Power Temperature and Frequency
On this page, we are going to investigate the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X power draw, temperature, and frequency. This is a stress test, which means we are pushing each CPU to its maximum potential in all-core load in the Cinebench R23 multi-core test for 10 minutes.
Power
We use HWiNFO64 sensor data to record the results. We report on the sensor data for “Package Power” in Wattage.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is a 170W TDP CPU, however, its PPT (socket power) is actually 200W. This is in contrast to the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X which has a TDP of 170W as well, but a higher PPT (socket power) of 230W. In our power testing, we see this power realized, with the Ryzen 9 7950X reaching 229.1W in our testing, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X reaching 200W. That means the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X uses 13% less power than the Ryzen 9 7950X while producing faster multi-thread and single-thread performance, and typically the same gaming performance. In this instance, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is more efficient than the Ryzen 9 7950X.
When compared to the Intel Core i9-14900K at the new Intel Defaults of 253W, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X uses 21% less power. When we compare the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X to the Ryzen 9 9900X the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X uses 23% more power. Compared to the Ryzen 9 7950X3D the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X uses 34% more power, but we clearly experienced the Ryzen 9 7950X3D performing faster in games. Note that this is all-core/full-load testing above, and not Wattage while gaming, which will be different, and overall less, but just wanted to note that power difference when all cores are maxed out in which case the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is much faster in multi-threading performance.
Temperature
We use HWiNFO64 sensor data to record the results. We report on the sensor data for “Tcidle” in Celsius.
Note that the same AIO was used for all temperature testing, an MSI MEG Coreliquid S360 360mm AIO. The new AMD Ryzen 9 9950X runs much cooler than the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 18% cooler at 78.2c compared to 95.2c on the Ryzen 9 7950X. This is a very big improvement, but also keep in mind there is a 13% power difference between them as well, with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X drawing less power overall. Compared to the Intel Core i9-14900K the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is also 18% cooler. When compared to the Ryzen 9 9900X the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 9% warmer.
Frequency
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X has a base clock of 4.3GHz and a boost clock of up to 5.7GHz. In our all-core/full-load testing in Cinebench R23, running for 10 minutes we experienced all the cores at the same time running at 4.7GHz-4.8GHz on all cores. We also noticed an interesting trend, most of the time half of the cores were at 4.7GHz while the other half were at 4.8GHz. If we compare this frequency to the previous generation Ryzen 9 7950X, we find that the new AMD Ryzen 9 9950X runs slower on all-core/full-load. The Ryzen 9 7950X was running at 5GHz-5.1GHz on all cores in this same test, using the same AIO. Perhaps that extra 30W of power and temperature allowance helps the 7950X to run at a higher clock speed at all times. The fact remains, on all cores the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X runs slower than the previous generation.
When it comes to the single-core performance, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X did boost up to 5.7GHz in our testing as you can see above. Therefore, it is able to hit that maximum boost clock of 5.7GHz AMD has stated.