Zen 5 flagship Ryzen 9 8950X outperforms 14th-gen Core i9-14900K in leaked single and multi-core Cinebench 2024 tests

After the release of Intel’s 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh processors, AMD Zen 5 is likely to be the next new CPU architecture heading to the desktops. Per various leaks, the AMD Zen 5 chips could enjoy up to 16 cores with an IPC gain of up to 30% vs the Zen 4 chips. Paul Eccleston of RedGamingTech has now revealed the Cinebench 2024 numbers for the Zen 5 flagship, the Ryzen 9 8950X.

First up, Paul claims that a “later engineering sample” Ryzen 9 8950X obtained 2,400 points in the Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core and about 140 points in the Single-Core benchmark. The leaker suggests that these numbers are rounded, so the exact figures could be higher or lower.

One look at the Cinebench 2024 database is enough to confirm that the proposed Ryzen 9 8950X score is better than the Ryzen 9 7950X, the Core i9-13900K, and even the Threadripper Pro 5965WX to the tune of 10%, 12%, and 5%, respectively, in the Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core test. Interestingly, per Hardware Unboxed’s review of the Core i9-14900K, Intel’s newly launched 14th-gen flagship earned a score of 2,217. So, the purported Ryzen 9 8950X outperforms the Core i9-14900K by 8% in the Cinebench 2024 Multi Core benchmark.

Moving on to the Cinebench 2024 Single-Core comparison, Paul’s Ryzen 9 8950X numbers have the CPU outrun the Core i9-13900KS, Core i9-13900K, and Ryzen 9 7950X by margins of 4%, 7%, and 12% respectively. Once again, Hardware Unboxed’s testing showed 137 points for the Core i9-14900K making the Ryzen 9 8950X under discussion 2% faster.

Interestingly, the Ryzen 9 8950X’s performance lead in the Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core test over the Ryzen 9 7950X is much less pronounced than the Cinebench R23 Multi-Core scores. For instance, per an older Cinebench R23 Multi-Core score for a 16-core Zen 5 CPU leaked by Paul, the Zen 5 part should be 36.5% faster vs the Ryzen 9 7950X. We have no way of knowing why such a large discrepancy exists between the two scores. However, an obvious answer is that one of the two scores for the Ryzen 9 8950X mentioned here is inaccurate.

Before we wrap this up, it is important to mention that, as stated by Paul, the Ryzen 8000 processors are still in the engineering sample stages. So, the Ryzen 9 8950X performance shown here could change in the final retail silicon. Therefore, take the information with a grain of salt.

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