AMD Ryzen 9 9950X & Ryzen 9 9900X CPUs Review: Zen 5 For High-End Desktops

Conclusion - Good Uplift For High-End Users But Not A Major Leap

AMD's high-performance CPU journey continues on the desktop platform with the arrival of the Zen 5 core architecture. The new architecture has several fundamental changes that allow huge performance uplifts in single-core and multi-core applications. These can be attributed to the 16 percent IPC improvement that the new architecture has on offer.

Replacing the AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs, the Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" CPUs do not change the core configurations but enhance them in certain ways. The architectural upgrades allow Zen 5 chips to run cooler, consume lower power, and support the latest features on existing and upcoming AM5 motherboards.

With AMD's Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs, the company positioned itself strongly against Intel's 14th & 13th Gen CPUs. While the competition is facing a lot of backlash due to instability issues and with the company itself stating that the damage is permanent and a microcode update coming later this month to address chips from further degrading, AMD is in a very comfortable position to extend its desktop positioning and with Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" CPUs, the company offers a lot of incentives to existing users to upgrade to AM5. At the same time, Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPU owners may also find them a very attractive proposition based on their lower power and thermal statistics.

AMD kicked off its Zen 5 journey with the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X which we tested last week. Today, we will offer you a look at the second wave of Ryzen 9000 CPUs which include the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X. Both of these are high-end desktop offerings, aiming at the likes of the i9-14900K and i9-13900K so let's see what Zen 5 has to offer to enthusiasts.

It's been more than a year since AMD first introduced its AM5 platform alongside a brand new CPU family which we all know as Ryzen 7000 "Raphael". These chips brought in some impressive gains on the single and multi-threaded side of things while enabling higher efficiency than Intel's 13th & 14th Gen CPUs.

The company soon followed the launch with its new 3D V-Cache parts, the Ryzen 7000X3D family, which extended the SKUs range in the 12 and 16-core territory, offering another level of uplift for gamers. It's been more than a year since the launch of these parts and all eyes are on AMD's next-gen family, the Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" Desktop CPUs.

AMD Ryzen 9000  'Zen 5' Desktop CPU Expected Features:

• Up To 16 Zen 5 Cores and 32 Threads
• Up To 16% IPC Improvement With Zen 5
• Brand New TSMC 4nm process node with 6nm IOD
• Up To 23% Faster Gaming Performance Versus Intel 14th Gen
• Up To 56% Faster Multi-Thread Performance Versus Intel 14th-gen
• Support on All Existing AM5 Platforms With LGA1718 Socket
• 800-Series Motherboard Introduction (X870E/X870)
• Faster Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support
• Up To DDR5-5600 Native (JEDEC) Speeds
• 28 PCIe Gen5 Lanes (CPU Exclusive / 24 Usable)
• 65W-170W TDPs

The AMD Ryzen 9000 Desktop CPU family, codenamed Granite Ridge, is based on the latest Zen 5 core architecture and targets high-performance Gaming PCs. The family is bringing a range of new features with the Zen 5 cores being the highlight while being supported on existing and upcoming AM5 platforms with improved I/O and DDR5 memory support.

Ryzen 9000 CPU Chip Shot:

AMD Zen 5 Core Architecture - Further Tweaking The Zen Architecture For A 16% IPC Uplift

So before we talk about the Ryzen 9000 Desktop CPU family, we first take a glance at the new and improved Zen 5 core architecture which offers:

• More Instructions delivered per cycle
• Improved branch prediction accuracy and latency
• Higher throughput with wider pipelines and vectors
• Deeper window size across the design for more parallelism
• Dispatch and execution expanded
• Doubled cache data bandwidth
• AI Acceleration

In several aspects, the AMD Zen 5 core architecture offers up to a 2x increase such as the Instruction Bandwidth for the front-end instructions, data bandwidth (L2 to L1 and L1 to FP), and AI perf (AI & AVX512 Throughput). The Zen 5 CPU cores (CCDs) are based on the TSMC 4nm process node while the IOD is based on the TSMC 6nm process node. They come in the same peak config of 2 CCDs and 1 IOD on consumer platforms.

Zen 5 features a dual pipe fetch with an advanced branch prediction unit which enables:

• Branch Prediction: less latency, more accuracy, and throughput
• Instruction cache latency and bandwidth improvement
• Dual decode pipes

The Wider Dispatch & Execute Unit enables:

• 8-wide dispatch/retire
• 6 ALU, 3 multiples
• More unified ALU scheduler
• Large execution window

The increased data bandwidth is offered through:

• 48KB 12-way L1 data cache 4-cycle load
• Double the maximum bandwidth to the L1 cache and Floating Point Unit
• Improved data prefetching

And lastly, there's a 512-bit AI data path which offers:

• AVX-512 with full 512-bit data path
• 6 pipelines with two-cycle latency FADD
• A larger number of FP instructions in flight

These new changes have resulted in a significant IPC uplift averaging 16% versus Zen 4. In certain cases, the Zen 5 core can reach up to +35% IPC such as (Geekbench 5.4 AES XTS) and another key area that has been improved upon is the L2 and L3 cache structuring. AMD also made some significant changes to the IMC which now result in much higher EXPO/XMP memory support and the Infinity Fabric clock has been raised from 2000 MHz on Zen 4 to 2400 MHz on Zen 5 with DDR5-5600 speeds natively supported.

The updated AI engines such as the Math Acceleration Unit offer up to a 32% single-core performance uplift in Machine Learning and up to a 35% single-core improvement in AES-XTS instructions. According to AMD, the large majority of the Zen 5 uplifts come from the Execution/Retire unit, followed by the Decode/Opcache, Data Bandwidth, and Fetch/Branch Prediction (in order).

So as for the lineup, the AMD Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" family is composed of four SKUs to start. These include the Ryzen 9 9950X, Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 5 9600X. Let's take a look at the specifications of these chips.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Desktop CPU

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X "100-000001277" CPU is the flagship offering with two Zen 5 CCDs and a single IOD. The CPU offers 16 cores, 32 threads, a base clock of 4.3 GHz, and a max boost clock of up to 5.7 GHz. It comes with 80 MB of cache (64 MB L3 + 16 MB L2) and has a TDP of 170W. Now in terms of clock speed, while the boost clock is identical to the Ryzen 9 7950X, the base clock is slightly dialed down by -200 MHz but we can expect a lot of efficiency coming out of this flagship product, especially in terms of multi-threaded performance.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X also packs 3 chiplets, two of which are the Zen 5 CCDs, each with 8 cores, 16 threads, and 32 MB of L3 cache while the third chiplet is the IO die or IOD which is based on the TSMC 6nm process node is nearly identical to the IOD we saw on the Ryzen 7000 chips but with a few minor adjustments. The IOD retains the same 2 compute units based on the RDNA 2 graphics architecture and comes clocked at 2200 MHz. The CPU comes with full support for overclocking on the CPU, & memory, & has all tech support for PBO2, Curve Optimizer, and support within the Ryzen Master utility. AMD also recommends a liquid cooler for optimal performance with this behemoth.

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core Desktop CPU

Next, we have the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X "100-000000662" CPU, the 12-core and 24-thread variant. This chip has a base clock of 4.4 GHz and a boost clock of up to 5.6 GHz with a 76 MB cache. The interesting thing with this chip is that it has a TDP of 120W much lower than the 170W of Ryzen 9 7900X chips.

Once again, while the chip retains the same boost clock speed as the Ryzen 9 7900X, the base clock sees a -300 MHz reduction which is once again to fit within the 120W power limit but once again, the 12-core should be able to boast some nice multi-threaded capabilities. Following are the TDP comparisons between the four chips of this generation with the prior one:

• Ryzen 9 7950X (170W) -> Ryzen 9 9950X (170W)
• Ryzen 9 7900X (170W) -> Ryzen 9 9900X (120W)
• Ryzen 7 7700X (105W) -> Ryzen 7 9700X (65W)
• Ryzen 5 7600X (105W) -> Ryzen 5 9600X (65W)

AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8-Core Desktop CPU

For the more mainstream users, AMD has the Ryzen 7 9700X "100-000001404" which is an 8-core CPU with 16 threads, a base clock of 3.8 GHz, a boost clock of up to 5.5 GHz, 40 MB of cache (1 CCD with 32 MB L3 + 8 MB L2), and a low TDP of 65W which is also much lower than the 105W TDP featured on its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7700X.

The Ryzen 7 7700X has a 105W part while the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X has a 65W part which is almost half its TDP and that means that the clocks do take a slight bit of hit with the base clock being -700 MHz lower but the boost clock is rated at +100 MHz. For the 65W SKUs, AMD recommends using a premium air cooler for optimal performance but even with such a low TDP, AMD is making sure that enthusiasts don't miss out on the OC and tuning features as the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 chips come with all the goodies as the higher-end Ryzen 9 SKUs based on the Zen 5 core architecture.

AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 6-Core Desktop CPU

Lastly, the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X "100-000001405" CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads. This chip has a base clock of 3.9 GHz maximum boost clock of up to 5.40 GHz and packs 38 MB cache and the same 65W TDP. Only the AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 CPUs see a clock bump over their predecessor while the Ryzen 9 chips retain the same clock speeds.

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X sees a 100 MHz boost clock improvement over its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7600X but comes with a lower base clock of -800 MHz.

AMD Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" Desktop CPUs Specs:

CPU Name	Architecture	Cores / Threads	Base / Boost Clock	Cache	Graphics (Integrated)	Memory Support	TDP	Price (MSRP/Current 6/14/25)
Ryzen 9 9950X3D2	Zen 5	16/32	4.3 / 5.6 GHz	192 MB L3 + 16 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	200W	$799?
Ryzen 9 9950X3D	Zen 5	16/32	4.3 / 5.7 GHz	128 MB L3 + 16 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	170W	$699 / $699 US
Ryzen 9 9950X	Zen 5	16/32	4.3 / 5.7 GHz	64 MB L3 + 16 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	170W	$599 / $520 US
Ryzen 9 9900X3D	Zen 5	12/24	4.4 / 5.5 GHz	128 MB L3 + 12 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	120W	$599 / $599 US
Ryzen 9 9900X	Zen 5	12/24	4.4 / 5.6 GHz	64 MB L3 + 12 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	120W	$469 / $376 US
Ryzen 9 PRO 9945	Zen 5	12/24	3.4 / TBD GHz	64 MB L3 + 12 MB L2	2x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W	TBD
Ryzen 7 9850X3D	Zen 5	8/16	4.7 / 5.6 GHz	96 MB L3 + 8 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	120W	$400-$500?
Ryzen 7 9800X3D	Zen 5	8/16	4.7 / 5.2 GHz	96 MB L3 + 8 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	120W	$479 / $472 US
Ryzen 7 9700X	Zen 5	8/16	3.8 / 5.5 GHz	32 MB L3 + 8 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W/105W	$329 / $304 US
Ryzen 7 9700F	Zen 5	8/16	3.8 / 5.5 GHz	32 MB L3 + 8 MB L2	N/A	DDR5-5600	65W	$249 US?
Ryzen 7 PRO 9745	Zen 5	8/16	3.8 / TBD GHz	32 MB L3 + 8 MB L2	2x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W	TBD
Ryzen 5 9600X3D	Zen 5	6/12	TBD	96 MB L3 + 6 MB L2	2x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W	TBD
Ryzen 5 9600X	Zen 5	6/12	3.9 / 5.4 GHz	32 MB L3 + 6 MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W/105W	$249 / $179 US
Ryzen 5 PRO 9645	Zen 5	6/12	3.9 / TBD GHz	32 MB L3 + 6 MB L2	2x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W	TBD
Ryzen 5 9600	Zen 5	6/12	3.8 / 5.2 GHz	32 MB L3 + 6 MB L2	2x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W	$189 / ?

Sweet Spot DDR5-6000 Again But Upper Limit Enhanced To 6400 MT/s With Over 8000 MT/s OC Modules Easily Support

First of all, the integrated memory controller for the AMD Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" CPUs is similar to the Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs but comes with slight refinements. We have been told that the CPUs will be able to support DDR5-5600 by default and up to DDR5-6400 memory at a 1:1 fabric clock. The sweet spot is still going to be DDR5-6000 1:1 but on both X670 and X870, the upper limit will be set at 6400 MT/s.

As we already know, the AMD Ryzen Desktop CPUs feature three distinct clock speeds as a part of their internal memory structure, these include:

• Infinity Fabric Clock (FCLK): Governs how quickly CPU cores can communicate across CPU dies and with SOC controllers (e.g. PCIe, SATA, USB)
• Memory Controller (UCLK): Governs how quickly the memory controller can ingest/exgest commands from RAM.
• Memory Clock (MCLK): The frequency of your main system memory.

For those who want to push things higher, the X870E and X870 motherboards will offer a great OC design that is specifically geared towards memory overclocking with new and improved DRAM OC features. AMD's board partners fine-tuned the DDR5 support on existing AM5 motherboards, making them scale past the 10,000 MT/s barrier with ease which wasn't possible at launch.

The advantage that a 1:1 brings to the table is that it will allow for lower latencies and a balanced speed while a higher ratio will allow for better overclocking, & faster data transfer rates but will also lead to poor latencies.

• AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" Sweet Spot - DDR4-3800
• AMD Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" Sweet Spot - DDR4-4000
• AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" Sweet Spot - DDR5-6000
• AMD Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" Sweet Spot - DDR5-6000 (Upper Limit - 6400 MT/s)

AMD will also be adding some new overclocking features which we will see on existing 600-series and upcoming 800-series motherboards such as Memory Optimized Performance Profiles or OPP, and "Curve Shaper" for CPU overclockers and tuners.

AMD Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" Desktop CPU Performance

AMD also shares a few performance figures for its upcoming Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" Desktop CPUs. The Ryzen 9 9950X has been compared against the Intel Core i9-14900K. It offers up to a +56% leap in productivity performance (+29.8% average uplift) and up to a +23% leap in gaming performance (+13.2% average uplift), a significant jump over Intel's flagship CPU. The performance was done on an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU so it will be interesting to see how these chips fare with the RTX 40 series which loves extra CPU performance.

In gaming, the Ryzen 9 9950X should end up considerably faster than its Ryzen 7000 predecessors but we can expect Zen 5 3D V-Cache to further take this leap forward. AMD states that the improvement in game performance comes from the reduced latencies associated with the chip.

Also, it should be mentioned that AMD has also clarified that while Zen 5 is much faster than its older Zen 4 parts and the competition, Zen 4 3D V-Cache SKUs are likely going to remain the king but the difference between the last-gen X3D and the newest Non-X3D parts will be thinner this time which is great to hear since you can expect 3D V-Cache performance and faster multi-threaded capabilities out of these new Zen 5 chips.

This can be seen in the benchmark above where AMD uses the 5800X3D for comparison against the 9700X. The 5800X3D is based on the Zen 3 architecture and the Ryzen 7 9700X offers an average 12% faster performance than that chip. This would suggest that the Ryzen 7800X3D would still end up faster in gaming versus the 9700X.

Once again, the Ryzen 9000 3D V-Cache CPUs are also expected to launch later this year so for those who are only aiming for faster gaming numbers, it might be better to wait a bit more. AMD also recently updated its 3D V-Cache optimizer suite in the latest Ryzen chipset drivers ahead of the next-gen launch so it looks like the groundwork for them is already being laid out.

Another key area where AMD shows Zen 5's improvements is power and temperatures. We have already reported how Ryzen 9000 CPUs will be cooler and consume lower power than Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" chips and that is confirmed by AMD. The Ryzen 9 9950X should offer a 22% uplift at the same 170W TDP, the Ryzen 9 9900X will offer 16% higher performance at a 50W lower TDP, the Ryzen 7 9700X will offer an 11% uplift versus the Ryzen 7 7700X at a 40W lower TDP while the Ryzen 5 9600X will offer a 17% improvement over the 7600X at a 40W lower TDP.

• Ryzen 9 9950X (170W) vs Ryzen 9 7950X (170W) = +22% Performance
• Ryzen 9 9900X (120W) vs Ryzen 9 7900X (170W) = +16% Performance
• Ryzen 7 9700X (65W) vs Ryzen 7 7700X (105W) = +11% Performance
• Ryzen 5 9600X (65W) vs Ryzen 5 7600X (105W) = +17% Performance

AMD says that the Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" CPUs feature a 15% improvement in thermal resistance, leading to 7C drop in temperatures at the same TDP.

AMD also states that the Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" Desktop CPUs make for the ultimate content creator AI platform with a 100% uplift in graphics bandwidth thanks to dedicated PCIe 5.0 lanes which the current Intel lineup lacks and a 20% AI acceleration in LLMs such as Mistral. Do note that AMD isn't incorporating an NPU on its Ryzen 9000 Desktop CPUs but the new architectural improvements lead to better AI performance than the competition.

Ryzen 9000 CPU Package:

For testing, I used the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X & Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs which were sent to us by AMD. The motherboard used includes the Gigabyte X670E AORUS Xtreme which retains its flagship positioning in the Gigabyte AM5 lineup. Both CPUs were tested with PBO enabled by default.

Wccftech Test Rig 2024:

Processors	Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Intel Core Ultra 5 245K Intel Core i9-14900K Intel Core i7-14700K Intel Core i5-14600K Intel Core i9-13900K Intel Core i7-13700K Intel Core i5-13600K Intel Core i9-12900K Intel Core i7-12700K Intel Core i5-12600K AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D AMD Ryzen 9 9950X AMD Ryzen 9 9900X AMD Ryzen 7 9700X AMD Ryzen 5 9600X AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D AMD Ryzen 9 7950X AMD Ryzen 9 7900X AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AMD Ryzen 5 7600X AMD Ryzen 9 5950X AMD Ryzen 9 5900X AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D AMD Ryzen 7 5800X AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z890 AORUS Master (Intel Core Ultra 200S) Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Master X (Intel 14th Gen) MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk (Ryzen 7000 X3D) MSI MEG Z790 ACE (Intel 13th Gen) X670E AORUS Xtreme (Ryzen 9000 & 7000) Z690 AORUS Master (Intel 12th Gen) ASRock X570S PG Riptide (Ryzen 5000 / X3D) MSI MEG X570S ACE (5600X3D)
Power Supply	ASUS ROG THOR 1200W
Solid State Drive	Samsung SSD 980 PRO M.2 (1 TB)
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z5 48 GB (2x 24 GB) CL40 8000 MT/s (Core Ultra 200S) G.SKILL Trident Z5 32 GB (2 x 16GB) CL36 7200 MT/s (Intel 12th/13th/14th Gen) G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO 32 GB (2 x 16GB) CL36 6400 MT/s (AMD DDR5 Platforms) G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16 GB (2 x 8GB) CL17 4000 MT/s (DDR4 Platforms)
Video Cards	MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X
Cooling Solutions	Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420mm AIO
OS	Windows 11 64-bit (24H2)

Our test rig includes the Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB SSD that boots up our main OS while a 2 TB Seagate HDD is used for the storage of games and applications. In addition to these, we are running an MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X graphics card and an ASUS ROG Thor 1200W power supply. For this specific review, we used G.Skill's latest Trident Z5 NEO DDR5-6000 memory kit running at CL30 timings. We also got an AM5 mounting kit for the Corsair H150i to use as a cooling solution for our test setup.

3DMark CPU Profile Benchmark

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Blender

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Cinebench 2024

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Cinebench R23

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CPU-Z

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Geekbench 6

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HandBrake

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PCMark 10

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POV-Ray

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SuperPI

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WinRAR

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Cyberpunk 2077

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DOOM Eternal

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Forza Horizon 5

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Metro Exodus

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Shadow of The Tomb Raider

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Spider-Man Remastered (Ray Tracing)

Sid Meier's Civilization VI

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Counter-Strike 2

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The AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs come in the same two or three chiplet configurations as the Ryzen 7000 series with one or two of which are the aforementioned AMD Zen 4 CCDs fabricated on the 4nm process node. Then we have the larger die around the center, the IOD, based on a 6nm process node. The AMD Ryzen 9000 CCD measures a die size of 70.6mm2 and features a total of 8.6 Billion transistors per CCD. The IOD has a die size of 122m2 and features 3.4 billion transistors.

Scattered around the package are several SMDs (capacitors/resistors) that usually sit under the package substrate if we consider Intel's CPUs. AMD is instead featuring them on the top layer and as such, they had to design a new kind of IHS which is internally referred to as the Octopus.

AMD's Ryzen 9000 Desktop CPUs utilize a brand new Zen 5 core architecture that is built on the 4nm process node as such, these chips are designed to be extremely efficient. The chips feature gold-plated IHS for efficient thermal transfer.

And there you have it, a fresh new batch of AMD Zen chips are now official. Today's review focuses on the high-end Zen 5 CPU stack which includes two chips, the Ryzen 9 9950X & the Ryzen 9 9900X. These chips aim at the $500 US+ segments and tackle Intel's high-end Core i9 lineups with higher efficiency and multi-threading capabilities than the Zen 4 family.

Ryzen 9 9950X & Ryzen 9 9900X Offer A Solid Boost In Multi-Threading Capabilities

The higher-end Ryzen 9 9950X & Ryzen 9 9900X deliver around 15-20% performance uplifts in multi-core applications. In our 12-benchmark application tests, the Ryzen 9 9950X edged out the Core i9-14900KS in 4 tests while being on par with the flagship Intel offering. The Ryzen 9 9900X was faster than the Core i7-14700K in 6 benchmarks and even managed to outperform the 14900K in 4 tests but in applications that love more cores, the Intel CPUs still have the benefit due to their higher E-Core counts which retail a lead. In single-core applications, the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X were close to 12% ahead of their predecessors on average.

Zen 5 Matches Current-Gen Core i9 Gaming Performance

Now for the gaming performance, the first thing that gamers will compare the two chips against are the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and the Intel K-series SKUs. Once again, the last-gen X3D parts from AMD still retain the best gaming performance in a variety of games but the lead is narrowed down by the Ryzen 9 "Zen 5" offerings against Intel's Core i9 SKUs. The Ryzen 9 9950X mostly offers the same performance as the Core i9-14900K in games while the Ryzen 9 9900X is slightly ahead of the Core i7-14700K. These make them a suitable CPU solution for existing and upcoming high-end graphics cards which are massively CPU bottlenecked and were noticeable in the last-gen Zen 4 parts with the 3D V-Cache chips only helping in cache-limited scenarios.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X ends up 8% faster on average while the Ryzen 9 9900X ends up 9% faster on average versus their predecessors in gaming tests.

Efficiency King, Zen 5 Better Than Ever on Desktops

When it comes to efficiency, AMD's Ryzen CPUs have been super strong, and with the Zen 5 CPU architecture, AMD is extending this lead. The best part is that AMD's Ryzen 9000 CPUs stick close to their default TDPs of 170/120W (9950X and 9900X) at stock and you can go the PBO route for additional performance though we only managed to get an extra 5-10% boost with it enabled so it's better to just let the chips run at default. Even with PBO enabled, the chips still retain a decent efficiency.

The advantage you get from lower power consumption can be seen in the temperatures with bot chips running much cooler than the previous generation offerings. The reason why Zen 4 ran hot was due to them being PBO'd by default and that isn't the case here. The Zen 5 chips run in the 80s range by default and PBO can push them in the high 80s. Once again, you are getting lower power, and lower temperatures but added performance.

Pricing Is An Issue For Ryzen 9000 (Right Now)

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X CPU will hit retail for $649 US which is a high price and to be expected of a flagship product. It is certainly $50 US cheaper than the MSRP of the Ryzen 9 7950X but that chip currently retails for around $100-$130 US lower. The same is the case with the Core i9-14900K which retails for around $100 US lower or the Core i9-13900K which is close to $200 US cheaper. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D is also a good option in this category since the chip offers great gaming performance with 16 cores for around $525 US.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X will hit retail for $499 US which is also $50 US lower than the MSRP of the Ryzen 9 7900X but this chip is positioned against the Core i9-14900K. We don't particularly find it to be a competitor to the 14900K but more so the 14700K which it trades blows with and manages to lead in a few applications but it still isn't a conclusive victory. The Core i7-14700K is also a cheaper CPU, priced almost $120 US lower at the moment and the Ryzen 9 7900X can be found for around $350 US.

For those who want slightly better prices, you can wait a bit more, say Q4 2024 when the prices are expected to see their first drops accompanied by the launch of the next-gen Zen 5 parts but at the moment, I personally think that Ryzen 9 9000 offerings are expensive for the performance they've on offer.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X & Ryzen 9 9900X Deliver Great Performance Uplifts While Delivering Superb Efficiency

If you look at the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X, they offer very nice uplifts in multi and single-threaded applications and the gaming performance has been improved by a notch, now landing in the same category as Intel's high-end Core i9 CPUs. The efficiency is still there and you are looking at lower power and temperatures. The pricing might be a miss for now but given that Ryzen 9000X3D CPUs are on the horizon, we can see retailers adjust them another $50 US or less which will make them more favorable for buying versus current-generation parts.

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