The new AMD series of CPUs are incredibly fast and built with a large number of cores. With 12 cores, the Ryzen 9 7900X is overkill for gaming. There is no gaming set that would utilize this amount of cores and power. In fact, games aren't built to be played with a large number of cores and threads, normally this is a single-threaded task that has to be done with a low count of cores. For this reason, the Ryzen 9 7900X is a bit overkill for gaming – you’d be better off with a Ryzen 7 7700X.

Another aspect to keep in mind is the price. AMD has been known for dropping components at nice and consumer-friendly prices. This time is no exception. However, AMD’s race for introducing new technologies took them to cut off backward compatibility, which ended up with a CPU that can only work on a new AM5 motherboard and with DDR5 RAM kits.

These changes will provide a faster rig than with any other components. AM5's PCIe 5.0 lanes and DDR5 ensure a high processing speed a big processor and the new GPUs need. Also, according to AMD, these are changes that the manufacturers have to enforce in the public, not only to make the market move on but also to lower prices.

Ryzen 9 7900X Specs

We consider that the Ryzen 9 7900X would be overkill for gaming mainly due to its core density. The 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread CPU built for high-core density tasks, such as content creation, 3D rendering, etc. You could get this CPU for gaming solely, but unless you're playing 4K games, where its power and speed might be a little more of use, you would be losing almost half its power, thus throwing away the money it costs.

Furthermore, the CPU delivers 4.7GHz of base clock speed and 5.6GHz of boosted clock speed. These numbers weren't even imaginable in the past; only achieved by Threadrppier or high-end, non–consumer CPUs. The fact that we have this at reach right now envelopes another Spider-Man-like situation, wherein we have to know the responsibility we have behind that power.

About the Author

Camilo Delgado

Camilo is a contributor for PC Guide. He's been into tech since he was a teen, surfing through the web and local stores trying to find the cheapest way to play the latest Half-Life on his old Windows