What CPU is equivalent to the Ryzen 9 7950X?

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AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X is their current flagship processor, and it offers some pretty impressive specs. But what CPU is equivalent to the Ryzen 9 7950X?

Now read: Best CPU cooler for Ryzen 9 7950X

However, it is rather expensive and runs very hot, so you’ll need a powerful cooling solution to keep it from overheating. 

Add the fact that you’d have to upgrade your motherboard and RAM sticks too, and you have yourself a very costly build. 

Let’s find out whether or not there are any alternatives to the Ryzen 9 7950X that can offer similar performance, but hopefully without the huge upgrade cost.

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Ryzen 9 7950X – Processor specifications

First, a look at the CPU’s specs. 

• 16 cores 
• 32 threads 
• Base clock: 4.5GHz
• Boost clock: 5.7GHz 
• L3 cache: 64MB
• Default TDP: 170W 

About what you’d expect from a 2022 flagship. The processor has 16 high-performance cores running at an incredible 5.7GHz boost clock and will make quick work of any single-threaded or multi-threaded workload thrown at it. 

The processor’s 64MB cache is also well-above average, even for a high-end processor. It’s almost twice that of the competition. For reference, Intel’s flagship, the Core i9-13900KS, has a 36MB smart cache.

And, as I hinted at earlier, we see the Ryzen 9 7950X feature a high 170-watt TDP.

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What CPU is equivalent to the Ryzen 9 7950X?

I consider the Intel core i9-13900 processor the closest equivalent to the Ryzen 9 7950X.

Intel Core i9-13900

You may have been expecting the Intel core i9-13900K or KS here. You can read more about the differences between the three variants here. 

Comparisons with the K and KS have already been made, and it’s clear that the unlockable and special edition variants of the new Raptor Lake i9 come out ahead of the Ryzen 9 7950X by a significant margin. 

The 13900K, for example, offers similar multicore performance to the 7950X but takes a 5-10% lead in single-threaded workloads such as gaming.

For better or worse, Intel is winning the battle of the flagships (although we may see that change quite soon with the release of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor in February). 

The Intel Core i9-13900 is a very capable processor in its own right, and it’s just strong enough to be the closest equivalent to the 7950X. 

The standard edition 13900 features a 5.6GHz boost clock, just 100MHz lower than the 7950X’s 5.7GHz boost. Not a negligible difference, but one that only has a minor practical influence. 

Both processors feature an identical 32-thread count. There is a difference in their core setup, though. The 13900 has 8 hyperthreaded performance cores and 16 efficiency cores. The 7950X has 16 multithreaded high-performance cores, which allows it to take the edge in multicore performance. 

Overall, both processors will perform very similarly in gaming. The 7950X will perform marginally better in multithreaded workloads such as content creation and rendering, but this difference is a mere few percentage points. 

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Final thoughts

To summarize, the Ryzen 9 7950X’s closest CPU equivalent is the Intel i9-13900 CPU. Both processors have very identical specs, barring the difference in their architecture and core setup. 

You’ll see near identical single-threaded performance in workloads such as gaming, whereas the 7950X will get productivity work done slightly faster.