AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs. Ryzen 9 9950X vs. Ryzen 9 9950X3D Linux Performance
On the CPU workload side of this comparison for the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs. Ryzen 9 9950X vs. Ryzen 9 9950X3D I ran more than 200 benchmarks for those wanting to go through all of that raw data in detail for performance and power along with other monitoring metrics.
When taking the geometric mean of all the raw 200+ performance benchmarks, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 on Ubuntu 25.04 Linux was running at 95% the speed of the Ryzen 9 9950X and at 89% of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D with 3D V-Cache.
Where the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 within the Framework Desktop becomes very compelling is when looking at the CPU power usage. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 was consuming 91 Watts on average during the 200+ benchmarks with a peak of 119 Watts. The Ryzen 9 9950X had a 154 Watt average and 205 Watt peak while the Ryzen 9 9950X3D had a 171 Watt average and 212 Watt peak. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 being able to deliver 95% the performance of the Ryzen 9 9950X overall for CPU-based workloads while consuming just 59% the power on average is quite impressive with the Ryzen 9000 series already being in good shape for power efficiency relative to other desktop processors. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 at 89% the performance of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D came in at 53% the CPU power consumption on average.
The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 SoC enjoyed a lower operating temperature thanks to the reduced power usage while being on the stock air cooling for the Framework Desktop.
The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 was running at around 4.2GHz for its peak clock frequency compared to 4.7~4.9GHz with the Ryzen 9 9950X series. The peak CPU frequency recorded on the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 was 5.195GHz compared to the 9950X series at 5.7GHz.
Meanwhile when it came to all the iGPU benchmarks carried out, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with the Framework Desktop was 14x the integrated graphics performance of the RDNA2-based iGPUs with the Ryzen 9 9950X series.
The CPU/SoC power use during these integrated graphics benchmarks led to the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with a 74 Watt average compared to 34~39 Watts for the 9950X series, but that 2x power increase is worthwhile when looking at the ~14x better performance.
For those pursuing a very power efficient desktop computer but not wanting to sacrifice much performance compared to traditional desktop CPU performance, the choice is very easy: AMD Strix Halo. Some really phenomenal performance-per-Watt results with the Ryzen AI Max 395 "Strix Halo" within the Framework Desktop and the potential of this 16-core SoC when the cTDP is opened up to 120 Watts for allowing much the same CPU performance as the Ryzen 9 9950X but far superior integrated graphics and a huge performance-per-Watt advantage. The only downside is the cost of the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 / Framework Desktop but at least some of that will be made up in lower energy usage and cooling.
Thanks to Framework Computer for providing the Framework Desktop review unit for Linux testing at Phoronix. More benchmarks to come and if you didn't already see it check out today's Framework Desktop review article.
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