Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X test results: modesty adorns?

Today, the first benchmarking results of AMD’s top-of-the-line Ryzen 9000 processors have been published. The Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X reviews allow us to evaluate the capabilities of CPUs based on the Zen 5 architecture, which initially do not have significant power limitations, as in the case of the younger chips in the series. While upgraded models for the Socket AM5 platform are still not available in Ukraine, we will use the data obtained by TechPowerUp reviewers ( Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 9 9950X review) for a quick assessment.

Performance of Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X

We already had the first idea of the capabilities of the new chips based on the Zen 5 architecture after analyzing the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X, but both of these models received a TDP of 65 W, which imposes certain restrictions on the chips’ potential when operating in normal mode. Therefore, it is really interesting what potential owners of 12/16-core processors of the new AMD line with two CCD computing clusters and basic 120/170W thermal packages can expect.

The available generalized indicators show that with the advent of Zen 5 chips, AMD has managed to strengthen its position in the top segment of desktop processors. The 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X confidently takes the first place in the conditional rating based on the aggregate results of the test stages. The chip turned out to be 3.5% more productive than its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 7950X. The latter demonstrated results that are almost similar to those of the Core i9-14900K, which means that AMD’s new 16-core already has a clear advantage over its competitor.

As with 6/8-core models, the advantage of Zen 5 chips depends on specific conditions. In some cases, it is much more pronounced, while in others, the advantage over a Zen 4-based chip is insignificant.

As for the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X model, there is also significant progress here – the average advantage over the Ryzen 9 7900X is 4.6%. In addition, in some cases, the new product even manages to catch up with the Ryzen 9 7950X, and under single-threaded conditions, the advantage of the chip on the Zen 5 is undeniable.

In general, the performance gains are more modest than one would expect from next-generation processors. The average “+5%” when changing the generation of processors was once a cause for memes. AMD has certainly managed to improve its performance, but very soon Ryzen 9000 will have to compete not with Intel Core 13/14th generations, but with Arrow Lake-S chips with new architecture and process technology. Will the available performance margin be enough to compete fully?

Performance in games

You can’t expect a significant acceleration in games. Of course, there is an increase here, but it is only 1.5-2% for Full HD mode. With higher resolutions, the difference is even smaller. The top performance here remains with Ryzen 7 7800X3D with 96 MB of L3 cache.

12/16-core processors are usually used for ultra-maximum gaming systems, but usually such chips are overkill for such PCs. They do provide a certain performance boost, but it is mainly due to slightly higher operating frequencies, an additional cache buffer, and, in the case of Ryzen, better memory performance when there are two CCD chips with computing cores. However, the number of the latter after 8, with some exceptions, is already weakly correlated with an increase in the final fps.

Energy consumption

The power consumption of the top Ryzen 9000 chips was of considerable interest. The basic models with a TDP of 65 W were pleasantly surprising here, even with a multi-threaded load requiring ~80 W of power. Of course, you can’t expect such indicators in the case of 12/16-core models. For Ryzen 9 9900X, even the declared TDP is 120 watts. This is 50 watts less than the same figure for the predecessor Ryzen 9 7900X (170 watts). This is obviously based on TSMC’s 4-nanometer process.

In practice, it turned out that the actual power consumption at maximum load on all cores of the Ryzen 9 9900X consumes up to 173 watts, while the previous generation model required 197 watts in identical conditions. The progress is obvious, especially considering that the Ryzen 9 7900X is slower than the newcomer.

In games where the CPU cores are only partially loaded, the difference in power consumption between the two chips was only 4 watts – 100 watts versus 104 watts.

The situation here is interesting with the current flagship of the line. For Ryzen 9 9950X, the declared power consumption level is 170 W (TDP). That is, the figure is identical to that indicated for the corresponding model of the previous generation. However, under the same multi-threaded load conditions, the actual figures were 220 W for Ryzen 9 9950X (16/32; 4.3/5.7 GHz) and 260 W for Ryzen 9 7950X (16/32; 4.5/5.7 GHz). Given the similar frequency formulas with maximum acceleration up to 5700 MHz, the advantage of the Zen 5 model is significant. In games, the difference is much smaller – 104 W vs. 116 W.

Overclocking

As for overclocking, you can’t expect a serious increase in frequencies with simultaneous acceleration for all cores. The base models were clocked at 5300/5400 MHz, so the older models of the new series have about the same potential, but the Ryzen 9 9900X test unit was clocked at 5300 MHz, and the Ryzen 9 9950X at 5200 MHz.

Overclocking with fixing frequencies and increasing the supply voltage is not particularly effective; it is more interesting to experiment with PBO, allowing the chip to accelerate to higher frequencies when not all computing cores are loaded at the same time.

Price

Ahead of the official launch of the junior Ryzen 9000 models, AMD has revealed the recommended retail price tags for all the starting models in the series. The Ryzen 9 9900X is priced at $499, and the top-of-the-line 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X chip will be offered for $649. In the US market, of course. In both cases, the values are $50 higher than those previously indicated for the respective items on Best Buy and Newegg.

As a reminder, the Ryzen 9000 was originally supposed to go on sale on July 31, but a few days before the launch, AMD urgently changed the dates without explanation, postponing the launch of the younger models to August 8, and the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X to August 15.

But in those rare cases where the delay involves a recall of previously shipped products, it’s almost certain that it will take longer than 1-2 weeks to replace them. It is not surprising that Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X are still not on sale in Ukraine as of 14.08. It is unlikely that offers for the older models will appear on virtual shelves and in price aggregator feeds tomorrow.