Gen 5 16% IPC uplift, 9950X, 9900X, 9700X, 9600X SKUs, up to 16 cores at 5.7 GHz, July release

AMD finally announced its Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” desktop CPUs, with up to 16 cores and some big IPC gains over Zen 4.

AMD Ryzen 9000 Desktop CPUs with 16 Cores, 5.7 GHz Clocks & 16% IPC Improvement, Ryzen 9 9950X Leads the Pack

The AMD Ryzen 9000 desktop CPU family, codenamed Granite Ridge, is based on the latest Gen 5 core architecture and targets high-performance gaming PCs. The family brings new features as Gen 5 cores are a staple of existing and upcoming AM5 platforms with improved I/O and DDR5 memory support.

So, before we talk about the Ryzen 9000 desktop CPU family, let’s first look at the new and improved Gen 5 core architecture:

• Improved branch prediction accuracy and latency
• Higher performance with wider pipelines and vectors
• Also parallel is the deep window size throughout the design

Among many features, the AMD Zen 5 core architecture offers a 2x increase in instruction bandwidth for front-end instructions, data bandwidth (L2 to L1 and L1 to FP), and AI perf (AI & AVX512 throughput).

These new changes lead to a significant IPC improvement of 16% and Zen 4. In some cases, Zen 5 core (Geekbench 5.4 AES XTS) and another core area improved can reach +35% IPC. L2 and L3 are cache structures. AMD has made some significant changes to IMC, which now results in more EXPO/XMP memory support and an Infinity Fabric clock boost from 2000 MHz on Zen 4 to 2400 MHz on Zen 5 with DDR5-5600 speeds.

AMD Ryzen 9000 desktop CPU series

As for the lineup, the AMD Ryzen 9000 “Granite Ridge” family has four SKUs to begin with. These include Ryzen 9 9950X, Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X. Let’s have a look at the specifications of these chips.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU is the flagship offering with two Zen 5 CCDs and an IOD. The CPU offers 16 cores, 32 threads and a maximum boost clock of up to 5.7 GHz, similar to the Ryzen 9 7950X. It comes with 80 MB cache (64 MB L3 + 16 MB L2) and has a TDP of 170W.

Next, we have the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, a 12-core and 24-thread variant. The chip has a boost clock of up to 5.6 GHz and a 76 MB cache. The interesting thing about this chip is that it has a TDP of 120W rather than the 170W Ryzen 9 7900X chips.

• Ryzen 9 7950X (170W) -> Ryzen 9 9950X (170W)
• Ryzen 9 7900X (170W) -> Ryzen 9 9900X (120W)
• Ryzen 7 7700X (105W) -> Ryzen 7 9700X (65W)
• Ryzen 5 7600X (105W) -> Ryzen 5 9600X (65W)

For more mainstream users, AMD has the Ryzen 7 9700X, an 8-core CPU with 16 threads, a boost clock of up to 5.5 GHz, 40 MB cache (32 MB L3 + 8 MB L2 with 1 CCD) and a low TDP of 65W. That’s much lower than the 105W TDP featured in its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7700X.

Lastly, the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads. The chip has a maximum boost clock of up to 5.40 GHz and has 38 MB of cache and the same 65W TDP. Only AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 CPUs see a clock bump over their predecessors while the Ryzen 9 chips retain the same clock speeds.

AMD Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” Desktop CPU Performance

AMD is also sharing some performance figures for its upcoming Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” desktop CPUs. Ryzen 9 9950X compared to Intel Core i9-14900K. It offers a +56% jump in productivity performance (+29.8% average increase) and a +23% jump in gaming performance (+13.2% average increase), a significant improvement over Intel’s flagship CPU.

In gaming, the Ryzen 9 9950X ends up being faster than the Zen 4 3D V-Cache chips but expect the Zen 5 3D V-Cache to take this improvement further. AMD says the improvement in gaming performance comes from the reduced latencies associated with the chip.

AMD also claims that the Ryzen 9000 “Gen 5” desktop CPUs build on the AI ​​platform with a 100% improvement in graphics bandwidth as Mistral. Note that AMD hasn’t incorporated an NPU into its Ryzen 9000 desktop CPUs, but the new architecture improvements should lead to better AI performance than the competition.

AMD Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” Desktop CPU Pricing and Availability

No pricing details have been shared at the moment, but expect the Ryzen 9000 CPUs to cost in the same ballpark as the Ryzen 7000 series. Meanwhile, AMD confirms that the CPUs will launch in July this year, so we should be getting an update or two soon.

Ryzen 9000 CPU Package:

Ryzen 9000 CPU Chip Shot:

AMD Ryzen 9000 “Granite Ridge” Desktop CPUs Initial Specifications:

CPU name	Architecture	Cores / threads	Base / Boost clock	Temporary storage	Graphics (Integrated)	Memory support	DTP	Price (MSRP)
Ryzen 9 9950X	Gen 5	16/32	Up to 5.7 GHz	64MB L3 + 16MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	120W	$699 USD?
Ryzen 9 9900X	Gen 5	12/24	Up to 5.6 GHz	64MB L3 + 12MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	120W	$549 USD?
Ryzen 7 9700X	Gen 5	8/16	Up to 5.5 GHz	32MB L3 + 8MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W	$399 USD?
Ryzen 5 9600X	Gen 5	6/12	Up to 5.4GHz	32MB L3 + 6MB L2	2 x RDNA 2 CUs	DDR5-5600	65W	$299 USD?