During this year’s Computex fair, AMD lifted the lid on the Ryzen 9000 series processors for desktop computers. These take place on the same motherboard platform as before, AM5, and are based on the company’s latest processor architecture Zen 5 together with manufacturing on TSMC’s 4 nanometer process – something that should ultimately provide both higher performance and better energy efficiency. At an event in Los Angeles, the company now reveals more details as well as the launch date for the new processors.
The lineup of processors on launch day.
As previously announced, it concerns the models Ryzen 9 9950 X, Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X. These move in number of cores from 16 down to 6, where the maximum clock frequencies have changed quite marginally compared to the predecessors in the Ryzen 7000 series. The performance gains come instead from the improved IPC of the Zen 5, together with a refined manufacturing process that gives greater leeway in terms of power to raise the frequencies in certain scenarios.
Ryzen 9 9900X beats Core i9-14900K according to AMD.
While the eight-core Ryzen 7 9700X will whip the Core i7-14700K.
According to AMD, the six-core Ryzen 5 9600X should outperform the Core i5-14600K.
During Computex, AMD showed internal performance results for the top model Ryzen 9 9950X, which during the technology briefing in Los Angeles was expanded with figures from other models. The company claims to have a performance advantage over Intel’s Raptor Lake Refresh models at every price point, where this applies to both productivity and gaming. As you can see, the results from Handbrake stand out a bit, and this is due to the full fat implementation of AVX512 instructions in Zen 5.
The Ryzen 7 9700X is an average of 12 percent faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in games.
The company also chose to direct the spotlight a little extra towards the octa-core Ryzen 7 9700X, which was compared against the cache-enriched bestseller Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Here, AMD says that the new model presents an average 12 percent higher frame rate than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, despite a lower TDP level of 65 W. Compared to the more recent Ryzen 7 7800X3D, the company claims that the Ryzen 7 9700X will offer a few percent better average performance.
Greatly improved energy efficiency and lower temperatures
Precisely improved energy efficiency is something the company emphasizes a lot with Ryzen 9000, and a receipt for this is that they have lowered the TDP values for three of the four models. Ryzen 9 9900X takes the step down to 120 W, while both Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X land at a low 65 W. Despite lower power consumption, all models offer markedly better performance than their respective predecessors in the Ryzen 7000 series in multi-threaded workloads.
Lower power output but higher performance of Ryzen 9000.
Unlocked power budget via PBO can lift performance even further.
While the TDP value of the new processors is fine-tuned to place each model in its sweet spot current energy efficiency, there is always the option for the user to unlock the power budget via Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO). While you then compromise on energy efficiency, there is still additional performance to be gained, where the Ryzen 7 9700X in particular stands out further with 15 percent higher multi-threaded results.
Ryzen 9000 should run cooler than its predecessors at the same power output.
With the Ryzen 9000, AMD has worked more on improving heat transfer from the circuit itself to the cooler. A combination of measures, including specific restructuring in the circuit design to counteract so-called hot spots, should give the Ryzen 9000 series 15 percent lower thermal resistance than its predecessor. According to the company’s measurements, the Ryzen 9000 is approximately 7 °C lower in temperature than the corresponding Ryzen 7000 processor at the same power output.
New control circuits with few news
While the Ryzen 9000 is fully compatible with the current chipsets in the 600 series, the company is releasing updated variants in the 800 series. The company has previously announced the X870E and X870, both of which come with mandatory USB 4 support as well as PCI Express 5.0 for both the primary graphics card slot and an M.2 slot for NVME storage. However, these motherboards will be launched later this autumn and not in connection with the new processors now in July.
The new control circuits in the 800 series.
During the event, two more control circuits will be presented, which will take place in motherboards at a later date. This is partly about the B850, which is basically a merger of the B650 and B650E with requirements for PCI Express 5.0 for at least one M.2 slot with optional support for the primary graphics card slot. In addition to that circuit, the B840 is also introduced, which is an entry-level variant with only PCI Express 3.0 to complement the previously launched A620.
Interesting news for memory overclocking and “undervolting”
While the official memory support for Ryzen 9000 is 5,600 MT/s, AMD allows the new processor family to run up to 8,000 MT/s via overclocking. This is accompanied by a new feature in the software called Ryzen Master memory overclocking on-the-flywhich allows the user to set memory speed, latencies, and ratio between memory frequency and memory controls directly in the operating system without restarting the computer.
Easier memory overclocking and more fine-grained “undervolting” with Ryzen 9000.
This opens up the possibility to create specific profiles for different types of workloads, where, for example, some are more dependent on high memory bandwidth while others gain significantly more from tighter latencies and a faster memory controller. According to AMD representatives, 6000 MT/s is still the most realistic speed if you want to maintain a 1:1 ratio between memory frequency and memory control, but they have also seen a few cases where 6400 MT/s is possible.
Another interesting feature introduced with Ryzen 9000 is curve shaperwhich is a complement to curve optimizer which has been around for a while now. With the curve optimizer, the user has been able to shift the frequency curve of the processor’s various cores, and thus allow it to use a lower voltage at each given clock frequency. If the processor is stable with the adjusted frequency curve, this in turn can result in lower power consumption and higher performance.
Curve Shaper makes it possible to more finely tune the processor’s frequency curve for “undervolting”.
How the curve shaper looks in the motherboard’s UEFI configuration.
The problem with the curve optimizer is that you cannot fine-tune the frequency curve at different voltage levels, but only in a static way where the entire curve is moved up or down. What many have then encountered is that the processor is, for example, stable under heavy multi-threaded load, but that it tends to crash in lighter scenarios such as when resting in a desktop environment. Using curve shaper the user will be able to adjust the frequency curve more finely at different frequency bands.
Ryzen 9000 breaks new world records for extreme overclocking
AMD also had its sponsored extreme overclocker Bill “Sampson” Alverson at the event, who was keen to show off some real-time world records. The target was set on specific records in the 16-core processor category, where previously the Ryzen 9 7950X has reigned supreme. The current record in Cinebench R23 (multi-threaded) was previously held by Korean SAFEDISK with a score of 50,843, which required a Ryzen 9 7950X running on liquid nitrogen at 6.75 GHz.
Bill “Sampson” Alverson gave Ryzen 9000 a taste of liquid nitrogen.
Already at 5.9 GHz, the Ryzen 9 9950X managed to outrun its predecessor in Cinebench R23, and when the short overclocking session ended at 6.2 GHz, the newcomer presented a score of 53,604 in Cinebench R23 – a new world record by far. According to Bill Alverson, the Ryzen 9000 has similar frequency and voltage response to the Ryzen 7000 series, so we will see this record broken very quickly when the processors end up in the hands of the world’s extreme overclockers.
The processors in the Ryzen 9000 series for desktop computers will be launched and go on sale on July 31.
Source: www.sweclockers.com
