AMD just announced that some of its best processors are about to become even better. The company unveiled a number of Ryzen 9000 improvements, ranging from a much higher TDP for some of the CPUs to the core-to-core latency improvements we’ve already heard about. AMD is also now supporting higher-clocked DDR5 RAM, and that’s not even all of today’s announcements.
The latest BIOS update, named AGESA PI 1.2.0.2, brings a few things, but if you ask me, the biggest change is that AMD is increasing the thermal design power (TDP) of two of its CPUs.
The Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 5 9600X were initially both locked at a TDP of 65 watts, which many found quite limiting when compared to the 120-watt TDP of the Ryzen 9 9900X, not to mention the 170-watt Ryzen 9 9950X. AMD’s explanation for that design choice is that it envisioned the lower-end CPUs as options for efficient performance. To make them more viable for enthusiasts, AMD has now given the 9700X and the 9600X a new TDP of 105 watts.
Raising the TDP by over 60% through a firmware update sounds dangerous, but AMD clarifies that the CPUs have been validated at 105W. What’s more, the 105-watt limit is warrantied — so you can safely unlock it without worrying about voiding the warranty. AMD does note, however, that you’ll need a better CPU cooler to keep all that extra heat at bay.
AMD hasn’t specified how the higher TDP might affect things like clock speeds or performance, and reviewers will likely have to re-test these two CPUs to check what’s going on in that department. Still, given the minimal generational gains from Zen 4 to Zen 5, this TDP change sounds like a good move.
Next is the aforementioned core-to-core latency boost. Early adopters and reviewers alike noticed that the inter-CCD (core complex die) latency on the Ryzen 9000 was about 50% higher than on the Ryzen 7000. Those who already got the new firmware and tested it last week have already confirmed that AMD has addressed the issue, meaning a 50% lower latency on the Zen 5 — as it should be.
Now, for some hardware improvements: AMD has enabled EXPO support for DDR5-8000 memory. RAM clocked that high is among some of the best RAM currently out there, and most gamers don’t currently need these kinds of frequencies. AMD notes that switching from DDR5-6000 to DDR5-8000 boosts the latency by around 1 to 2ns.
AMD also talked about the new X870 and X870E motherboards that are here, offering the most out of what the AM5 socket can supply right now. These motherboards will include support for full-speed PCIe Gen 5.0, both graphics and storage — just in time for the RTX 50-series, which is said to use that interface.
Benchmarks of the new Ryzen 9000 CPUs usually show that they’re great for productivity but they fail to offer any significant improvements in gaming. It also turns out that the CPUs were about 10% slower than they should have been, but all of that should now be fixed with the mandatory Windows Updates that offer branch prediction optimizations. Once all the new updates have been taken into account, we’ll know whether they make a dent in CPU performance or not.
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the “PC building is just like expensive…
I tested the Ryzen 9 9950X against the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and I was shocked by the results
If we’re going strictly by the numbers, the Ryzen 9 9950X is the best processor you can buy. It tops performance charts almost across the board, as you can read in our Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X review. In practice, the CPU isn’t as impressive as it could be. Not only does it arrive much more expensive than the competition but AMD is competing with itself when it comes to CPUs like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
I expected the Ryzen 7 7800X3D to continue to stay relevant in this new era of Zen 5 CPUs. I didn’t, however, expect it to be a flat-out better choice for those looking for the best gaming processor. Although the Ryzen 9 9950X can top productivity charts, AMD’s last-gen gaming monster remains the performance king when you’re chasing frames.
Specs
I tested AMD’s latest claims about Ryzen 9000, and they don’t hold up
AMD says that gaming performance on Ryzen 9000 is actually better than what you’ve read. As you can read in our Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X review, AMD’s new Zen 5 CPUs are the best processors you can buy when it comes to productivity. Gaming performance, on the other hand, is disappointing.
According to a new blog post from AMD, there are a few reasons why reviewers saw lower gaming performance than expected. Chief among them are the fact that AMD used an unreleased version of Windows 11 — the 24H2 update, which is available to Windows Insiders — and that it used an administrator account for its “automated test methodology.” In light of that, I downloaded the Windows update, spun up an admin account, and retested the Ryzen 9 9950X. And I’m not seeing what AMD claims at all.
Zen 5 was a letdown, but it may not have been entirely AMD’s fault
Although AMD’s new CPUs are some of the best processors, they don’t offer that much of an uplift when compared to their last-gen counterparts. The reason might lie in a recently discovered Windows bug that affects Ryzen gaming performance. This could mean that Zen 5 is more impressive than it seems at a glance.
But there’s a catch. While Zen 5 performance improves if you address the bug, the same thing happens to Zen 4 CPUs, effectively maintaining or closing the gap between the two generations. Here’s how it all works.
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