Two AMD Zen 5 CPUs may receive a significant performance uplift — Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X rumored for 105W TDP option with next AGESA update

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AMD allegedly wants to make its Zen 5 six-core and eight-core parts more competitive in multi-threaded workloads.

AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

AMD is purportedly preparing to raise the TDP for the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X, which rival the best CPUs on the market. According to hardware leaker Chi11eddog on X, an upcoming AGESA 1.2.0.1a Patch A update will reportedly increase the TDP of the two Zen 5 chips from 65W to 105W. Since it's a rumor, take the information with a big grain of salt.

Assuming the rumor has some belief, the increased TDP for the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X suggests AMD wants to improve both CPU's multi-core performance to increase their competitiveness against Intel's outgoing 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs and prepare against the forthcoming Arrow Lake army.

With Zen 5, many considered a significant "regression" on AMD's part to reduce the TDP of the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 SKUs. For instance, the older Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 7700X featured TDPs of 105W. However, for the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X, AMD decided to reduce the TDP of both chips to 65W — capping them to the AMD's conventional non-X SKUs, such as the Ryzen 5 7600, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 9 7900 non-X parts.

The 65W TDP does hinder the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X's multi-threaded performance. For example, in Cinebench 2024, we discovered that the 9700X performed 13% faster in the multi-threaded benchmark when we enabled Precision Boost Overdrive. This feature unlocks the CPU power limits and effectively allows the CPU to consume as much power as it wants when set to its maximum limits.

Without PBO, we discovered that the Ryzen 7 9700X performs very similarly to its predecessor in most tasks, including multi-threaded performance. In our multi-threaded performance ranking, the 9700X was 7% faster than the 7700X. However, with PBO, that margin increased significantly to 22% in favor of the 9700X.

Increasing the 9600X and 9700X TDP to 105W would improve both CPUs' multi-core performance (albeit not by 22%), enabling both chips to be more competitive. The increased TDP would also match the older Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 7700X, making them more similar to their predecessors without any numerical regressions on the spec sheet.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

57 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Roland Of Gilead
    'Without PBO, we discovered that the Ryzen 7 9700X performs very similarly to its predecessor in most tasks, including multi-threaded performance. In our multi-threaded performance ranking, the 9700X was 7% faster than the 7700X. However, with PBO, that margin increased significantly to 22% in favor of the 9700X.'

    I don't get this logic. I mean, it's great saying the 9700x with PBO is 22% ahead of it's previous gen model without PBO, and wow that's a big gap. But when PBO is enabled on the 7700x, what's the delta then? Back to 7%? It's not a fair comparison, and not enough to justify the mostly MEH Zen 5 CPU's and their maligned uplift from last gen.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    The point was to demonstrate what adding power does to the 9700X and 9600X. It wasn't to point out how much faster the 9700X is vs the 7700X, with and without PBO.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    A 9700X with a higher TDP sounds like the kind of thing that AMD would call a 9800X and sell for more money.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    The article said:
    For example, in Cinebench 2024, we discovered that the 9700X performed 13% faster in the multi-threaded benchmark when we enabled Precision Boost Overdrive.
    Yes, but the only other examples which will demonstrate such gains are also heavily-threaded tasks. The effect on gaming and single-threaded tasks showed PBO to offer negligible benefits. Hence, most users probably won't notice a difference.

    IMO, this would do nothing to address the bigger problems undermining Zen 5, but I suppose it'll be nice for some.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Roland Of Gilead said:
    But when PBO is enabled on the 7700x, what's the delta then? Back to 7%?
    No, certainly not. Enabling PBO on the 7700X only increased its Cinebench (MT) scores by a meager 2.5%!

    One of Ryzen 9000's selling points is that it's much better at boosting, due to its intrinsic efficiency improvements.

    Roland Of Gilead said:
    It's not a fair comparison, and not enough to justify the mostly MEH Zen 5 CPU's and their maligned uplift from last gen.
    In a way it's kind of fair, since they're using 9700X + PBO to approximate 9700X @ 105W, which is the same TDP the old 7700X had. Granted, the 9700X can use much more than 105 W under PBO, but going to 105 W probably gives you most of the gains to be had.
    Reply
  • Roland Of Gilead
    bit_user said:
    In a way it's kind of fair, since they're using 9700X + PBO to approximate 9700X @ 105W,
    Yeah, I see your point. 2.5% isn't much. I though it would be a bit more.
    Reply
  • Notton
    AMD should have released these as the 9600 and 9700. Direct upgrades for the respective 7600 and 7700 65W parts
    Instead, they chose to shoot themselves in the foot.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Giroro said:
    A 9700X with a higher TDP sounds like the kind of thing that AMD would call a 9800X and sell for more money.
    Considering that they did have 3700x and 3800x... that sound more likely thing to happen!
    Not all chips benefit from 105w... But if they bin chips that can actully get some benefits from higher wattage and sell those as 9800x... Then this rumour sounds more plausible!
    All in all 105w does not make 9700x much faster. Couple of persents with huge ingrease in power usage!
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Notton said:
    AMD should have released these as the 9600 and 9700. Direct upgrades for the respective 7600 and 7700 65W parts
    Instead, they chose to shoot themselves in the foot.

    AMD will release 9700 and 9600 later! When they collect enough chips that are not good enough for being 9700x and 9600x! There always are chips that are weaker, so we just have to wait maybe half a year and AMD will release those low cost low quality parts. Just like they have done with each and every release!
    Reply
  • logainofhades
    Zen 5 unfortunately is still a flop, for regular desktop users. Server side should be awesome, though. Hopefully the rumored cache improvements will make the upcoming x3d chips worth purchasing, for gamers.
    Reply