AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a high-end 12-core, hyperthreaded (SMT) Vermeer series desktop processor that can process 24 threads simultaneously. Introduced on October 8, 2020, the Ryzen 9 5900X is the fastest 12-core processor and is specified at 105 watts TDP. The top model, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, offers even more power and at the same time offers another 4 cores and 8 threads. 

The Ryzen 9 5900X clocks with 3.7 GHz base clock and reaches up to 4.8 GHz on one core in turbo mode. However, when all 12 cores are loaded, up to 4.5 GHz is still possible.

The performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is consistently excellent in all applications and significantly better than the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. AMD has been able to significantly improve its single thread performance in particular and even beats the Intel Core i9-10900K in this discipline. The multi-thread performance could also be improved. In an in-house duel, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X can even take on an AMD Threadripper 2950X.

The internal structure of the processor has not changed fundamentally at first glance. The CCX structure has changed a bit compared to Zen2, because now a CCX consists of up to 8 CPU cores. So each individual core can access the complete L3 cache (32 MByte). Furthermore the CCX modules are connected to each other via the same I/O die, which we already know from Zen2. According to AMD, the Infinity-Fabric should now reach clock rates of up to 2 GHz, which in turn allows a RAM clock of 4.000 MHz without performance loss.

For the manufacturing processes, AMD also relies on TSCM for the Vermeer processors for the 7nm production of the CPU cores, although the I/O die is still supplied in 12nm by Globalfoundries. 

In games, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is convincing thanks to the significantly improved IPC. With the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, streaming can be done simultaneously with gaming. But if you only want to play games, you are well advised to take a closer look at the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X or the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is a high-end notebook processor from the Dragon Range series with 16 cores and hyperthreading (SMT), which means it can process up to 32 threads simultaneously. The CPU uses the current Zen 4 architecture for the 16 cores and clocks these from 2.4 GHz (base clock) up to 5.2 GHz (single-core boost). The CPU offers 16 MB L2 cache and 64 MB L3 cache (i.e. a total of 80 MB cache). The 7940HX consists of three chiplets, two CCD clusters with 8 CPU cores each made with a 5nm node (71mm²) and one IO die on 6nm (122mm²), are all manufactured at TSMC's fabs.

The performance of the Ryzen 9 should be comparable to a Core i9-13900HX (24 hybrid cores, max 5.4 GHz) in the top range of mobile processors from 2024. AMD itself advertises a clear lead over the old Ryzen 9 6900HX (8 Zen 3 cores, 4.9 GHz), which can be explained by the additional cores, improved architecture and higher frequencies. Compared to the top model, the Ryzen 9 7945HX, the 7940HX is slightly lower clocked.

The R9 7940HX is specified with 55 watts TDP and can be configured up to 75 watts (cTDP).