AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 9 7900X Review
Introduction
We’ve already had a good look at two of the new AMD Ryzen processors that form part of their 7000 series, the Ryzen 7700X and the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X. But we know that not everyone can quite stretch to that flagship cost, and that if you’re solely gaming then even the 7700X offers up more performance than you strictly need.
Today we’re looking at the other two processors that make up the AM5 Ryzen offerings. The Ryzen 9 7900X for those of you who want to have lots of performance without having the finances to push up to the 7950X, and the Ryzen 5 7600X which promises to be all the gaming processor you actually need, whilst saving you a chunk of money you can put towards your GPU.
We saw from our Intel testing how impressive the i5-13600K was, so naturally we’re keen to find out if the AMD equivalent matches, or even surpasses, that level of price/performance.
Without further ado, let’s quickly run through the specifications, take a look at them in the flesh, and get down to brass tacks.
Technical Specifications
Having already looked at the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X and solid eight-core Ryzen 7 7700X, today’s two CPUs fit different segments of the market. For those of you who want a system more well-rounded than a cannonball but can’t stretch to the full on 7950X, the Ryzen 9 7900X still brings 12 cores and a solid boost clock to your rig. At the other end, if you just game with your system then the Ryzen 5 7600X promises to be a good competitor for the Intel i5-13600K, boasting six cores, twelve threads and 5.3 GHz peak boost.
 OC3D | Ryzen 9 7950X | Ryzen 9 7900X | Ryzen 7 7700X | Ryzen 5 7600X |
Cores/Threads | 16/32 | 12/24 | 8/16 | 6/12 |
Max Boost | 5.7GHz | 5.6GHz | 5.4GHz | 5.3GHz |
Base Clock | 4.7GHz | 4.7GHz | 4.5GHz | 4.7GHz |
L2 Cache | 16x1MB | 12x1MB | 8x1MB | 6x1MB |
L3 Cache | 64MB | 64MB | 32MB | 32MB |
TDP | 170W | 170W | 105W | 105W |
Max Socket Power | 230W | 230W | 142W | 142W |
Max Current | 225A | 225A | 170A | 170A |
Max Thermally-Limited Current | 160A | 160A | 110A | 110A |
Boost Algorithm | Precision Boost 2 | Precision Boost 2 | Precision Boost 2 | Precision Boost 2 |
CCD Die size | 70mm2 | 70mm2 | 70mm2 | 70mm2 |
CCD Transistor Count | 6.5 billion | 6.5 billion | 6.5 billion | 6.5 billion |