AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X Review
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Introduction
It still feels very strange to be doing our review of the AMD Ryzen 9 9000 series processors this way round. We normally get the flagship models first, and the ‘lower’ models follow along later. As we’ll discuss in our conclusion we’re curious as to whether there is a reason for this. Or, perhaps, we’re curious if our belief in the reason for this is correct.
However, right now we’re at the start so what have we got on hand. If you were here for our Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X review then you’ll know that the new AMD processors are an evolution of those that have come before. The giants of the most recent AMD Ryzen releases are the Ryzen 9 processors. This looks like it continues into the 9000 series. Certainly if the specification table below is any indicator. What really surprises us is that the higher core count models also have higher rated clock speeds. Normally the more cores you pour onto a die the slower it goes. Partly for power reasons and mainly for heat ones.
The flagship 3000 AMD Ryzen models were good but not jaw-dropping. However, with the launch of the Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 7950X AMD had a pair of processors which were hugely desirable for everyone. As regular readers will know, our calculation benchmarks – Cinebench et al – have largely been totally dominated by those processors until the newest Intel Core i9s. All of which makes us giddy in anticipation for the two models we have for review today. We have the 12 core Ryzen 9 9900X and the 16 core, 32 thread behemoth that is the Ryzen 9 9950X.
Our last review focused upon the frugal TDP AMD had tuned their 9000 series processors to. Both the 9700X and 9600X had a TDP of just 65W. The Ryzen 9 9950X has no such sacrifices to efficiency. Both the 7950X and it are 170W TDP. However, the Ryzen 9 9900X manages to trim it’s Thermal Design Power from 170W on the Ryzen 9 7900X to 120W on the Ryzen 9 9900X. Potentially then the 12 core model might be the best blend between high core counts and low power demands. There is, as always, only one way to find out.
Technical Specifications
