The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X Review: Zen 5 is Alive
by Gavin Bonshor on August 7, 2024 9:00 AM ESTPower Consumption
Our previous sets of ‘office’ benchmarks have often been a mix of science and synthetics, so this time, we wanted to keep our office and productivity section purely based on real-world performance. We've also incorporated our power testing into this section.
The biggest update to our Office-focused tests for 2024 and beyond includes UL's Procyon software, the successor to PCMark. Procyon benchmarks office performance using Microsoft Office applications, with other web-based benchmarks such as Jetstream and timed runs of compilers, including Linux, PHP, and Node.js.
Below are the settings we have used for each platform:
- DDR5-5600B CL46 - Ryzen 9000
- DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
- DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
Power
The nature of reporting processor power consumption has become, in part, a bit of a nightmare. Historically the peak power consumption of a processor, as purchased, is given by its Thermal Design Power (TDP, or PL1). For many markets, such as embedded processors, that value of TDP still signifies the peak power consumption. For the processors we test at AnandTech, either desktop, notebook, or enterprise, this is not always the case.
Modern high-performance processors implement a feature called Turbo. This allows, usually for a limited time, a processor to go beyond its rated frequency. Exactly how far the processor goes depends on a few factors, such as the Turbo Power Limit (PL2), whether the peak frequency is hard coded, the thermals, and the power delivery. Turbo can sometimes be very aggressive for TDP that are, broadly speaking, applied the same. The difference comes from turbo modes, turbo limits, turbo budgets, and how the processors manage that power balance. These topics are 10000-12000 word articles in their own right, and we’ve got a few articles worth reading on the topic.
- Why Intel Processors Draw More Power Than Expected: TDP and Turbo Explained
- Talking TDP, Turbo and Overclocking: An Interview with Intel Fellow Guy Therien
- Reaching for Turbo: Aligning Perception with AMD’s Frequency Metrics
- Intel’s TDP Shenanigans Hurts Everyone
Regarding peak power consumption, all of AMD's 65 W TDP designated chips fall between 87 and 88 W due to AMD's Package Power Tracking from the CPU socket itself (PPT), which boosts power for more performance. It is misleading regarding what the CPU is pulling power-wise compared to what the TDP states, but there are very few examples of any processor in the modern age following TDP.
Looking at how the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X compares to the previous Ryzen 7 7700, we can see both perform similarly regarding power consumption. Both chips, when loaded up with the Cinebench 2024 multi-threaded test, consistently tread between 88 W (9700X) and 90 W (7700). Power variation within the workload itself is very consistent, with very little differential as the workload progresses through the loop. Between the tests loading, we can see a consistent drop in power to just under 70 W briefly for the Ryzen 7 9700X and around 67 W for the Ryzen 7 7700. Given that both processors are nearly identical (8C/16T at 65 W TDP/88-90 W PPT), aside from the underlying core architecture, we can see striking similarities in power consumption and behavior under an intensive workload, too.
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Khanan - Wednesday, August 7, 2024 - link
M1 is irrelevant as Apple is more or less completely irrelevant to PCs and 100% to servers. And I didn’t talk to you to begin with.schujj07 - Thursday, August 8, 2024 - link
You're right Zen 5 is no where near the M1 in IPC it is actually near M3.mode_13h - Thursday, August 8, 2024 - link
> It performs slightly better than Zen4 or the same in almost everything,> except where AVX512 is used
SPECint Rate-1: a 13.2% improvement is certainly respectable.
If you look at the sub-scores, 548.exchange2_r improves by a whopping 23.2%! I'm quite pleased that gcc improved by 17%.
Given that they didn't increase core count, hardly changed cache sizes, made a fairly small change in the process node, and actually reduced energy consumption (not to mention launch prices), I think it's pretty impressive!
Targon - Friday, August 9, 2024 - link
You and so many other people have missed that because Zen5 has lower TDP ratings by default, and PBO is also disabled by default, you are looking at higher efficiency as the "out of box" experience, but with very little performance increase. If you turn on PBO and also use the additional things, such as with faster RAM, Zen5 starts to show better performance.The Ryzen 9 9950X is the only Zen5 chip that will come with the 170W TDP seen with Zen4, and there will probably be a larger jump in performance as a result. Just wait until next week to see if I am correct.
Khanan - Saturday, August 10, 2024 - link
Meh, I bet you’re referring to games because otherwise your comment makes 0 sense. And with games we need a minimum of 20 games to see the difference and not 5 or less like in here, so you basically got no point at all.Bulat Ziganshin - Wednesday, August 14, 2024 - link
While on the paper 7950x had 170W TDP, really it was closer to 230W, so Zen5 reduced real TDP for the entire linedrajitshnew - Wednesday, August 7, 2024 - link
I really appreciate the limit to the power draw on Intel chips. I use systems for office work, and it is frankly ridiculous to compare a 90W CPU to a 400 W one.Apart from the power draw which is limited by the battery backup, the super high prices of the 400W desktop CPU ecosystem just does not make sense.
If I need that performance I would invest in a HEDT system.
Jorgp2 - Wednesday, August 7, 2024 - link
I don't think you understand what power is.You're comparing the base power of one CPU, to the turbo power of another CPU.
Khanan - Wednesday, August 7, 2024 - link
No, he’s comparing turbo to turbo power, what’s your problem? The 9700X is ~90W peak, Intels was 400W peak, 290W with the new settings.Bulat Ziganshin - Wednesday, August 7, 2024 - link
IMHO the reason why 8-core AMD cpus are compared with top Intel CPUs is that Zen5 are newer and better CPUs. So we want to see whether mid-level Zen5 can outperform top Alderlakes, despite much lower price. It's the standard practice - compare new mid-level cpus with prev-gen tops to see how far we gone.