The first review of the Ryzen 9 9900X processor has appeared on the Internet, published by Italian YouTube blogger SaddyTech. Officially, this chip, as well as other Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors based on the Zen 5 architecture, will go on sale only next week. In anticipation of this, there will be reviews of the chips, but the Ryzen 9 9900X is unlikely to be among them, since AMD did not make it available to reviewers.
Image source: VideoCardz
The review of the Ryzen 9 9900X from an Italian blogger is largely devoted to the gaming performance of the new chip. The copy of the chip that fell into the hands of the blogger is not an engineering sample. This is the final retail version of the processor, produced a month ago, as hinted at by the 2424 marking on its heat distribution cover. This is a 12-core and 24-thread processor that can automatically overclock to 5.6 GHz. It has 64 MB of L3 cache. Its rated TDP is 120W. The official cost of the processor is still unknown. However, in Europe its price is expected to be around 500–550 euros.
For tests, the blogger also used the Gigabyte Aorus X670E Elite motherboard with the latest BIOS firmware, which added support for Ryzen 9000 processors, DDR5-7200 RAM and a GeForce RTX 4090 video card. A Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4 air cooler was used to cool the CPU.
The blogger compared the performance of the Ryzen 9 9900X with the eight-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D with a frequency of up to 5.0 GHz, built on the Zen 4 architecture. This chip is equipped with an additional 3D V-Cache, which increases the total L3 cache memory to 96 MB. The nominal TDP of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the same 120 W.
Source of images here and below: YouTube / SaddyTech
In some games tested, the Ryzen 9 9900X performed almost identically to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Here the difference in performance between the two processors was only a few frames per second in favor of one or the other chip. At the same time, in a number of gaming projects the new chip turned out to be slower than the model based on the Zen 4 architecture.
As SaddyTech notes, in some games the Ryzen 9 9900X consumes more power than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. For example, in Counter-Strike 2 the consumption of the new processor was 107 W. In turn, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D required only 53 W. The maximum temperature of the Ryzen 9 9900X was about 67 degrees Celsius in Counter-Strike 2, while the Ryzen 7 7800X3D was about 63 degrees. At the same time, in games like Cyberpunk 2077, temperatures were above 82 degrees.
By the way, Cyberpunk 2077 had the most significant difference in performance between the two processors. At the same time, this is not in favor of the new chip. In 1080p and 1440p resolution, the new product is 25 and 11 frames per second behind its predecessor. At 4K resolution the performance difference between the two processors evened out. Also, the new processor lagged behind the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in the city-planning simulator Cities Skylines 2. Moreover, in all target resolutions. The difference was 16, 11 and 14 frames in favor of the Zen 4 chip.
According to SaddyTech, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the better choice for gaming. It delivers the same, or in some cases better, levels of performance, is lower power, cooler, and at the same time cheaper than the new Ryzen 9 9900X.
The start of sales of the Ryzen 9000 series of processors is expected on July 31. Probably, the day before this, AMD will allow reviewers to publish reviews of other chip models in this line.