AMD Ryzen 3900X Pro Audio Benchmarks

 

As we’ve said in times past, we are often asked, “What is the best CPU for Pro Audio Production?”.

At PCAudioLabs, we take the time to benchmark CPUs for performance in the pro audio world, and today we’re turning our attention to AMD Ryzen 3900X Pro Audio Benchmarks.

Keep in mind, these tests are an indication of how a CPU will perform under plugin loads at at various buffer sizes and sample rates. Your results may vary, as there are myriad combinations of workflows and configurations in which you can use a CPU. If you’re looking for the best CPU for audio production, we suggest contacting us to discuss your needs.

DAWbench tests – AMD Ryzen 3900X Pro Audio Benchmarks and test process

DAWbench uses Cubase test sessions to instantiate a number of Reaxcomp Multiband compressors in a 48-track session, 40 tracks of which are sine-wave audio on which we instantiate plugins one by one, all the while keeping an eye on the CPU usage meter in Cubase to see if there is a CPU overload. Currently, DAWbench test sessions instantiate up to 320 Reaxcomp Multiband compressors.

We test at various buffer sizes — lower buffer sizes on our audio interface mean that there is less time for the audio interface to process the digital audio conversion, and therefore, the CPU works harder at lower buffer sizes, which can cause CPU overloads, spikes, and other issues. This allows us to test the CPU’s overall performance under load.

Our test system is a PCAudioLabs Rok Box MC Z Pro Audio PC, built with the AMD Ryzen 3900X 12-core CPU with 32GB of RAM, using a PreSonus Audiobox 44VSL audio interface.

For reference, the AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU features:

• 12 Cores
• Base clock speed of 3.8GHz
• Boost clock speed of up to 4.6GHz
• Fully unlocked CPU
• Full CPU specs found here

 

DAWbench tests – AMD Ryzen 3900X 12-core CPU – 44.1 kHz, 16 buffer benchmarks

 

At 44.1kHz and a 16 buffer, the AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU instantiated all 320 plugins in the Cubase test session:

We can see that the AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU is easily handling this workload, leaving headroom to spare.

This means that for those who are working at a standard sample rate of 44.1kHz, you would be able to instantiate more plugins, and get more work done, when working with the AMD Ryzen 3900X 12-core CPU.

DAWbench tests – AMD Ryzen 3900X 12-core CPU – 96 kHz, 32 buffer benchmarks

At 96kHz and a 32 buffer, we were able to instantiate 240 Reaxcomp multiband compressor plugins:

DAWbench tests – AMD Ryzen 3900X 12-core CPU – 96 kHz, 1024 buffer benchmarks

 

In this case, instantiating 264 Reaxcomp Multiband compressors at a buffer size of 1024 samples.

This is impressive, because typically, we see that the number of plugins we can instantiate at a 96kHz Sample rate is half that of our plugin count at 44.1kHz. The AMD Ryzen 3900X cpu is breezing through this plugin load!

DAWbench Virtual Instrument Test – AMD Ryzen 3900X Pro Audio Benchmarks

The DAWbench Virtual Instrument test utilizes Native Instruments Kontakt instances loaded with samples which are played by various MIDI tracks, each instantiating 300 voices of polyphony. The more voices we can instantiate in a session, the better the CPU performance. We unmute tracks one by one in our test session, and watch our CPU performance meter.

At 44.1kHz, the AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU easily handled 3200 voices of polyphony:

This means that the AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU is an excellent CPU for those looking to work with Virtual Instruments in their DAW.

Of course, your experience may vary, depending on the virtual instruments you use, but using this benchmark, we can expect that we would have a great experience with the AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU in a virtual instrument workflow.

Cinebench Test – AMD Ryzen 3900X 12-Core CPU – Pro Audio Benchmarks

Cinebench allows us to test rendering times of a CPU for the purposes of video editing and rendering.

The AMD Ryzen 3900X scored an impressive 6819 points on its CPU test pass in Cinebench.

 

Bottom Line: Do the AMD Ryzen 3900XPro Audio Benchmarks impress us?

The answer here is yes, the AMD Ryzen 3900X pro audio benchmarks  are very impressive. This CPU is by far one of the most impressive CPUs that AMD has released, and it comes in at a great price point, too. If you’re looking for an awesome multi-core CPU with a high clock speed and plenty of threads, this is an excellent choice.

In fact, you can spec your MC Z Pro Audio PC with the AMD Ryzen 3900X right here! 

Looking for a great Pro Audio PC for the AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU?

We have a great lineup of pro audio PCs at PCAudioLabs, and you can customize your PC with AMD CPUs in our Rok Box MC Z and CR Z pro audio PC line of PCs.

If you have questions about how to configure your pro audio PC, please give us a call, we’re standing by, and ready to help!