Ryzen 9 3950X 'ECO' from the XMG APEX 15 is twice as efficient as the Intel Core i9-9900K

Robert Sole 19 April 2020

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A few weeks ago we were all surprised by the announcement of the XMG APEX 15 laptop. This laptop is characterized by using a Ryzen 9 3950X processor with 16 cores and 32 threads. Said laptop makes use of a special version of the AMD processor with adjusted frequencies. The processor works in ECO mode, thus reducing the TDP to 65W and improving autonomy.

The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor has 16 cores and 32 threads at a base frequency of 3.5GHz and can reach 4.7GHz in Boost mode. The XMG version of the laptop works at a frequency of 2.6GHz and comes in Boost mode at 4.2GHz. With these tuned frequencies this processor is twice as efficient as the Core i9-9900K.

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XMG's Ryzen 9 3950X is more efficient than any Intel

Power is not everything and less in the case of a laptop. For laptops, a balance must be found between performance, autonomy and temperature. According to tests carried out on the XMG laptop with the Ryzen 9 3950X, this is twice as efficient as the Core i9-9900K and Core i7-9700K under Cinebench R15.

According to previous benchmarks, the 'original' Ryzen 9 3950X offers 215 points on a single core and 3939 on multicore under the Cinebench R15. With the 65W TDP profile, this processor goes on to offer 195 points in one core and 3301 points in multicore. The full version is 20% more powerful than the version with reduced TDP. But the 'eco' model offers 34% more performance per watt, ideal for laptops.

Compared to the Core i9-9900K and Core i7-9700K processors, this 'eco' AMD processor offers x3.1 times and x2.3 times efficiency, respectively. Here the big difference is mainly based on the lithography used in the processors. The problem is that Intel continues with 14nm, which no matter how polished they are, consume a lot of money.

XMG has given specific data on consumption and temperatures of APEX 15 laptops, with astonishing data. You can see the great performance per watt that Ryzen 3000 processors offer. Even at 100% load, the Ryzen 9 3950X laptop does not suffer from thermal throttling, which is brutal.