 9950X3D2 duel returns to the top position and is also","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":242.48,"end_s":248.0,"text":"about as fast as it gets in Counter-Strike 2, at least as far as 1%","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":246.0,"end_s":254.08,"text":"lows are concerned. Across our suite of gaming benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 9950XD2","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":251.12,"end_s":260.32,"text":"dual edition is just plain ripping fast, and yet still nearly impossible for me","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":257.04,"end_s":263.52,"text":"to recommend. Why? Well, for starters,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":260.32,"end_s":265.919,"text":"we benchmark gaming CPUs at 1080p. This","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":263.52,"end_s":269.919,"text":"gives us a clear view of which chips will separate themselves from the pack","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":267.759,"end_s":275.36,"text":"in an intentionally CPU bottleneck situation. But if you're buying a $900","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":273.36,"end_s":281.28,"text":"chip, you're almost guaranteed to be running at at least 1440p, if not 4K,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":278.72,"end_s":285.6,"text":"where a GPU bottleneck is way more likely than a CPU one. The second reason","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":283.6,"end_s":289.68,"text":"is that even if you were an esports professional trying to eek out every","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":287.28,"end_s":293.84,"text":"last frame, I still wouldn't sell you a duel. Because while it does have more","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":292.08,"end_s":298.639,"text":"3DV cache goodness than anything we've ever seen before, which is cool, in the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":296.32,"end_s":304.88,"text":"real world, it performs basically the same as any of the other 9000 series X3D","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":301.52,"end_s":307.36,"text":"chips. But why is that? Well, as some of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":304.88,"end_s":311.28,"text":"you might know, high-end X3D chips have always come with kind of a weird","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":309.199,"end_s":316.479,"text":"trade-off. They had all these cores on them, but only some of the cores were","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":313.6,"end_s":320.56,"text":"best for gaming, the 3D vcache ones. So, you always wanted to make sure that your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":318.24,"end_s":325.199,"text":"games were running on those. To do this, AMD uses a technique called core","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":322.639,"end_s":329.919,"text":"parking, which unintuitively does not stop the core from doing any work, but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":327.039,"end_s":334.72,"text":"rather it forces a given program to only use specific CPU cores and then ignore","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":332.639,"end_s":338.32,"text":"the rest. Over the past couple of years, AMD and Microsoft have worked on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":336.479,"end_s":341.6,"text":"dejenifying this behavior to the point where as long as you're running an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":339.759,"end_s":347.039,"text":"up-to-date chipset, BIOS, and operating system, you should find that your 2CD","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":344.32,"end_s":351.36,"text":"CPU is using the right cores for any given job. That is, assuming, of course,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":348.96,"end_s":355.759,"text":"that Windows recognizes your games as a game. But we have 3D Vcash on all the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":354.16,"end_s":360.88,"text":"cores now. So, why are we talking about parking anything anywhere? Vroom v room,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":357.52,"end_s":363.12,"text":"right? Well, as it turns out, most games","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":360.88,"end_s":367.36,"text":"just plain don't need more than eight cores. And regardless of what type of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":365.28,"end_s":372.56,"text":"cache your cores have if they have to coordinate work across multiple CCDs,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":370.479,"end_s":377.52,"text":"the data has to travel across the Infinity Fabric and the IO die, which is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":375.199,"end_s":383.36,"text":"going to introduce extra latency. So, the solution, the same jank we were","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":380.479,"end_s":388.0,"text":"already using, core parking. And that is why the new dual edition performs","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":385.36,"end_s":393.36,"text":"basically exactly the same in gaming. So then who is it useful for? Well, for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":390.639,"end_s":396.8,"text":"starters, anyone who might run multiple workloads that benefit from extra cache.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":395.36,"end_s":401.36,"text":"A great example would be someone who wants to stream or record their gameplay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":399.6,"end_s":406.4,"text":"while they're gaming without burdening their GPU. A more niche benefit is that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":403.759,"end_s":410.639,"text":"overclockers and system tuners could identify which of their CCDs runs the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":408.8,"end_s":414.8,"text":"fastest and then put their most performance sensitive workloads on those","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":412.56,"end_s":419.039,"text":"cores. Or at least that would be an option if AMD and Windows allowed you to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":417.039,"end_s":423.84,"text":"choose. From our testing, it seems that games are locked to CCD0 for the time","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":421.599,"end_s":428.8,"text":"being. Another focus for AMD's marketing for this chip is a claimed 5 to 10%","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":426.72,"end_s":434.96,"text":"increase in productivity. Let's take a look at that. And unsurprisingly, the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":431.599,"end_s":437.28,"text":"Ryzen 9 9950 X3D2 dual edition Core 2","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":434.96,"end_s":441.36,"text":"dual extreme max plus the sequel is an absolute monster here as well. In 7zip,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":439.36,"end_s":446.0,"text":"the duel has a clear lead over any other consumer CPU both in compression and in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":443.84,"end_s":449.919,"text":"decompression. And in Cinebench, it sits at the top of the chart or darn near it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":447.919,"end_s":455.84,"text":"in both multi-core and single core performance. The only problem is that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":451.919,"end_s":459.52,"text":"its closest competitor is uh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":455.84,"end_s":461.68,"text":"five $550 cheaper at retail right now.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":459.52,"end_s":465.28,"text":"Uh but hey, those are kind of just benchmarks, right? And if you're in the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":463.199,"end_s":468.639,"text":"market for a CPU this expensive, you probably want to get some real work done","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":466.72,"end_s":473.68,"text":"with it, right? Where in Blender, the dual edition does manage an as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":470.96,"end_s":480.72,"text":"advertised 5% improvement over its less endowed twin and a considerable 15ish%","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":477.36,"end_s":482.879,"text":"over the 7950 X3D. This is one of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":480.72,"end_s":487.68,"text":"first cases we've seen where the Duel actually kind of stands out for its","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":484.879,"end_s":492.879,"text":"value. To be clear, it only beats the much more affordable 270K Plus by 10","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":490.639,"end_s":497.36,"text":"seconds. But if you use your system to make money, every second counts, and the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":495.44,"end_s":501.84,"text":"Duel is as fast as it gets without paying a considerable premium for a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":499.599,"end_s":506.639,"text":"workstation platform motherboard. And it even continues AMD's bro move of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":504.479,"end_s":510.8,"text":"supporting ECCU dims on select motherboards, making it a great semi-pro","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":508.96,"end_s":515.919,"text":"offering. And that carries over to encoding as well, where the X3D2 is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":513.279,"end_s":520.959,"text":"again at the top of the charts in H.264 and close in AB1. In Puget Bench's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":518.719,"end_s":527.279,"text":"Photoshop benchmark, the Duel is the first consumer x86 CPU we've tested that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":523.44,"end_s":529.12,"text":"cracks 14,000 points, which is cool, but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":527.279,"end_s":533.92,"text":"only a negligible increase over the rest of the Zen 5 contenders. and NVIDIA","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":531.279,"end_s":537.76,"text":"editing. She's a chart topper again and more importantly can offer an uplift","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":535.76,"end_s":543.04,"text":"that you might actually feel compared to an older generation 3D cache chip like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":540.24,"end_s":547.12,"text":"the 7950 X3D. Now, you wouldn't think that based on the overall score from","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":545.04,"end_s":550.32,"text":"Puget Bench, but we found that depending on the files you're working with, you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":548.72,"end_s":555.6,"text":"might find performance enhancements that are much greater than the two-ish% on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":552.64,"end_s":559.519,"text":"our chart. However, as with gaming, the situations where we see large","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":556.88,"end_s":563.44,"text":"improvements over the non-duel are few and far between. As for Premier Pro,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":562.08,"end_s":568.48,"text":"it's kind of like a grade schooler going to the gym. The gains are there, but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":565.519,"end_s":572.64,"text":"they're minor. So, yeah, in our creator focused testing, the duel doesn't offer","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":570.32,"end_s":576.959,"text":"much, but to be fair, there are lots of kinds of productivity, and the extra","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":574.32,"end_s":581.279,"text":"level three cache can be huge in mathy and sciency workloads. Check out this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":579.44,"end_s":585.76,"text":"result from Feronx's review of the original 9950 X3D. Since we're a day","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":584.16,"end_s":589.36,"text":"late, we have the rare second mover advantage. And we can actually just show","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":587.2,"end_s":592.48,"text":"you some of Feronx's results. And you can see that there are some workloads","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":590.56,"end_s":598.56,"text":"where the chip benefits a lot from the extra vc. You might be thinking that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":594.56,"end_s":600.64,"text":"not very many workloads. And uh yeah.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":598.56,"end_s":603.76,"text":"Yeah. Anyways, if you do want to learn more, we highly recommend going over to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":601.92,"end_s":607.36,"text":"Feronics, looking at their Linux and scientific benchmarking. It's pretty","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":606.0,"end_s":612.399,"text":"cool. There's going to be a link in the description. >> But I will say there's a solid chance","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":609.68,"end_s":618.24,"text":"that if you are degridding radio signals from space, this could be your new","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":614.959,"end_s":620.56,"text":"powerhouse. Speaking of power, at 200 W,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":618.24,"end_s":625.6,"text":"this is the highest TDP that AMD has ever set on a consumer chip. And does it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":623.76,"end_s":631.2,"text":"ever deliver on its promise. In Cinebench, this thing pulls up to 260","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":628.64,"end_s":636.959,"text":"watts across the total CPU package. That is like Intel 14900K levels of power","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":634.399,"end_s":642.959,"text":"draw. But thankfully, it doesn't have the same power density and IHS problems","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":640.079,"end_s":647.36,"text":"as the 14900K. With that said, if you were thinking of upgrading from a Ryzen","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":644.88,"end_s":651.12,"text":"5950X to this new CPU, you should make sure that your power supply can handle","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":648.88,"end_s":656.079,"text":"the extra power draw. And uh oh yeah, probably also your CPU cooler. That's a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":653.76,"end_s":661.6,"text":"tech tip. The good news in all this is that the extra power draw only rears its","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":658.079,"end_s":664.0,"text":"head in heavy all core CPU workloads. In","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":661.6,"end_s":667.519,"text":"F-124, for example, we found this chip drew about the same power as its","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":665.92,"end_s":671.68,"text":"siblings, meaning that you can enjoy manageable temperatures while just","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":669.279,"end_s":677.44,"text":"pretending to race in the uh Las Vegas heat. In conclusion, the Ryzen 9","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":674.079,"end_s":680.16,"text":"9950X3D2 dual edition puts a punctuation","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":677.44,"end_s":686.24,"text":"point on AMD's last 3 years of CPU domination. But while I love the new","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":683.68,"end_s":691.12,"text":"fastest one as much as anyone does, it's hard to recommend a chip that demands","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":688.32,"end_s":695.519,"text":"such a price for such small gains. And it feels a little bit like this is an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":693.36,"end_s":698.959,"text":"unnecessary victory lap. And I would rather AMD focus their development","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":697.279,"end_s":705.76,"text":"efforts on things their community really wants. Like, oh, I don't know, maybe","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":701.92,"end_s":708.16,"text":"bringing FSR4 to RDNA3 GPUs. Or, hey,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":705.76,"end_s":714.72,"text":"how about finally bringing Zen 5 to budget buyers? Where is Ryzen 3 AMD?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":712.0,"end_s":718.24,"text":"Also, where is my sponsor? >> Acuity scheduling. The busier your life","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":716.64,"end_s":721.44,"text":"gets, the harder it can be to be at the right place at any given time, let alone","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":719.839,"end_s":724.88,"text":"prioritizing the right tasks to be doing. But Acuity Scheduling can help","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":723.279,"end_s":728.079,"text":"you keep your work in order thanks to its flexible calendar management and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":726.56,"end_s":732.24,"text":"booking. Clients, colleagues, and acquaintances can schedule, cancel, and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":729.92,"end_s":735.44,"text":"rebook time with you on their own, so all you have to do is show up as your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":733.92,"end_s":738.959,"text":"best self. And even if you need to juggle several calendars, Acuity","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":737.04,"end_s":742.0,"text":"Scheduling can sync with multiple apps, making sure you don't accidentally","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":740.399,"end_s":745.839,"text":"overbook. It will automate things like confirmation emails, text reminders,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":743.519,"end_s":749.04,"text":"follow-ups, and intake forms. Plus, it can prepare you with all of the relevant","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":747.36,"end_s":752.24,"text":"client history so you can stay informed. Acuity Scheduling also has gift","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":750.8,"end_s":757.12,"text":"certificates and subscription tools built right into the platform, which means less planning and more repeat","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":755.36,"end_s":760.079,"text":"business for you. They'll even help your entire team get on the same page with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":758.639,"end_s":763.519,"text":"custom staff permissions, as well as push notifications, so everyone knows if","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":762.16,"end_s":768.079,"text":"things are moved or canceled. When it comes time to invoice clients, Acuity Scheduling works with the most popular","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":766.56,"end_s":772.8,"text":"payment providers, so you can get paid in person or set up recurring billing.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":770.24,"end_s":777.36,"text":"So, go to acuityccheduling.com/LTT for a free trial and use offer code","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":774.32,"end_s":778.8,"text":"ltt20 to save 20% off your first Acuity","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":777.36,"end_s":785.2,"text":"Scheduling subscription. If you guys enjoyed this video, why not check out the one we did recently on how X3D chips","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":782.8,"end_s":788.16,"text":"in particular don't really need the fastest memory for gaming, which could","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":786.959,"end_s":790.959,"text":"help save you some money if you're putting together a new","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"The way I see it, you clicked on this video for one of just three reasons. You either want to watch tech giants in a CPU dunking contest. You could legitimately be shopping for the fastest PC hardware on the planet. Congratulations, by the way. Or most likely, you just want to eat some popcorn and watch the fanboys squabble in the comments about an overpriced CPU. Well, guess what? Buckle in tight, cuz you're going to see all three today. The Ryzen 9950 X3D2 Dual Edition is an eyewateringly expensive, zero compromised product, and I love it. It's the perfect purebred show horse to excite geeks like us by pushing the limits of modern technology while also serving as a reminder that most people really don't need one. What everyone does need though is this segue to our sponsor, >> Acuity Scheduling. It's a flexible scheduling software that offers calendar management, booking tools, client communications, secure payments, custom branding, and much more. Save 20% today with the code LT20 at our link below. Hi. If you're wondering why this video is a day late, well, AMD didn't send us a chip to review, and they also didn't send a lot of people chips to review. Make of that information what you will. Anyway, here is our review. Getting right into the meat of things, I can understand why AMD struggled to name this chip. And they clearly did because what is this thing? Let's break it down. It's a 9950X, so that means you got 16 of AMD's latest Zen 5 architecture cores and 32 threads. It's 3D, which means it features a large stacked 3D vcache, which can offer a major performance benefit in certain workloads, notably gaming. and it's two and also dual both of which seem to mean the same thing because compared to a regular 9950X3D non two non-dual the big change that the dual edition brings is that AMD's super large 3DV cache now sits on both of the core complex dies or CCDs that are under the gray heat spreader rather than only on one of them. That gives the duel a whopping 192 MGB of level three cache. That's enough to install Windows 95 on your CPU three times over. Doesn't really work like that. We just thought it was kind of a funny thing to point out. But hold on a second. If 3DV cache is so great, then why didn't AMD use it across all of their cores in the past? Well, because there are some trade-offs. the price for one, but also a considerable 30 watt increase to total design power that brings the duel to a sweaty 200 watts that in some situations it even exceeded by a significant margin. And this extra power seems to have resulted in a small decrease in boost clock speeds. But hey, that should be more than made up for by the extra 3D cache, right? Especially in gaming, right? Well, let's talk about that. Out of the gate, things are looking good in City Skylines 2. a game we chose more for its ability to bring CPUs to their knees than its uh community appeal. Here, the Duel leads the pack with the other 9000X3D chips in tow behind it. Makes sense. After all, they're supposed to be good for gaming, right? And we see the same deal in Cyberpunk 2077. Though, it is worth noting here that while these high average FPS numbers here are very impressive, when it comes to the all-important 1% lows, which represent the performance you can expect in the most demanding moments, some older and uh much less expensive chips are nipping dangerously close to their heels. In F124, it seems like any high-end processor from the past couple generations is going to do you just fine. Shout out to the venerable 5800 X3D by the way, which is rumored to be returning for a celebration of the AM4 socket's 10th anniversary. Then in The Last of Us Part One, the 9950X3D2 duel returns to the top position and is also about as fast as it gets in Counter-Strike 2, at least as far as 1% lows are concerned. Across our suite of gaming benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 9950XD2 dual edition is just plain ripping fast, and yet still nearly impossible for me to recommend. Why? Well, for starters, we benchmark gaming CPUs at 1080p. This gives us a clear view of which chips will separate themselves from the pack in an intentionally CPU bottleneck situation. But if you're buying a $900 chip, you're almost guaranteed to be running at at least 1440p, if not 4K, where a GPU bottleneck is way more likely than a CPU one. The second reason is that even if you were an esports professional trying to eek out every last frame, I still wouldn't sell you a duel. Because while it does have more 3DV cache goodness than anything we've ever seen before, which is cool, in the real world, it performs basically the same as any of the other 9000 series X3D chips. But why is that? Well, as some of you might know, high-end X3D chips have always come with kind of a weird trade-off. They had all these cores on them, but only some of the cores were best for gaming, the 3D vcache ones. So, you always wanted to make sure that your games were running on those. To do this, AMD uses a technique called core parking, which unintuitively does not stop the core from doing any work, but rather it forces a given program to only use specific CPU cores and then ignore the rest. Over the past couple of years, AMD and Microsoft have worked on dejenifying this behavior to the point where as long as you're running an up-to-date chipset, BIOS, and operating system, you should find that your 2CD CPU is using the right cores for any given job. That is, assuming, of course, that Windows recognizes your games as a game. But we have 3D Vcash on all the cores now. So, why are we talking about parking anything anywhere? Vroom v room, right? Well, as it turns out, most games just plain don't need more than eight cores. And regardless of what type of cache your cores have if they have to coordinate work across multiple CCDs, the data has to travel across the Infinity Fabric and the IO die, which is going to introduce extra latency. So, the solution, the same jank we were already using, core parking. And that is why the new dual edition performs basically exactly the same in gaming. So then who is it useful for? Well, for starters, anyone who might run multiple workloads that benefit from extra cache. A great example would be someone who wants to stream or record their gameplay while they're gaming without burdening their GPU. A more niche benefit is that overclockers and system tuners could identify which of their CCDs runs the fastest and then put their most performance sensitive workloads on those cores. Or at least that would be an option if AMD and Windows allowed you to choose. From our testing, it seems that games are locked to CCD0 for the time being. Another focus for AMD's marketing for this chip is a claimed 5 to 10% increase in productivity. Let's take a look at that. And unsurprisingly, the Ryzen 9 9950 X3D2 dual edition Core 2 dual extreme max plus the sequel is an absolute monster here as well. In 7zip, the duel has a clear lead over any other consumer CPU both in compression and in decompression. And in Cinebench, it sits at the top of the chart or darn near it in both multi-core and single core performance. The only problem is that its closest competitor is uh five $550 cheaper at retail right now. Uh but hey, those are kind of just benchmarks, right? And if you're in the market for a CPU this expensive, you probably want to get some real work done with it, right? Where in Blender, the dual edition does manage an as advertised 5% improvement over its less endowed twin and a considerable 15ish% over the 7950 X3D. This is one of the first cases we've seen where the Duel actually kind of stands out for its value. To be clear, it only beats the much more affordable 270K Plus by 10 seconds. But if you use your system to make money, every second counts, and the Duel is as fast as it gets without paying a considerable premium for a workstation platform motherboard. And it even continues AMD's bro move of supporting ECCU dims on select motherboards, making it a great semi-pro offering. And that carries over to encoding as well, where the X3D2 is again at the top of the charts in H.264 and close in AB1. In Puget Bench's Photoshop benchmark, the Duel is the first consumer x86 CPU we've tested that cracks 14,000 points, which is cool, but only a negligible increase over the rest of the Zen 5 contenders. and NVIDIA editing. She's a chart topper again and more importantly can offer an uplift that you might actually feel compared to an older generation 3D cache chip like the 7950 X3D. Now, you wouldn't think that based on the overall score from Puget Bench, but we found that depending on the files you're working with, you might find performance enhancements that are much greater than the two-ish% on our chart. However, as with gaming, the situations where we see large improvements over the non-duel are few and far between. As for Premier Pro, it's kind of like a grade schooler going to the gym. The gains are there, but they're minor. So, yeah, in our creator focused testing, the duel doesn't offer much, but to be fair, there are lots of kinds of productivity, and the extra level three cache can be huge in mathy and sciency workloads. Check out this result from Feronx's review of the original 9950 X3D. Since we're a day late, we have the rare second mover advantage. And we can actually just show you some of Feronx's results. And you can see that there are some workloads where the chip benefits a lot from the extra vc. You might be thinking that's not very many workloads. And uh yeah. Yeah. Anyways, if you do want to learn more, we highly recommend going over to Feronics, looking at their Linux and scientific benchmarking. It's pretty cool. There's going to be a link in the description. >> But I will say there's a solid chance that if you are degridding radio signals from space, this could be your new powerhouse. Speaking of power, at 200 W, this is the highest TDP that AMD has ever set on a consumer chip. And does it ever deliver on its promise. In Cinebench, this thing pulls up to 260 watts across the total CPU package. That is like Intel 14900K levels of power draw. But thankfully, it doesn't have the same power density and IHS problems as the 14900K. With that said, if you were thinking of upgrading from a Ryzen 5950X to this new CPU, you should make sure that your power supply can handle the extra power draw. And uh oh yeah, probably also your CPU cooler. That's a tech tip. The good news in all this is that the extra power draw only rears its head in heavy all core CPU workloads. In F-124, for example, we found this chip drew about the same power as its siblings, meaning that you can enjoy manageable temperatures while just pretending to race in the uh Las Vegas heat. In conclusion, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 dual edition puts a punctuation point on AMD's last 3 years of CPU domination. But while I love the new fastest one as much as anyone does, it's hard to recommend a chip that demands such a price for such small gains. And it feels a little bit like this is an unnecessary victory lap. And I would rather AMD focus their development efforts on things their community really wants. Like, oh, I don't know, maybe bringing FSR4 to RDNA3 GPUs. Or, hey, how about finally bringing Zen 5 to budget buyers? Where is Ryzen 3 AMD? Also, where is my sponsor? >> Acuity scheduling. The busier your life gets, the harder it can be to be at the right place at any given time, let alone prioritizing the right tasks to be doing. But Acuity Scheduling can help you keep your work in order thanks to its flexible calendar management and booking. Clients, colleagues, and acquaintances can schedule, cancel, and rebook time with you on their own, so all you have to do is show up as your best self. And even if you need to juggle several calendars, Acuity Scheduling can sync with multiple apps, making sure you don't accidentally overbook. It will automate things like confirmation emails, text reminders, follow-ups, and intake forms. Plus, it can prepare you with all of the relevant client history so you can stay informed. Acuity Scheduling also has gift certificates and subscription tools built right into the platform, which means less planning and more repeat business for you. They'll even help your entire team get on the same page with custom staff permissions, as well as push notifications, so everyone knows if things are moved or canceled. When it comes time to invoice clients, Acuity Scheduling works with the most popular payment providers, so you can get paid in person or set up recurring billing. So, go to acuityccheduling.com/LTT for a free trial and use offer code ltt20 to save 20% off your first Acuity Scheduling subscription. If you guys enjoyed this video, why not check out the one we did recently on how X3D chips in particular don't really need the fastest memory for gaming, which could help save you some money if you're putting together a new"}