In an announcement, AMD has announced 4 CPUs in the Ryzen 9000 series for desktops. Ryzen 9950X, Ryzen 9900X, Ryzen 9700X & Ryzen 9600X. Claims 16% IPC uplift.
After months of rumors and speculations, AMD finally announced Zen 5 based AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs for desktops in the Computex 2024 event. Two years ago, AMD announced AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs for desktops. Now they have officially announced its successor.
While the whole tech world has landed in Taiwan for the Computex 2024 event, it unofficially got started a day ago with Nvidia’s Jensen giving out-of-the-show, pre-Computex presentation, which was filled with server hardware announcements and some interesting gaming software announcement for the desktops too.
However, day 1 of Computex 2024 was dominated by AMD and the announcements made by them. The most important being, announcement of the Zen 5 based AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs for desktops.
The whole presentation can be viewed via the official AMD YouTube video. Though, it must be mentioned, it’s a long one with many different subjects. So, lets stick to the most important points.
AMD Ryzen 9000
In the official announcement, AMD announced four processors in the Ryzen 9000 lineup.
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
- AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
- AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
- AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X comes with 16 cores, 32 threads, base clock of 4.3GHz, boost clock of 5.7GHz, 80MB cache (16MB L2, 64MB L3) and 170W TDP. In the presentation, AMD claims that the Ryzen 9950X is the fastest consumer CPU in the world.
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X comes with 12 cores, 24 threads, base clock of 4.4GHz, boost clock of 5.6GHz, 76MB cache (12MB L2, 64MB L3) and a 120W TDP. Interestingly, the TDP is 50W lesser than Ryzen 7900X, which had 170W TDP.
AMD Ryzen 7 9700X comes with 8 cores, 16 threads, base clock of 3.8GHz, boost clock of 5.5GHz, 40MB cache (8MB L2, 32MB L3) and a 65W TDP. The TDP here too sees a cut of 40W compared to Ryzen 7700X, which a 105W TDP.
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X comes with 6 cores, 12 threads, base clock of 3.9GHz, boost clock of 5.4GHz, 38MB cache (6MB L2, 32MB L3) and a 65W TDP. Here too, the TDP has been massively cut.
AMD claims that these processors will release starting July this year. But there is no mention of any pricing. Though rumors suggest that it will cost same as the original MSRP of AMD Ryzen 7000 series, but, it’s best to wait for the official confirmation from AMD.
Specs Table
For the benefits of the readers, we made a simple specs table, comparing the Ryzen 9000 CPUs and their comparable Ryzen 7000 series.
| CPU | Cores / Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock | Cache | TDP | CPU Node | Max RAM Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X | 16 / 32 | 4.3GHz | 5.7GHz | 80MB | 170W | 4nm | DDR5-5600 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | 16 / 32 | 4.5GHz | 5.7GHz | 80MB | 170W | 5nm | DDR5-5200 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | 12 / 24 | 4.4GHz | 5.6GHz | 76MB | 120W | 4nm | DDR5-5600 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900X | 12 / 24 | 4.7GHz | 5.6GHz | 76MB | 170W | 5nm | DDR5-5200 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 9700X | 8 / 16 | 3.8GHz | 5.5GHz | 40MB | 65W | 4nm | DDR5-5600 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 8 / 16 | 4.5GHz | 5.4 GHz | 40MB | 105W | 5nm | DDR5-5200 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 9600X | 6 / 12 | 3.9GHz | 5.4GHz | 38MB | 65W | 4nm | DDR5-5600 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 6 / 12 | 4.7GHz | 5.3 GHz | 38MB | 105W | 5nm | DDR5-5200 |
As one can see from the above table. Compared to their Ryzen 7000 counterparts, the Ryzen 9000 series maintains the same CPU core count, thread count and cache. However, the base clock has been cut a lot. This has allowed AMD to massively reduce the TDP.
The only CPU which has seen any increase in CPU speed is Ryzen 9600X, whose boost clock is increased by 100MHz. But the base clock has been cut massively here too.
The RAM speeds mentioned are the officially supported ones within specs. With EXPO (AMD version of XMP), they can go far higher.
Another thing to mention is that while AMD claims these new processors are made on a 4nm node of TSMC, this 4nm node is nothing but an improved version of TSMC’s 5nm node.
The I/O chip in the Ryzen 9000 is the same as the ones found in the Ryzen 7000, based on TSMC’s 6nm node. Even the basic built-in 2CU GPU is exactly the same.
Zen 5 Architecture
AMD says that Zen 5 based CPUs have been designed from the ground up. That means it’s an entirely new CPU architecture and not a refresh. It uses a new parallel dual pipeline front, which improves branch prediction, accuracy and reduces latency. It also allows more performance per every clock cycle.
AMD also says that Zen 5 has been designed with a wider CPU engine and instruction to run more instruction in parallel for top compute throughput and efficiency.
The result of this is that when compared to the Zen 4 CPU architecture, Zen 5 has double the instruction bandwidth, double the data bandwidth between the cache and the FPU and double the AI performance with full AVX-512 throughput.
AMD claims that the Zen 5 based Ryzen 9000 CPUs have an average 16% average increase in the IPC across different workloads, when compared to Zen 4 based Ryzen 7000 CPUs. It must be also mentioned that Zen 4 had lesser IPC uplift than Zen 5. So 16% increase can be considered very good, if not great.
Interestingly, AMD has added two different games in the list of its tests too, with one game showing an increase of 10%, whereas another one showing an increase of more than 20%.
AM5 Support Extended
AMD had released AM4 CPU socket way back in 2016. In almost a decade, AMD has released 145 CPUs and APUs across supporting this socket. So going by that, AMD has announced an extension for the AM5 CPU socket too.
AMD has announced that while the official support for the AMD AM5 was originally going to be till 2025, it has decided to extend it by 2 more years to 2027 and later. With more AM5 CPUs in many, many years to come supporting the AM5 socket.
Some expect that even next-gen AMD Ryzen processors based on Zen 6 could release on the same AMD AM5 platform.
New Chipsets
It must be mentioned, AMD Ryzen 9000 will to work on all AM5 motherboards with A620, X670E, X670, B650E, B650 chipsets. But, in addition to that, AMD also announced new X870 and X870E chipsets.
The motherboards with these new X870 and X870E chipsets support USB 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 for both storage and graphics cards. They also support higher AMD EXPO memory overclocking support for faster DDR5 speeds. Quoting them:
“We learned some lessons with the 600 Series [of motherboards]; memory technology has come a lot further, so we should be able to clock a little higher.” Unfortunately, no specifics, supported overclocked speeds, or timings were given – this will come later.
Interestingly, the additional usable PCIe lanes from motherboard in the has been cut in both the chipsets. Possibly to support the USB 4.0, which might use additional x4 lanes.
New Ryzen 5000 CPUs
The previous-gen Ryzen AM4 platform just keeps on giving. This is thanks to AMD, which seems to keep supporting the socket with newer launches. Today too, AMD has announced two new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs based on the AM4 platform.
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT, which comes with 16 cores, 32 threads, base clock of 3.3GHz, boost clock of 4.8GHz, 72MB cache (8MB L2, 64MB L3) and 170W TDP. This is a massive upgrade over Ryzen 5900X and similar specs with Ryzen 5950X.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT, which comes with 8 cores, 16 threads, base clock of 3.8GHz, boost clock of 4.8GHz, 36MB cache (4MB L2, 32MB L3) and a 105W TDP. This CPU is only a small upgrade over Ryzen 5800X (non-X3D), with 100MHz faster boost clock.
Conclusion
On paper, AMD Ryzen 9000 series looks very good. The 16% IPC increase is good too. But those are just claimed marketing numbers. Real information will be available only when big sites review them.
AMD has interestingly cut both the base clock of all the CPUs. This has resulted in a decrease in TDP in some of them, at least on paper. Now this decrease in TDP is just because of cut in clocks or TSMC’s more efficient 4nm process is at play, it’s to be seen.
There were no announcements of any Ryzen 9000 X3D CPUs like the Ryzen 9950X3D, Ryzen 9900X3D or Ryzen 9800X3D. Which is expected, as they will release much later.
Those on current CPU platforms who are looking for an upgrade, we would suggest them to wait for official reviews. They will come in July. That’s when these CPUs will officially release. Meanwhile, we will come to know about their prices.
