The Ryzen 5 9600X review embargo has finally been lifted today, and despite some attractive performance uplifts, the overriding sentiment – for both the 9600X and 9700X – is that gamers should stick to the X3D variants.
AMD’s new Ryzen 5 9600X will officially launch tomorrow, and right now, we’re not too sure how well the budget-tailored CPU will do on launch day. On one hand, the entry-level 9000-series chip – which is set to launch at $279/£269 – sees some decent performance gains when compared to its predecessor, the 7600X. On the other, many are saying the uplift isn’t enough to justify the upgrade – even at a lower power consumption.
Alongside this, most reviewers have been unanimous in saying AMD hasn’t priced this chip very well – especially when you look at some of the lackluster performance benchmarks. Amazon and Newegg are often seen axing the price of AMD’s 7000-series CPUs, making the price-to-performance prospect of the 7800X3D too good to pass up.
AMD’s new Ryzen 5 9600X receives underwhelming reviews
Digital Foundry said in their 9600X review, “improvements to single-core speed do make a difference in gaming, with around 10 percent gen-on-gen performance uplifts for both processors in Flight Sim 2020 and nearly 15 percent in Far Cry 6. Other titles, like the more GPU-limited Forza Horizon 5 benchmark, showed slightly lower improvements – around five percent.”.
While this sounds promising, the overarching sentiment to gamers is to sit tight, with the review concluding that “it’s clear to see that the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X are powerful performers that stand up to Intel’s headlining 14th-gen processors – though the last-gen Ryzen 7 7800X3D retains a dominant performance advantage in all of our gaming tests.”.
Club386 also states that the pricing seems a little steep on the new chips, saying “The current $359 (£340) and $279 (£270) asking fees for the new mid-range chips is therefore too steep. I’d suggest a maximum of $299 and $249, respectively, thus increasing their immediate attractiveness substantially.”.
Overall, the entry-level 9600X doesn’t seem to be a smash hit with tier 1 reviewers. However, there is no denying that Zen 5 is a foundational microarchitecture that will likely pave the way for the brand’s future generations of chips. Club386 makes an interesting point that, “I can’t help but feel it’s been designed for the datacentre first and foremost.” – which is a nice summation of the reviews I’ve read so far.
