Feed: AnandTech
Feed Link: https://www.anandtech.com
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Title: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X Review: Flagship Zen 5 Soars -
and Stalls

Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2024 09:00:00 EDT
Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/21524/the-amd-...

Earlier this month, AMD launched the first two desktop CPUs using their
latest Zen 5 microarchitecture: the Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 5 9600X. As
part of the new Ryzen 9000 family, it gave us their latest Zen 5 cores to the
desktop market, as AMD actually launched Zen 5 through their mobile platform
last month, the Ryzen AI 300 series (which we reviewed).

Today, AMD is launching the remaining two Ryzen 9000 SKUs first announced at
Computex 2024, completing the current Ryzen 9000 product stack. Both chips
hail from the premium Ryzen 9 series, which includes the flagship Ryzen 9
9950X, which has 16 Zen 5 cores and can boost as high as 5.7 GHz, while the
Ryzen 9 9900X has 12 Zen 5 cores and offers boost clock speeds of up to 5.6
GHz.

Although they took slightly longer than expected to launch, as there was a
delay from the initial launch date of July 31st, the full quartet of Ryzen
9000 X series processors armed with the latest Zen 5 cores are available. All
of the Ryzen 9000 series processors use the same AM5 socket as the previous
Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) series, which means users can use current X670E and X670
motherboards with the new chips. Unfortunately, as we highlighted in our
Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X review, the X870E/X870 motherboards, which
were meant to launch alongside the Ryzen 9000 series, won't be available
until sometime in September.

We've seen how the entry-level Ryzen 5 9600X and the mid-range Ryzen 7 9700X
perform against the competition, but it's time to see how far and fast the
flagship Ryzen 9 pairing competes. The Ryzen 9 9950X (16C/32T) and the Ryzen
9 9900X (12C/24T) both have a higher TDP (170 W/120 W respectively) than the
Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 (65 W), but there are more cores, and Ryzen 9 is clocked
faster at both base and turbo frequencies. With this in mind, it's time to
see how AMD's Zen 5 flagship Ryzen 9 series for desktops performs with more
firepower, with our review of the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900 processors.

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