I choose the 5900X last November. For me it was the best balance in performance, number of cores, and cost. 5950X was more money for cores/threads that would have been overkill for me (music/DAW). I spent more on NVME SSD and more memory which was a better performance enhancement investment.

 

Zen 4 will include X3D as standard, plus 5nm will be more energy efficient. In the carbon neutral net-zero future, energy cost is going to kill musicians, especially those with lots of hardware. Unfortunately, only Zen 5 will be optimized for low power performance by introducing small cores and 3nm fabrication.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2022

This was on my shopping list too, until they announced an early release date for Zen 4. If I was really clever I would skip Zen 4 and wait for Zen 5. I think my computer can handle the wait, but my desire can't What is the CPU % usage like for a big project on 5900X? This CPU could be a good deal in September if the price drops.

 

CPU today: Everyone drives a Porsche today, but some people are in the mood for a Ferrari.

 

Today my CPU is a VW Beetle, but I like Maserati or Lamborghini

Actually, I am not a normal user and I use a ton of Nebula over every track, so I need raw power. At the moment I freeze as I go, and luckily Reaper is excellent for that, but I would prefer not to do it.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2022

Have you decided yet?

 

Probably going for a 5900X - sounds like the best compromise at the moment.

 

Def the 5900x
other than that

the Zen 3d Model, which everyone forgot to mention, cant be overclocked!!!

the Overall best CPU for AMD AM4 Right now is the 5950X
Why?
It has the Best binning, out of the Box it should Perform Better in Single AND in Multicore(well 16 core duh!)

It could actually hold you over till Zen5.

And if you want TB4 and such right now
Asus ProArt B550 is the best board to have imo.
Ordered mine today because the UAD PCIe was spazing out
all TB on AMD

 

I genuinely wonder, is your 3700X not fast enough in your audio workflows?
I got i7-5820K (@4.3GHz) and now Apple M1 MacMini, they are both roughly on par with 3700X in terms of performance, and I don't feel either of them would be limiting me when working with audio...
maybe you might rather want to invest into better audio interface?

 

I haven't created or migrated what I would call a big project to the 5900X system. So let's look at some DAWBench marks. The 5900X isn't the top performer, but they don't show price/performance in the graphs. It's a winner for me.

5900X is 4 up from the bottom @ 5040 (4th place)

5900X is third up from the bottom @ 328 (3rd place)

 

you should rather look at it like the smart buy of the 5820k
that fucker is still running well
that is the 5900x now

 

A few months ago I went with the 5900X and it's a beast. Added 64GB of RAM and can load huge projects without problem. Like, a few hundred channels for sure

 

The 5900X price has dropped already, so it looks like they are clearing the decks and preparing for Zen 4?

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2022

And the winner is - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D !

At least in my case, because I work with Studio One and I own a board with AMD X570 chipset which I don't want exchange right now.
Benchmark was made in newest German computer magazin c't, May 19th 2022. It shows the maximum number of tracks that can be played without interruption (crackling noises etc). Each track was populated with the Fabfilter plug-ins listed below.

 

Hey Beat16! I kinda got overwhelmed looking into trying to optimize my bios (i have an amd 5800x and asus b550) for music- you seem to know way more than me so i was wondering if there was a guide or something you could point me towards? i've done a lot of things on the OS side to get rid of unnecessary windows garbage but the bios I'm lost on. I DO have my ram set to the profile so it's running at 3600mhz... that's about it though.

i should also note that i game on this computer too with a nvidia 1070gtx, and i have the studio drivers on. not sure they really make a difference but hey. at the very least it sounds like i should follow those instructions and mess with the c states? maybe? and is the precision boost overdrive stuff more for gaming it sounds like with the turbo boosts? ughh i just want to use my fancy CPU to it's full potential but its being bottle-necked by my intelligence.

 

I don't have one but AMD has a pretty powerful program for Ryzen owners that allows to optimize them. Voltage, frequencies and so on of the RAM, CPU... That being said, I don't know how beginner friendly it is.

 

I would go with 5800X because you cannot set the frequency to 4-4.2 GHz with 5800X3D without turbo and C1 states since 5800X3D is locked. Someone should confirm this, though. It might be that you can turn off turbo and set the frequency within some limits?

Otherwise, much heftier L3 is always very useful for audio because bigger caches help with multiple DSP processing [multiple plugins], I thought that was a well known fact. I always take a CPU with as big L2 and L3 caches as I can.

So if you can set the frequency to a stable 4-4.2 Ghz or higher, I'd definitely go with 5800X3D. It is very important to be able to turn off turbo and Cool'n Quiet since they usually cause crackles and generally influence DSP processing latency and CPU latency in a bad way.

 

Turbo ist for Games and not for the Musicproduction.

Better you use the following links to optimize your computer for music production.
1.) Don't let audio glitches ruin your performances! www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/

1.) The Ultimate Guide to Optimize your Windows PC for the Stage
https://gigperformer.com/docs/ultimate-guide-to-optimize-windows-for-stage/index.html

2.) LatencyMon 7.20
The LatencyMon software analyzes and identifies which device, which driver or which service is causing audio dropouts or malfunctions. Real-time audio suitability checker for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/2016/2012/2008 (x86 and x64)
Scroll Down to: System Monitoring Tools www.resplendence.com/downloads

3.) Windows Tuning Tips for Audio Processing
https://support.native-instruments....1729-Windows-Tuning-Tips-for-Audio-Processing

4.) PreSonus - Optimizing Your Computer for Audio - Windows 10
https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-...Optimizing-Your-Computer-for-Audio-Windows-10

5.) Ableton - Optimizing Windows for Audio
https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209071469-Optimizing-Windows-for-Audio

6.) FL Studio - Optimizing FL Studio performance
www.image-line.com/fl-studio-learning/fl-studio-online-manual/html/app_opt.htm

7.) Steinberg - Windows: How to set-up and optimize a Digital Audio Workstation
https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/...t-up-and-optimize-a-Digital-Audio-Workstation

8.) Focusrite - Optimising your PC for Audio on Windows 10
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10

 

ahh thank you so much! i've got plenty to dig into there, i really appreciate it!!! cheers!

 

The 5800X3D performed much better than I thought it would. This is very welcome news!