AMD's new Ryzen 9 7950X 'Zen 4' CPU: 16C/32T at up to 5.7GHz for $699

AMD has officially launched its next-gen Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs, as well as a new fleet of next-gen AM5-based X670E, X670, B650E, and B650 motherboards, but man... the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X processor is a Zen 4-powered behemoth.

9

The next-gen flagship Zen 4-powered Ryzen 9 7950X processor is made on TSMC's new 5nm process node with a 6nm IOD, just like the rest of the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs, packing a huge 16 cores and 32 threads that boost up to 5.7GHz. AMD's new Ryzen 9 7950X has 80MB of cache and a 170W TDP, with a price of $699. Not bad considering Intel's flagship Core i9-12900K costs around $550, and the Ryzen 9 7950X bests it.

9

AMD compared its new Ryzen 9 7950X "Zen 4" processor up against its current-gen Ryzen 9 5950X "Zen 3" processor in some gaming and professional benchmarks: where in games like DOTA 2 the new Ryzen 9 7950X is up to 32% faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X, while in Shadow of the Tomb Raider the new Ryzen 9 7950X is up to 35% faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X.

9

The new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor is also compared to Intel's current-gen Core i9-12900K in gaming benchmarks, where it's up to 23% faster in DOTA 2, and up to 14% faster in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. With more cores and threads (16C/32T versus 16C/24T) the Ryzen 9 7950X beats Intel's Core i9-12900K easily.

• Read more: AMD Ryzen 7000 series 'Zen 4' CPUs are official: September 27 launch

We're talking about up to 62% more performance in V-Ray Render, up to 41% more performance in both Cinebench R23 nT and POV-Ray, as well as up to 36% more performance in Blender Render. Intel's current flagship Core i9-12900K gets smashed by the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X for creators who don't want to step up into the more expensive world of AMD's higher-end Ryzen Threadripper PRO series CPUs.

Moving onto professional applications where all those cores and threads get thrashed to the max, the new Zen 4-powered Ryzen 9 7950X is up to a huge 48% faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X in V-Ray Render. POV-Ray is up to 45% faster, Arnold Renderer is up to 37% faster, and Corona Render is up to 32% faster on the new Ryzen 9 7950X.

9

9

AMD also compared its new Ryzen 9 7950X processor up against Intel's current-gen Core i9-12900K processor, where the new Zen 4 flagship CPU is up to 57% faster than Intel's fastest Alder Lake CPU in Chaos V-Ray ray-traced rendering. AMD also compared the performance-per-watt of its new Ryzen 9 7950X processor against Intel's Core i9-12900K, where AMD says the new Zen 4 flagship has up to 47% more performance-per-watt over the Alder Lake champion.

AMD will launch its new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs with the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X processor on September 27.