Today we can finally share performance benchmarks of the long-rumored AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition processor. This new halo product for the Ryzen 9000 series desktop line-up offers captivating performance for developers frequently compiling code, creators, technical computing workloads for students or hobbyists or those not able to afford a Threadripper / EPYC type workstation, or similar heavy computing use. With the 16 cores / 32 threads and both CCDs having 3D V-Cache, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 offers leading performance among current generation desktop processors.
Last month AMD announced the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 that had been rumored in online communities for months for having both CCDs with 3D V-Cache compared to just one of the CCDs with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition goes on sale tomorrow and is expected to retail for around $899 USD for this AM5 desktop CPU with a total cache size of 208MB.
In my testing the past two weeks with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, it's been working out very well under Linux without any problems to note. With the current AM5 platform support very mature under Linux for a while now and the main Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 simply being more 3D V-Cache on both CCDs, there isn't much to worry about from the Linux support perspective if you are running a modern Linux distribution. One little caveat/pointer is that the AMD 3D V-Cache Optimizer Driver is still loading on the 9950X3D2 processor. That is the driver for CPUs with having just 3D V-Cache on some CCDs to select your frequency vs. cache preference for tasks under Linux. I've confirmed with AMD this driver has no actual affect on the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 for any cache vs. frequency preference since both CCDs are the same.
I have run more than 300 benchmarks of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 and other Ryzen 9000 series and Intel Core Ultra 2 series desktop processor benchmarks on Ubuntu 26.04 for today's review.
- Core Ultra 5 245K
- Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
- Core Ultra 9 285K
- Ryzen 5 9600X
- Ryzen 7 9700X
- Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- Ryzen 7 9850X3D
- Ryzen 9 9900X
- Ryzen 9 9900X3D
- Ryzen 9 9950X
- Ryzen 9 9950X3D
- Ryzen 9 9950X3D2
All tests were done on a recent Ubuntu 26.04 snapshot with the Linux 7.0 kernel and GCC 15.2 compiler and other Ubuntu 26.04 Resolute defaults.
The results are quite exciting for pushing Linux desktop compute performance further, so let's get straight to it. And thanks to AMD for supplying the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 review sample for today's (pre)launch day Linux testing.