AMD Ryzen 7 9700x CPU Review: Performance, Thermals & Power Analysis

Epilogue

The Ryzen 7 9700x is expensive at 359 dollars; the same goes for the Ryzen 5 9600x, which costs 279 dollars. I believe that these increased prices have to do with the lack of competition, so far at least, from Intel, which has serious issues with the 13th and 14th-generation CPUs. Although AMD talks about way lower power consumption and only 65W TDP, I didn’t see that during my tests. Yes, power consumption has decreased, but not to that degree. What is vastly improved is the operating temperatures because of the updated heatspreader and the lower thermal resistance between the die and the IHS. Seeing 62C tops during a Blender benchmark session was a nice surprise. I should note, though, that in other, more taxing benchmarks (e.g. the 3D Mark CPU Profiler), I saw up to 75C temperatures, but I use Blender as the standard. The high-performance Noctua NH-D15 G2 cooler with the offset mounting plays a great role in keeping the temperatures low, but the fact is that with any decent cooler, you will have this CPU running cool.

The major competitor for the 9700x is the 7800X3D, which costs less than 20 dollars more. It offers slightly increased overall performance in all applications but has a tremendous lead in gaming, which in my tests reached 30%! AMD created internal competition by setting the new Ryzen 9000 series processor prices so high, and it should drop them to lower levels if it wants the new CPUs to have a successful market career.

Moreover, I had trouble overclocking this processor to get better performance, which is the purpose of overclocking! This might be an effect of an immature BIOS. I expect to see the full potential of these processors on the new 800 series chipsets, but until then, we are stuck with what we have. Speaking of the new chipsets, it is weird that AMD didn’t announce them at the same time as the Ryzen 9000 series.

Because I got the CPUs late, just three days before the NDA’s end date, I didn’t have the time I wanted to play with them. What I plan on doing next is to fully test the Ryzen 5 9600x and also take a look at AMD’s ECO mode, which promises higher efficiency. Today, everything has to do with efficiency, not only because of the increased electricity prices but also due to the rapid climate change, so we have to do whatever is possible to reduce our energy needs and use more efficient devices.