AMD Ryzen 9 9950X vs Intel Core Ultra 9 285K

[CawMon]

Hello,

which CPU would be better for Archicad: Ryzen 9 9950X or Core Ultra 9 285K?

My workflow is mainly modeling and documentation in Archicad, while rendering is done on the GPU (Enscape).

From what I understand, single-core performance matters more here, but I’m not sure how big the real difference is between these two CPUs in practice.

Does anyone have experience with either of them in Archicad or similar workflows?

Operating system used: Windows 11

[Claudiu Serban]

I have a 7950X, and it rocks. I would go for the an X3D part: 9950X3D or cut on some costs and get the 9800X3D. If you want to get the latest and greatest, AMD announced 9950X3D2, will go on sale in about a month.

If you care for an unasked for opinion: consider switching to a Mac. I find the whole mac experience better - UI and general responsiveness especially, as windows 11 is in a sorry state right now. An M4 Pro mac mini should be enough if you don't work on highly complicated models. I switch to windows cause i use D5 render and that's not available on the mac, but Enscape is.

Also, considering current RAM prices, Apple is kinda best buy right now, as they haven't updated their prices.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Yes, single-core performance matters more if you mainly do modeling/documentation. It seems the Intel CPU is slightly stronger in multi-core performance, while it is 7-8% faster in single-core performance. It looks like it is slightly more expensive as well, but uses less power:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/6296vs6211/Intel-Ultra-9-285K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-9950X

So, you will be fine with the AMD CPU as well, or if you have a bit more money, you can get the Intel for a bit higher performance.

[Lingwisyer]

I did not think that AC utilised the extra L3 cache that the X3D has?

If you ever consider an ARC gpu in the near future, the intel is better from memory, due to the bus bandwidth or something? Same thing for if you are looking at utilising more than two RAM channels.