Why You Should Hold Off Ryzen 9000 For Gaming

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Ali Rashid Khan

As Tech4Gamers’ Wiki Editor, I dissect gaming products, offering detailed perspectives from Best Motherboards to GPUs. When away from the keyboard, I’m into mechanical keyboards and global Scrabble competitions.

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You and I have just witnessed the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 9000 ‘Granite Ridge’ Series Processors which are based on the revamped Zen 5 architecture.

As far as workloads based on productivity are concerned, the pressure is now on Intel to respond with its hotly anticipated 15th-generation CPUs.

However, if you, like me, are only interested in gaming, you might want to think twice before shopping for AMD’s Zen 5 CPUs to game with them.

Why, you ask?

Allow me to explain the whole conundrum to you.

Ryzen 9000: Problems Surrounding The Initial Launch 

To begin with, as per AMD’s historical tradition, the company chose to launch only four SKUs from the Ryzen 9000 Series, all of which carry the ‘X’ moniker.

In other words, the currently available Ryzen 9000 Processors include the Ryzen 5 9600X, Ryzen 7 9700X, Ryzen 9 9900X, and the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X.

Still Waiting For Ryzen 9000 ‘X3D’ CPUs

If you look closely, you’ll eventually notice there are no 3D V-Cache or ‘X3D’ processors for the Ryzen 9000 Series as of yet.

Those ‘X3D’ CPUs are built with only one aim; to output maximum performance for gaming and gaming only, by revamping the CPUs with ludicrous amounts of L2 and L3 cache by a process called ‘stacking’.

Coming back to the topic, you might be reasonably inclined to think that the newest Granite Ridge CPUs should be the best processors for gaming, but I hate to inform you you’d be wrong to think so.

That’s because you’re forgetting about AMD’s Ryzen 7000 ‘X3D’ lineup of CPUs that were and still are renowned worldwide for being the absolute best silicon money can buy for gaming.

Keeping that in mind, AMD has no plans to release the succeeding Ryzen 9000 ‘X3D’ Processors within the next three months, so it’s a safe bet to assume we’ll see the new ‘X3D’ processors sometime between September 2024 till January 2025.

What’s the next step, then?

Ryzen 9000: How Does It Fare Against Ryzen 7000?

It’s my word against yours until we talk about statistical figures.

For starters, let’s see how the Ryzen 9000 ‘Granite Ridge’ Zen 5 CPUs shape up against the outgoing Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ Zen 4 ‘X3D’ CPUs.

Before we get into the details, it’s important to note that we’ll be using the Ryzen 7 7800X3D as our representative for the Ryzen 7000 Series as it still performs better in gaming as opposed to the Ryzen 9 7950X3D because of a Windows optimization issue.

Moving on, with respect to theoretical performance figures derived from synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench 6, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D blows the Ryzen 7 7800X3D out of the water with single-core and multi-core scores of 3,359 and 20,550 in contrast to 2,716 and 15,138 for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

Then again, you and I both know that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is known to suffer in synthetic benchmarks due to its low core/thread count of 8/16. Its true power lies in real-world optimization tests.

Keeping that in mind, it’s a safe bet to assume that the Ryzen 9 9950X will perform equally to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in most games, if not actually worse, thanks to its lack of 3D V-Cache.

There’s a reason AMD refrained from pitting the Ryzen 9 9950X against the Ryzen 7 7800X3D for gaming performance in its own press release/launch event.

Why You Should Stick With The Ryzen 7 7800X3D For Gaming

As evidenced above, the Ryzen 9 9950X isn’t expected to noticeably outperform the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. 

In fact, the flagship Ryzen 9000 Series CPU might just turn out to perform equivalently to the 7800X3D.

Let’s not forget that the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is also a significantly cheaper investment as compared to the Ryzen 9 9950X, $385, versus an expected price tag of $700-750 for the 9950X when it becomes available for mass sales.

Moreover, the Ryzen 9 9950X also gulps more power, about 50W in excess of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which means you’ll need to spend more bucks for a beefier CPU cooler.

When taking all of these factors into consideration, it’s a no-brainer for me to recommend that you stay away from the Ryzen 9000 Series Processors at all costs.

It just doesn’t make any sense. Perhaps I’ll revisit this when AMD eventually launches its new ‘X3D’ Granite Ridge CPUs.

Until then, Ryzen 7 7800X3D for the win. You just can’t argue with me on this one and you know it.

Ali Rashid Khan

[Wiki Editor]

Ali Rashid Khan is an avid gamer, hardware enthusiast, photographer, and devoted litterateur with a period of experience spanning more than 14 years. Sporting a specialization with regards to the latest tech in flagship phones, gaming laptops, and top-of-the-line PCs, Ali is known for consistently presenting the most detailed objective perspective on all types of gaming products, ranging from the Best Motherboards, CPU Coolers, RAM kits, GPUs, and PSUs amongst numerous other peripherals. When he’s not busy writing, you’ll find Ali meddling with mechanical keyboards, indulging in vehicular racing, or professionally competing worldwide with fellow mind-sport athletes in Scrabble at an international level. Currently speaking, Ali has completed his A-Level GCEs with plans to go into either Allopathic Medicine or Business Studies, or who knows, perhaps a full-time dedicated technological journalist.
Get In Touch: alirashid@tech4gamers.com