AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X Review: Zen 5 brings stellar gaming performance (2024)

AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Gaming Performance

• Page 1: Into the Zen 5 Era
• Page 2: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Gaming Performance
• Page 3: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Productivity Benchmarks
• Page 4: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Power Consumption, Overclocking, Test Setup, Thermals
• Page 5: The Opening Salvo

Intel has instituted specific power guidelines for its customers to reduce the chance of encountering ongoing instability issues. As such, we’ve tested the Intel chips with the company’s highest recommended power limits within the new guidelines. Those limits could be lifted when a microcode patch arrives to address the company’s nagging instability issues, but due to changes in voltage and other guidelines, they won’t return to the types of results we saw with the initial reviews.

AMD’s processors in our test pool fit into three buckets: the standard Ryzen models for the AM5 socket (Ryzen 7000 and 9000), the gaming-specialized Zen 3 X3D models for the AM4 platform (5800X3D and 5700X3D), and the Zen 4 X3D model for AM5 (the 7800X3D).

AMD’s X3D models deliver exceptional performance in some game titles due to their unique 3D stacked chip design that arms the chip with ludicrous amounts of L3 cache, but they don’t accelerate all game titles equally. The X3D models also come with performance tradeoffs in productivity applications — especially with the 5000X3D models, as they come with the aging Zen 3 architecture and thus significantly lag behind the competition in productivity applications. Make sure you're aware of the pros and cons of the X3D chips before pulling the trigger.

Be sure to head to our test setup page for the particulars of our test configurations. Below, you can see the geometric mean of our gaming tests at 1080p and 1440p, with each resolution split into its own separate chart. We tested with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 to reduce GPU-imposed bottlenecks as much as possible. Still, differences between test subjects will shrink with less powerful cards or higher resolutions. You'll find further game-by-game breakdowns below.

Compared to the other conventional models, the $280 Ryzen 5 9600X delivers exceptional gaming at its price point. At stock settings, it’s 12% faster than the $300 Core i5-14600K in 1080p gaming, and it's 5% faster than the $400 Core i7-14700K. Yes, Intel's new restrictive power guidelines have reduced Core's performance, but we won't know how the processors will perform with lifted limits until the microcode patch arrives. Bear in mind that the Ryzen 5 9600X delivers these results from within an exceptional 65W TDP envelope.

The Ryzen 5 9600X is 12% faster than the previous-gen Ryzen 5 7600X, a solid generational gain, especially considering the 7600X's 105W TDP. Enabling the auto-overclocking PBO feature and bumping memory speed up to DDR5-6000 yields a solid 8% increase in performance, but it’s possible that more directed tuning could expose larger performance increases. Intel’s chips are also overclockable, but that isn’t advised given the current degradation issues. Many of the underlying settings in the BIOS may change in the future, so we’ll wait to add overclocking results until the issue is rectified.

On the gaming front, AMD’s stiffest competition comes from its own roster. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D comes out 11% faster than the 9600X at 1080p gaming for a $50 premium, while the Ryzen 7 5700X3D offers essentially the same performance as the 9600X on average but for $70 less. It also comes on the less expensive AM4 platform, and though the pricing delta between DDR4 and DDR5 isn't as severe as in the past, the 5000X3D chips do support more economical DDR4 memory. These chips do come with the older Zen 3 architecture, however, so they won’t be nearly as performant in daily tasks.

In contrast, the $375 Ryzen 7 7800X3D comes with the newer Zen 4 architecture, and while it does have its tradeoffs in productivity apps, it has a much more balanced performance profile. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the fastest gaming chip on the market, and it shows — it's 26% faster than the Ryzen 5 9600X. You’ll have to pay an extra $95, but it drops into the same AM5 platforms as the 9600X, so the platform and memory cost delta will be smaller than stepping back to AM4 for the 5000X3D models.

The $360 Ryzen 7 9700X is impressive, delivering 9% more performance than the $400 Core i7-14700K in 1080p gaming and 12% higher performance than the $295 prior-gen Ryzen 7 7700X. Overclocking again yields solid results, with the 9700X getting an 8% increase in performance from dead simple tuning.

The deltas in these charts can be slim, and large deltas in individual game titles, as we see with the 5000X3D and 7000X3D chips, can have a big impact on cumulative measurements. Also, the competition between AMD and Intel chips can vary based on the title and the GPU you use. It's best to make an informed decision based on the types of titles you frequently play, so be sure to check out the individual game tests below and consult our GPU benchmarks hierarchy to see where your particular graphics card lands.

Paul Alcorn

Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.