In the nutshell the new Ryzen 9000 series is a brand new series unveiled by AMD to uplift some of the performance and new features improvement towards the AM5 platform that is geared towards those who are looking for a new system or those who are poised for more upgrade in their system, and AMD took some of the things further, from speed to efficiency altogether.
The Target Audience
Specifically speaking, the Ryzen 5 9600X & Ryzen 7 9700X is targeting those who wanted to target good framerate in gaming (as long you have a good GPU in the system) with an intention of a long lasting gaming that can last for few years ahead. Besides that this is also great for content creation and rendering work, a good example would be video editing and rendering and CAD/CAM usage as the core and thread will efficiently drives the productivity intended.
Processor Specifications and Features
| Model | Cores/Threads | Boost / Base Frequency | Total Cache | TDP | Graphics | NPU |
| AMD Ryzen™ 5 9600X | 6C/12T | Up to 5.4 GHz / 3.9 GHz | 32MB | 65W | AMD Radeon™ Graphics | N/A |
| AMD Ryzen™ 7 9700X | 8C/16T | Up to 5.5 GHz / 3.8 GHz | 32MB | 65W | AMD Radeon™ Graphics | N/A |
- AMD Zen 5 Core Architecture (4nm process)
- AMD VR Ready Premium processor
- Lower 65W for more power efficient computing
- Supports Native USB 4 (40Gbps) Ports
- Supports up to 5600Mhz DDR5 Memory module and above
- ECC Memory Support (With Compatible ECC RAM of course)
- AMD EXPO and XMP 3.0 Memory Ready, and Most Non EXPO RAM are compatible as well
- PCI-E 5.0 Ready
- Precision Boost 2, automatically raises processor frequencies for performance when needed most.
- Built in iGPU for basic purpose display use (but we do recommend to have a dedicated GPU)
Unboxing
Each Ryzen 9000 series includes the Processor, Warranty statement, and Ryzen sticker. It’s as easy as that – just plug it into a compatible B650 or X670 motherboard and configure the rest through the BIOS settings. You will have to buy your own cooler or AIO to finish the setup, or if you are transitioning from AM4, you can reuse the same cooler mount and fan/AIO. Another key feature is that all upcoming AM5 platforms will utilize LGA technology, eliminating pins on the processor and moving them to the motherboard instead.
Test Setup
Below is the hardware used and to compare with some of the 7000 series processor in the performance benchmarks, no overclocking is set and all will be in default settings. We will also be running all the settings with only the dedicated GPU as part of the benchmark to reflect the results.
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 7700X AMD Ryzen 5 9600X AMD Ryzen 7 9700X |
| Motherboard | ASROCK Pro RS WiFi X670E |
| System Memory | Kingston Fury RGB 16GB X2 DDR5 (running at 6400MT/s) |
| Primary Drive | NVME SSD 500GB (Gen3 X4) |
| Secondary Drive | Kingston NVME 4×4 SSD, 1TB |
| PSU | AIGO 750w PSU (Bronze 80 Modular) |
| Operating System | Windows 11 64bit Professional 23H2 |
| Graphics Card | AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT |
| Cooling | ID Cooling SE 914XT |
Benchmark Scores
Scores updated as of July/August 2024 with latest drivers, AGESA and BIOS/UEFI updated to eliminate differences during benchmarks
Verdict and thoughts
The Ryzen 5 9600X & Ryzen 7 9700X is standing quite firm as a contending mid to high tier processor within surrounding competition and a viable processor should if you are looking to build a new system, and if you are coming from an existing Ryzen 5 7000 series processor, you might wanted to upgrade to the Ryzen 7 9700X since it offers more core and thread for both work and play. In terms of productivity, both processor offers efficient and performance combined that can multitask fast and switch things swiftly. Gaming wise, no doubt this is great for those who wanted to delve into both triple A titles and eSports gaming with higher than above average framerate paired with a mid tier GPU from AMD or Nvidia. We recommend at least 32GB of DDR5 6000 MT/s RAM in dual channel to accommodate the demanding applications and games today and a NVME 4.0 SSD for faster load time and to take advantage of the AMD AM5 Platform. As for the built in iGPU, as it is part of the lower end RDNA core, it might be not suitable for gaming but it is excellent for basic and passthrough display.
Pros
- A capable 2K Gaming processor on High/Very High settings beyond 144 FPS with a mid to high range graphics card
- Triple A gaming capable as long you have a capable GPU
- 4K ready for gaming over 90FPS if paired with a powerful graphics card
- Majority AM4 coolers and AIO still can be used on AM5 platforms
- Runs at 65w TDP only
Cons
- AM5 boards required with new BIOS/UEFI update, all older AM4 motherboard will not be compatible
- Still Pricey on the DDR5 module (unless you are planning to use lower speeds DDR5 RAM)
- No NPU on this, if you wanted an AI Processor, you should be looking towards the recent Ryzen 8000 series desktop processor
- You will need to get your own Cooler/AIO since it’s not included
- It may not be a worthy upgrade if you are using an existing Ryzen 7000 series processor of the same class.
Special Thanks to ASROCK, Kingston, ID Cooling for the providing the components and AMD for loaning the processors