AMD Ryzen 9000 series now official

The first wave of Zen5 processors is launching this July.

Meet Granite Ridge, AMD’s next-generation processors powered by the Zen5 architecture. This will be the third series for the AM5 socket, following the Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” and Ryzen 8000 “Hawk Point” series. These new processors will feature up to two Zen5 chiplets, each with up to 8 cores, maintaining the maximum configuration of 16 cores and 32 threads, similar to the Ryzen 7000 series. AMD continues to support SMT (simultaneous multithreading), a feature not present in Intel’s Core Ultra 200 “Arrow Lake” processors.

Ryzen 9000 series, Source: AMD

Today, AMD is introducing four SKUs:

• Ryzen 9 9950X with 16 cores, 170W TDP and boost up to 5.7 GHz
• Ryzen 9 9900X with 12 cores, 120W TDP and boost up to 5.6 GHz
• Ryzen 7 9700X with 8 cores, 65W TDP and boost up to 5.5 GHz
• Ryzen 5 9600X with 6 cores, 65W TDP and boost up to 5.4 GHz

The Granite Ridge series marks the first wave of Zen5 models, with more expected to follow. The AM5 package remains unchanged, and the Ryzen 9000 series continues to use the same I/O die as its predecessors. However, the new series features updated Zen5 chiplets and some minor changes to the capacitor layout.

Ryzen 7000 vs. 9000 package, Source: AMD

According to AMD tests, the flagship 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X is reported to be 4% to 23% faster in gaming compared to the Intel Core i9-14900K. In productivity tests, the 9950X shows an even greater advantage, outperforming the i9-14900K by 7% to 56%.

Ryzen 9 9950X vs. 14900K, Source: AMD

AMD claims a 16% IPC (instructions per clock) uplift for the Zen5 architecture compared to Zen4, based on the geometric mean across various gaming and productivity tests. The most significant improvement is observed in the Geekbench 5.4 AES test and the smallest in Far Cry 6.

AMD IPC gains over generations

• Zen/Zen+: 52%
• Zen2: 15%
• Zen3: 19%
• Zen4: 13%
• Zen5: 16% 🆕

Zen5 IPC, Source: AMD

AMD announced that the Ryzen 9000 series will launch on July 31st. This early release allows AMD to prepare its 9000X3D series to launch shortly after Intel’s Core Ultra 200 series, which is expected in Q4 2024. Pricing details will be confirmed soon.