AMD’s 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X carries a $549 price ticket that slots in between Intel’s flagship Core i9 and Core i7 chips, however its efficiency defies the center floor placement. Given its worth level and gaming efficiency that matches or exceeds Intel’s most interesting, paired with robust efficiency in desktop PC purposes, the Ryzen 9 7900X seems to be a contender for our listing of Finest CPUs and our CPU Benchmark hierarchy. However there’s much more at play than simply chip pricing.
Like the opposite Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ processors, the 7900X comes armed with the brand new Zen 4 structure, which will increase IPC by ~13%, etched on the TSMC 5nm course of. That combo delivers unbelievable peak clocks of 5.6 GHz — a mere 100 MHz shy of the 5.7 GHz you will get with the 16-core flagship Ryzen 9 7950X. It’s additionally surprisingly a better clock pace than we see with even Intel’s quickest chips, not less than till the corporate’s 6 GHz Raptor Lake chips come to market.
| Value | Cores / Threads (P+E) | Base / Increase Clock (GHz) | Cache (L2+L3) | TDP / Max | Reminiscence | |
| Ryzen 9 7950X | $699 | 16 / 32 | 4.5 / 5.7 | 80MB | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 9 7900X | $549 | 12 / 24 | 4.7 / 5.6 | 76MB | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 7 7700X | $399 | 8 / 16 | 4.5 / 5.4 | 40MB | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 5 7600X | $299 | 6 / 12 | 4.7 / 5.3 | 38MB | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
Different advances make the Ryzen 7000 chips compelling. AMD has even developed its personal EXPO DDR5 reminiscence profiles for overclocking, rivaling Intel’s XMP normal. The Ryzen 7000 chips additionally come loaded with different new tech, like a brand new Radeon RDNA 2 iGPU for primary show output and help for AVX-512 and AI directions.
Paired with vastly improved energy supply, courtesy of a brand new platform, AMD’s course of and structure advances ship actually explosive efficiency features — however there are a number of gotchas.
AMD’s Zen 4 chips drop into the brand new AM5 socket on 600-series motherboards. The platform helps the newest interfaces, like DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, largely matching Intel’s connectivity choices. Nonetheless, in distinction to Intel’s platform, which helps both expensive DDR5 or extra inexpensive DDR4, the AM5 platform solely helps DDR5 reminiscence. That provides price to your construct.
AMD’s preliminary launch consists of AM5 motherboards with the X670 and X670E chipsets, however they carry heavy premiums in comparison with comparable Intel boards — and that is with direct comparisons of DDR5 motherboards. The image turns into much more lopsided once we examine DDR4 choices. And it would not appear like the B-series motherboards will likely be as inexpensive as we have seen prior to now, including one other layer of extra price over comparable Intel-powered programs.
Regardless of its spectacular efficiency in a variety of apps, these pricing components conspire to make the Ryzen 9 7900X much less interesting than the sticker worth suggests — this chip is actually ripe for an enormous worth discount.
Ryzen 9 7900X Specs and Pricing
| Value | Cores / Threads (P+E) | P-Core Base / Increase Clock (GHz) | E-Core Base / Increase Clock (GHz) | Cache (L2/L3) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence | |
| Core i9-13900K / KF | $589 (Okay) – $564 (KF) | 24 / 32 (8+16) | 3.0 / 5.8 | 2.2 / 4.3 | 68MB (32+36) | 125W / 253W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Ryzen 9 7950X | $699 | 16 / 32 | 4.5 / 5.7 | – | 80MB (16+64) | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (Okay) – $564 (KF) | 16 / 24 (8+8) | 3.2 / 5.2 | 2.4 / 3.9 | 44MB (14+30) | 125W / 241W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 |
| Ryzen 9 7900X | $549 | 12 / 24 | 4.7 / 5.6 | – | 76MB (12+64) | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 9 5900X | $398 ($549) | 12 / 24 | 3.7 / 4.8 | – | 70MB (6+64) | 105W | DDR5-5200 |
| Core i7-13700K / KF | $409 (Okay) – $384 (KF) | 16 / 24 (8+8) | 3.4 / 5.4 | 2.5 / 4.2 | 54MB (24+30) | 125W / 253W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Core i7-12700K / KF | $409 (Okay) – $384 (KF) | 12 / 20 (8+4) | 3.6 / 5.0 | 2.7 / 3.8 | 37MB (12+25) | 125W / 190W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 |
| Ryzen 7 7700X | $399 | 8 / 16 | 4.5 / 5.4 | – | 40MB (8+32) | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 5 7600X | $299 | 6 / 12 | 4.7 / 5.3 | – | 38MB (6+32) | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
| Core i5-13600K / KF | $319 (Okay) – $294 (KF) | 14 / 20 (6+8) | 3.5 / 5.1 | 2.6 / 3.9 | 44MB (20+24) | 125W / 181W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (Okay) – $264 (KF) | 10 / 16 (6+4) | 3.7 / 4.9 | 2.8 / 3.6 | 29.5MB (9.5+20) | 125W / 150W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 |
The 12-core 24-thread Ryzen 9 7900X lands at $549, the identical launch worth as its predecessor, positioning it to compete with each the $589 Core i9-12900K and the $409 Core i7-12700K which are already available on the market. Intel has surprisingly saved its pricing for its new Raptor Lake Core i9 and i7 just like the present fashions, so the 7900X can even finally compete with the Core i9-13900K and Core i7-13700K once they arrive this month.
The 7900X comes with 4 fewer cores than the 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X flagship, however has a 4.7 GHz base clock and a 5.6 GHz increase. It additionally has 64MB of L3 cache, just like the flagship mannequin, and an an identical 170W/230W TDP/peak energy score. That is a 65W enhance over the previous-gen Ryzen 9 5900X and a document for AMD’s Ryzen household. This elevated energy consumption is partially on account of AMD’s drastically improved energy supply with the AM5 socket — it delivers way more energy to maintain the cores absolutely powered throughout heavy load — however it ends in greater chip temperatures.
The Ryzen 9 7900X doesn’t include a bundled cooler; as a substitute, AMD recommends a 240-280mm liquid cooler or equal. Even if you happen to use a strong cooler, it’s best to anticipate the highest-end Ryzen processors to run at greater temperatures than we’re accustomed to. Loaded temperatures recurrently attain 90C to 95C, even with a strong cooler. AMD says that is anticipated conduct — the chip is designed to devour all out there thermal headroom to offer quicker efficiency. The 95C thermal threshold is inside protected working limits, so it gained’t lead to degradation. If you happen to’re involved about chip temperatures, AMD has an easily-activated ECO mode that reduces the TDP of any given processor to its best level on the voltage/frequency curve. That considerably reduces temperatures, however it does cut back efficiency.
The Raphael processors drop into a brand new AM5 socket that helps the PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 interfaces, matching Alder Lake on the connectivity entrance. The Socket AM5 motherboards can expose as much as 24 lanes of PCIe 5.0 to the consumer. We have now an intensive roundup of twenty 600-series motherboards right here.
Ryzen 7000 helps DDR5-5200 if you happen to set up one DIMM per channel (1DPC), however that drops to DDR5-3600 for 2DPC. AMD additionally launched the brand new EXPO reminiscence overclocking spec to compete with Intel’s XMP. EXPO profiles are designed for AMD processors to permit one-click reminiscence overclocking to predefined speeds. Yow will discover EXPO kits with speeds reaching as much as DDR5-6400.
The Ryzen 7000 processors include the N5 TSMC 5nm course of node for the core compute die (CCD) and the TSMC 6nm course of for the I/O Die (IOD). The Ryzen 9 7900X has two energetic CCDs, however AMD disables 4 cores to create the 12-core design. You possibly can be taught extra about this design in our Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 all we all know article.
The RDNA 2 iGPU is designed to offer primary show output capabilities solely. The RDNA 2 iGPU comes with two compute models, 4 ACE, and 1 HWS, so gaming is off the desk. You possibly can see the iGPU gaming ends in our Ryzen 9 7950X assessment, however the quick model is that they are the slowest built-in graphics on a contemporary processor that we’re conscious of, however they work nice for normal show duties.
The built-in graphics are appealling for troubleshooting and OEM programs, although, and it has different redeeming qualities. For instance, the iGPU helps AV1 and VP9 decode, H.264 and HVEC encode and decode, USB Kind-C with DisplayPort Alt Mode, DisplayPort 2.0, and HDMI 2.1. You additionally get help for 4K60 and hybrid graphics.
