The Zen 5 Desktop Lineup

The AMD Ryzen 9000 series Granite Ridge desktop lineup looks very similar to previous Ryzen 7000 Raphael and Ryzen 5000 Vermeer offerings; with one SKU each from the target CPU core counts AMD intends for the market—6-core, 8-core, 12-core, and 16-core. AMD hasn't changed the processor model numbering scheme for its desktop processors. The series is led by the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X, followed by the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X, the 8-core Ryzen 7 9700X, and the 6-core Ryzen 5 9600X. The four directly succeed the 7950X, 7900X, 7700X, and 7600X from the previous generation.


What's interesting is that AMD has revamped the TDP limits of these processors, when compared to Ryzen 7000. While the x950X is still 170 W, the TDPs of the smaller processors are considerably lower, especially the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 with just 65 W is impressive and should be fantastic for power and cooling requirements.


As expected, all Ryzen 9000 processors come without a cooling solution. Given the 170 W TDP of the 9950X, an AIO is probably a good idea. The Ryzen 9 9900X should run fine with a decent air cooler, too, which is a pretty big improvement over the 7900X.

All four processor models will launch on July 31, AMD hasn't finalized their pricing.

Ryzen 9 9950X

The Ryzen 9 9950X is a maxed out 16-core/32-thread model that uses two 4 nm CCDs, with all 8 cores on the two enabled. The processor boosts up to 5.7 GHz, and features a total cache of 80 MB. That's 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of L3 cache per CCD. The processor's TDP is unchanged from the 7950X, at 170 W.

Given that AMD beat Intel to the new processor generation, with Intel's Core Ultra Arrow Lake-S desktop processors not coming out before October at least; AMD has to compare these chips to what Intel current has. The 9950X and 9900X will be compared to the Core i9-14900K, the 9700X to the Core i7-14700K, the 9600X to the Core i5-14600K. AMD is severely lagging behind on Intel in raw CPU core counts, since there are no E-cores; but AMD's productivity and gaming benchmarks bank on the superior IPC of the Zen 5 cores, besides their clock speeds.

Ryzen 9 9900X

Things get interesting with the Ryzen 9 9900X, the 12-core/24-thread chip. A successor to the 7900X, a SKU that tended to be overlooked in the lineup, the new 9900X boosts up to 5.6 GHz, and comes with a generationally lowered 120 W TDP, compared to the 170 W of the 7900X, which should draw some attention. This chip has 6 cores enabled per CCD, and has 76 MB of total cache, which is 12 MB of L2 caches of the cores, and untouched 32 MB L3 caches from the two CCDs.

Ryzen 7 9700X

AMD's interesting streak continues on with the Ryzen 7 9700X. This 8-core/16-thread chip features one maxed out CCD, with 40 MB of total cache (1 MB L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of L3 cache). The processor boosts up to 5.5 GHz. AMD has significantly lowered the TDP of this chip down to 65 W, compared to the 105 W of the Ryzen 7 7700X, the chip this is supposed to replace.

We heard reports of AMD working to increase TDP of the 9700X to 120 W in a last-minute specs change. Apparently, it was too late for the change, and AMD might need to come up with a "9800X" to do this, and risk ending up in a similar situation as the 3700X and 3800X, where the 65 W 3700X was almost as fast as the 3800X that never really pulled in the sales numbers.

Ryzen 5 9600X

Lastly, there's the Ryzen 5 9600X, the 6-core/12-thread part that boosts up to 5.4 GHz, has 38 MB of total cache, and 65 W TDP. It will be interesting to see how AMD carves out the 9700 and 9600 non-X SKUs in the near future, which will likely come with the same 65 W TDP.

Ryzen 9000 X3D with 3DV-Cache

In the run-up to Los Angeles, AMD made some controversial statements, stating that the first four Ryzen 9000 SKUs won't quite beat the Ryzen 7 7800X3D—currently the fastest gaming processor—at gaming workloads, but do so with productivity workloads. The company has also stated that it will continue to invest in the 3D V-cache technology, pretty much confirming that there will be a Ryzen 9000X3D series. Unfortunately that means that gamers will probably want to wait for the 3D V-cache models before making a buying decision. We've also seen reports that 3D V-cache will be implemented just the way it is in the 7000X3D series, augmenting the on-die L3 cache, without tinkering with the L2 cache sizes, but with mentions of support for CPU overclocking—something X3D SKUs historically lacked.

If you look back to the brief history of 3D V-cache on desktops, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D was launched as a stopgap to compete with the Core i9-12900K in gaming, but ended up beating it, giving Socket AM4 users a solid upgrade option within their platform, but falling slightly short of the 7700X. So it is somewhat surprising that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D beats the Ryzen 7 9700X in gaming workloads by a tiny bit. It's faster than even the Core i9-14900K at gaming, a position that's likely to be topped by the Core Ultra 9 Arrow Lake part, which the 9000X3D should really compete with. You will see that clash some time in Q1 2025.