AMD Ryzen 9000 Processors Have Finally Arrived, Powering a New Generation of Gaming PCs

AMD has launched its Ryzen 9000 series of desktop processors at Computex 2024, finally following up on the Ryzen 9 7900X that launched way back in 2022. These new CPUs are being powered by the next-generation Zen 5 architecture, which AMD claims is, on average, up to 12% faster than the last generation. AMD Ryzen 9000 Series processors will be available in July 2024.

This new generation of desktop processors is led by the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X: A 16-core, 32-thread monster of a processor that has a boost speed up to 5.7GHz. That's going to be an extremely powerful (and expensive) chip, and is going to be perfect for anyone that needs extreme horsepower to get through creative workloads. For most gamers, however, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X are going to be the stars of the show.

This Zen 5 architecture isn't just found in the latest desktop processors, though. It's also the main architecture behind AMD's new laptop processors, which pair Zen 5 with a powerful XDNA 2 NPU for AI PCs. This makes the Ryzen AI 300 laptop chips more than powerful enough for Microsoft's new Copilot+ program, making these the only x86 processors that can power the latest AI PCs until Intel Lunar Lake comes later this year.

Here are the AMD Ryzen 9000 processor specs:

Skipping Right to 9000

On paper, these processors look eerily similar to the AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, but thanks to architectural improvements, AMD is claiming some pretty impressive numbers. Namely, that the Zen 5 architecture featured in these new chips features an on-average 16% increase in IPC (instructions per clock) performance.

Basically what this means is the processor is able to perform more tasks in the same amount of time without necesarrily increasing the amount of cycles the CPU can perform each second. So, if you got an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and a Ryzen 9 9900X and configured them both to have the same clock speed and the same TDP (Thermal Design Power), the new model would still come out on top, thanks to engineering improvements.

This is extremely important when it comes to the best gaming PCs, as PC games are still largely dependent on how much work a few cores can do at once, rather than resorting to adding more cores to improve performance.

And so, in games like Cyberpunk 2077, AMD is claiming that its flagship Ryzen 9 9950X will enjoy a massive 13% improvement over the competing Intel Core i9-14900K, a chip which has long enjoyed leadership in that game. You can be sure I'll be testing that when the CPUs arrive in the lab, though.

This new platform seems to be more power efficient, too. For example, the AMD Ryzen 7900X has a TDP of 170W, while the new 9900X cuts that down to 120W, while maintaining the same max boost clock. In a desktop PC that doesn't use a battery, this doesn't seem like a huge deal, but it really is. Modern CPU design loves to push processors to their thermal limit to maximise performance, and if the Ryzen 9 9900X can reach the same clock speeds with less power, it theoretically means it'll also produce less heat, which just means more performance. But, again, I'll have to wait and see how it performs in the lab.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra