The Ryzen 5 9600X is the successor of the Ryzen 5 7600X. The former is designed on the newer Zen 5, but does it deliver higher performance?
The Ryzen 5 9600X is AMD’s latest CPU in the budget mid-range category. It is the direct successor to the older Ryzen 7600X. The former is the newer CPU, yet it has the same number of cores and a 0.1GHz higher clock speed than the latter. Looking at these numbers, you would think that the Ryzen 5 9600X won’t be that impressive.
However, AMD believes its newer Zen 5 architecture and more efficiency would be enough to deliver a solid performance uplift. The question is, are the performance improvements enough to justify the high selling price? Let’s find out with a detailed comparison of the two CPUs, including benchmarks, to find out which Ryzen processor is better.
Note:Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinions.
Ryzen 5 7600X vs Ryzen 5 9600X: Detailed Comparison
The Ryzen 5 7600X was released in 2022 based on the Zen 4 architecture. On the other hand, the Ryzen 5 9600X is designed on the latest Zen architecture and launched in 2024. Let’s start comparing the two CPUs, starting with their specs.
Specs Comparison
Here are the specs of the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 5 9600X:
The specs table reveals a bleak picture. The new Ryzen 5 9600X is quite similar to the older Ryzen 5 7600X. The only new things in the former are a 0.1GHz higher clock speed, higher RAM speeds, and lower TDP. However, as we know, specs aren’t everything.
The Zen 5 architecture alone brings around 16% IPC improvements over the Zen 4 in the Ryzen 5 7600. Therefore, the Ryzen 5 9600X should perform better.
Synthetic Performance Comparison
It’s time we put the specs aside and check out the performance difference between the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 5 9600X:
In single-core benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 9600X is around 13.1% better on average than the Ryzen 5 7600X. In multi-core benchmarks, the newer CPU also achieved a similar 13.6% improvement. The performance numbers are close to the 16% IPC improvements that AMD claimed.
Therefore, you may achieve a 13 to 16% performance improvement in productivity applications. Will we see a similar performance improvement on the gaming side? Let’s find out.
Game Performance Comparison
Here’s how the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 5 9600X perform in popular games:
Note:The two CPUs were tested at 1080p resolution with the RTX 4090 GPU to eliminate any GPU bottleneck. All FPS numbers were sourced from the Hardware Tested channel on YouTube.
On average, the Ryzen 5 9600X is about 0.6% faster than the Ryzen 5 7600X. Essentially, there are no improvements in the gaming. Seeing the 13.6% improvements in the synthetic benchmarks, we were quite hopeful, but that’s clearly not the case here.
Price Comparison
The Ryzen 5 7600X is currently available for$179 on Amazon, while the Ryzen 5 6600X is selling for$202.31 on Amazon. Therefore, the new Ryzen CPU is 13% more expensive than the old one.
Final Verdict on Ryzen 5 7600X vs Ryzen 5 9600X
The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is 13.6% better than the Ryzen 7600X in synthetic benchmarks, which should be reflected in productivity applications as well. However, in gaming performance, there are little to no differences between them. Besides, the Ryzen 5 9600X is 13% more expensive.
Therefore, we cannot recommend the new Ryzen 5 9600X to gamers. They should rather buy the older Ryzen 5 7600X and spend the $20 – $25 they save on other components, such as RAM kits. Even for productivity users, we cannot recommend it. Instead, we would suggest theIntel Core i5-14600K, which delivers 49% more productivity performance than the Ryzen 5 9600X.
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