We have received the first performance numbers of AMD's 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X "Zen 5" Desktop CPU within the Cinebench R23 benchmark.
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core Desktop CPUs To Feature Double-Digit Multi-Threaded Gain Over 7900X At The Default 120W TDP
In our latest series of Zen 5 revelations, we will be talking about the performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X Desktop CPU which will compete against the Intel Core i7-14700K, a 20-core chip. The new Ryzen CPU has some really solid improvements within multi-threaded workloads like Cinebench & we are going to tell you how the chip fares at its default and PBO mode.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X "100-000000662" CPU is a 12-core and 24-thread variant. This chip has a base clock of 4.4 GHz and a boost clock of up to 5.6 GHz with a 76 MB cache. The interesting thing with this chip is that it has a TDP of 120W much lower than the 170W of Ryzen 9 7900X chips.
Once again, while the chip retains the same boost clock speed as the Ryzen 9 7900X, the base clock sees a -300 MHz reduction which is once again to fit within the 120W power limit but once again, the 12-core should be able to boast some nice multi-threaded capabilities. Following are the TDP comparisons between the Ryzen 9 9900X and the prior one:
- Ryzen 9 7900X (170W) -> Ryzen 9 9900X (120W)
So coming to the performance figures, the data we received was evaluated on a high-end X670E motherboard using the retail AMD Ryzen 9 9900X chip with the AGESA 1.2.0.0 BIOS. In terms of scores, the chip was first evaluated at its default 120W mode and scored around 33,000 points in the Cinebench R23 multi-threaded test. For comparison, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X scores around 29,000 points on average at the default operation at its 170W TDP. So you are seeing a 14% uplift while the TDP takes a 50W cut which is very impressive from a multi-threaded efficiency point of view.
Cinebench R23 Performance (Higher is Better)
Also, the 170W TDP disclosed above for the Ryzen 9 7900X has PBO enabled by default. Once PBO is enabled for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core "Zen 5" Desktop CPU, its score surges to around 34,500 points which is around a 20% uplift over the Ryzen 9 7900X, and users can still expect lower power consumption than the Zen 4 chips. The score should also be around the same level as the Intel Core i7-14700K and we expect final performance close to 35K points or even exceed it once BIOS updates are available which should enhance Zen 5 performance.
We have also managed to learn that the gaming performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU is going to be very strong this time around and that is something that we might explore in a future post so stay tuned for more Zen 5 action this month.
