AMD Ryzen 9 3900X gaming benchmarks reveal turning off SMT narrows the performance gap with the Core i9-9900K only in select titles

We know that AMD Ryzen offers excellent multi-core performance and even Windows 10 is now able to take good advantage of all the additional cores. While we are seeing many AAA titles today scale up to multiple cores, most games have been traditionally coded for single-threaded performance, which is where Intel continues to dominate. Apparently, disabling SMT on higher-core count Ryzens such as the 12C/24T Ryzen 9 3900X is not a good option although it can have some benefit for certain titles, according to game benchmarks run by TechSpot.

TechSpot decided to test 36 games to see if disabling SMT on the Ryzen 9 3900X helps in gaining additional fps. Disabling SMT did have a positive effect in improving the average fps some titles such as Prey, Just Cause 4, Hitman 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider while the performance gains were minimal in titles such as Project Cars 2, Apex Legends, For Honor, and PUBG. 

It is good to see that modern games are taking good advantage of SMT when we look at the performance gains in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, etc. When comparing 1% low scores, we get to see that enabling SMT actually benefits most titles with a 1% gain on average in most titles. 

It helps to note that the Ryzen 9 3900X does not beat the Core i9-9900K when SMT is disabled. In fact, SMT should not be disabled unless you are pretty sure that it will offer a significant fps boost in the particular game. If you know what you're doing, you can also use a tool like ProcessLasso to manually set core affinities for a particular game and see if it offers any fps benefit. 

The take home message from this test is that if you are planning to extract every possible frame at 1080p, Intel is still the best option available and disabling SMT on Intel could theoretically offer even better scores. That being said, AMD has closed the performance gap significantly in this generation and is an overall better option taking into account the process improvements and reduced power consumption.

Check out TechSpot's detailed analysis at the Source link below.