Thursday, June 27th 2024
AMD to Revise Specs of Ryzen 7 9700X to Increase TDP to 120W, to Beat 7800X3D
AMD's Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" family of Socket AM5 desktop processors based on the "Zen 5" microarchitecture arrive in July, with four processor models in the lead—the 9950X 16-core, the 9900X 12-core, the 9700X 8-core, and the 9600X 6-core. AMD is building the CCDs (CPU core dies) of these processors on the slightly newer 4 nm foundry node, compared to the 5 nm node that the Ryzen 7000 series "Raphael" processors based on "Zen 4" are built on; and generally lowered the TDP values of all but the top 16-core part. The company is reportedly reconsidering these changes, particularly in wake of company statements that the 9000X series may not beat the 7000X3D series in gaming performance, which may have sullied the launch, particularly for gamers.
From the company's Computex 2024 announcement of the Ryzen 9000 series, the 9950X has the same 170 W TDP as its predecessor, the 7950X. The 9900X 12-core part, however, comes with a lower 120 W TDP compared to the 170 W of the 7900X. Things get interesting with the 8-core and 6-core parts. Both the 9700X 8-core, and the 9600X 6-core chips come with 65 W TDP. The 9700X succeeds the 7700X, which came with a 105 W TDP, while the 9600X succeeds the 7600X that enjoys the same 105 W TDP. The TDP and package power tracing (PPT) values of an AMD processor are known to affect CPU boost frequency residence, particularly in some of the higher core-count SKUs. Wccftech reports that AMD is planning to revise the specifications of at least the Ryzen 7 9700X.
Apparently, the Ryzen 7 9700X will undergo a set of changes to its specifications which see the TDP and PPT values increase. The TDP will be increased to 120 W, which is higher than even the 105 W that the 7700X comes with, and matches the 120 W of the 7800X3D. Given that the 9700X lacks 3D V-cache, the increased power limits should vastly improve the boost frequency residence of this chip. At this point we don't know if the re-spec includes an increase in clock speeds.
As to how AMD plans to go about this change in specs, given that a July launch would mean that chips with 65 W TDP may already have entered the supply chain; we honestly don't know, and the source article doesn't say. If we were to speculate, such an on-the-fly specs change could be deployed through motherboard BIOS updates that see the motherboard override the TDP and PPT values of the 9700X.
The idea behind the specs change, according to Wccftech, is to improve the gaming performance of the 9700X through clock speeds (boost residence) backed by increased power limits, so it gets closer to—or even beat—the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. A 9000X3D series (Zen 5 + 3D V-cache) is very much on the cards, but we don't expect those chips to come out before Q4 2024 at least.
Source:
Wccftech
From the company's Computex 2024 announcement of the Ryzen 9000 series, the 9950X has the same 170 W TDP as its predecessor, the 7950X. The 9900X 12-core part, however, comes with a lower 120 W TDP compared to the 170 W of the 7900X. Things get interesting with the 8-core and 6-core parts. Both the 9700X 8-core, and the 9600X 6-core chips come with 65 W TDP. The 9700X succeeds the 7700X, which came with a 105 W TDP, while the 9600X succeeds the 7600X that enjoys the same 105 W TDP. The TDP and package power tracing (PPT) values of an AMD processor are known to affect CPU boost frequency residence, particularly in some of the higher core-count SKUs. Wccftech reports that AMD is planning to revise the specifications of at least the Ryzen 7 9700X.
As to how AMD plans to go about this change in specs, given that a July launch would mean that chips with 65 W TDP may already have entered the supply chain; we honestly don't know, and the source article doesn't say. If we were to speculate, such an on-the-fly specs change could be deployed through motherboard BIOS updates that see the motherboard override the TDP and PPT values of the 9700X.
The idea behind the specs change, according to Wccftech, is to improve the gaming performance of the 9700X through clock speeds (boost residence) backed by increased power limits, so it gets closer to—or even beat—the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. A 9000X3D series (Zen 5 + 3D V-cache) is very much on the cards, but we don't expect those chips to come out before Q4 2024 at least.
112 Comments on AMD to Revise Specs of Ryzen 7 9700X to Increase TDP to 120W, to Beat 7800X3D
Sure, there's nothing that says the 9700X will actually reach its power limit (just like the 7800X3D doesn't), but if it's anything like the 7700X, then with good enough cooling, it will.
The other thing is that TDP is an arbitrary requirement for cooling on AMD. An uprated TDP usually means you need better cooling, even if your actual power consumption isn't higher.Probably the same place where the 7800X is. Nowhere.
Essentially, the formulae and how AMD defines their TDP is, really, practically irrelevant in this case. The fact that they, apparently, decided to nearly double the stated TDP for the 8-core model just means that they decided, for some bizzare reason, that potentially increasing the available power and, presumably, thermal envelope for the chip is “worth it” if they can present better numbers in Day One reviews. This, to me, just shows a lack of confidence in the product. I think it’s a poor look, but again - the public cares more than it should for minimal benchmark differences, so I guess everyone is dumb in this case.
Let's not forget that the 7800X3D eats between 80-90 W under full load, but has a 120 W "TDP" that comes with a 162 W power limit.
Edit: If it's truly a 65 W part, then a bundled Wraith Stealth cooler should be able to run it. Perhaps AMD realised that this is nowhere near reality.
I already mentioned that X3D are weird. So comparing to them is pointless. 7700X, on the other hand, had a PPT of 142W and, lo and behold, that’s more or less exactly what it was hitting at full load.Nah, the 7800X3D remains a 50 watt part even in CS at 1080p low with a 4090. If that doesn’t push it - nothing will.
In that case you ARE correct, but I was talking it being weird by AMDs own standard. But yeah, their whole TDP/PPT scheme is unusual and I don’t actually remember if they ever explained how and why they came up with the 1.35x multi for that. They just did, put that fact out there and operated on it ever since.
If it works it works right?...
People seem to forget that X3Ds are narrow-focus tools. They do gaming exceptionally well. That’s it. For everything else they are inferior to their same-gen and DEFINITELY next-gen counterparts. Before someone flips the lid, “inferior” doesn’t mean BAD in this case, but it is what it is.That’s what I assume, yeah, hence the last sentence in my post you’re quoting.
Say you use AMD's TDP of 105W for both a 7950x & 7700x. The cooling you need is vastly different for each CPU to not thermally throttle at that setting. The 7950x can be cooled with a mediocre air cooler, maybe even a low end one. The 7700x needs a top end cooler to not thermally throttle. If you follow AMD's interpretation then they'd need the same cooling which is just nonsense.