The new Ryzen 9000 CPUs show that AMD is playing it safe

2024 is shaping up to be an excellent year if you’re on the hunt for the best new CPU. We’re expecting Intel to release their 15th-gen Arrow Lake CPUs later this year, but AMD looks like they’re already prepared for that move. At Computex 2024, Team Red unveiled the all-new “Zen 5” Ryzen 9000 series. The new desktop CPUs will feature a 16% boost in IPC, a potentially cheaper price, and the same core count as the Ryzen 7000 series.

A lot of people are considering these chips to put together the best gaming PC, but I don’t think that’s the right call. The Ryzen 9000 series is relatively boring, and it seems as if they are boring by design. For the first time in a while, AMD is playing it safe. Let’s take a deeper look at this situation and what it means for you.

What’s new with the Ryzen 9000 series?

Honestly, not a lot

The Ryzen 9000 series is based on the new “Zen 5” architecture (4nm process). We’re expecting a potential release date of July 31st, and as usual, there will be four SKUs to start with. The major story is that there’s a 16% improvement in IPC, which will obviously translate well to gaming and productivity performance.

However, that’s about it. These new chips will have the same core counts and frequencies as their Ryzen 7000 predecessors. AMD is also announcing the new X870 and X870E boards, and it looks like USB 4.0 and PCIe 5 will be standard on all of them.

The 16% IPC improvement should not be ignored, but those who were expecting a big upgrade in core clocks might be a bit disappointed. There is some good news though: you don’t actually need a new motherboard, as existing AM5 boards will still work. However, if you already have one of those boards, I’d save it for the eventual “X3D” chips.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is still superior for gaming

AMD admits this themselves

3D V-cache is absolutely phenomenal for gaming, and it has allowed AMD to make the best gaming processor on the market today: the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. In a lot of games, this chip beats or matches more expensive CPUs like the Ryzen 9 7950X or Core i9 14900K. It’s powerful, efficient, and offers incredible value for the money. In fact, it’s almost too good.

Tom’s Hardware talked to AMD’s Senior Technical Marketing Manager, Donny Wolgriski, to confirm that Ryzen 9000 won’t take the gaming crown from the 7800X3D. To some of you, that may come as a surprise, but this was to be expected. When the Ryzen 7000 was released, the 5800X3D still managed to keep up with the Ryzen 7 7600X and the Ryzen 7 7700X.

The statement itself might sound shocking, but it just goes to show how powerful 3D V-Cache is for gaming. AMD’s Ryzen 9 9700X should not be too far behind the 7800X3D, and you can easily expect it to beat it in some games. But, the fact that AMD is so open about this fact all but confirms that a Ryzen 9000 “X3D” chip will be coming sooner rather than later.

Ryzen 9000X3D chips are coming soon

The ultimate chess move

According to a report from Club386, AMD is targeting a September window for the Ryzen 9000X3D chips, right alongside the new X870E chipset. If this is true, that puts the X3D launch right next to Intel’s 15th-Gen Arrow Lake launch. This is all speculation, but according to Tom’s Hardware, AMD has already updated their 3D V-Cache optimizer driver. The last time they updated this driver was for the launch of the 7000X3D chips.

On top of that, AMD is revamping its 3D V-Cache and improving it further for the “Zen 5” CPUs. This spells a bit of trouble for Intel, as they have struggled to compete with X3D chips in the past. There are rumors that Intel is working on its “stacked cache,” a technology that may be able to compete with 3D V-Cache. That could be the saving grace for Intel, but we’re unsure whether we’ll see this with the upcoming 15th-Gen Arrow Lake processors.

So, what does all this mean? Well, you should wait if you want to buy a high-end CPU for gaming. The standard Ryzen 9000 series will still be great, but if gaming is your only focus, I’d wait for the X3D chips. As much as I want Intel to compete with AMD right now, I think people will prefer AMD this year as they are still supporting the older AM5 socket.

Related

Why my Zen 3 to Zen 5 upgrade will have nothing to do with the new Ryzen 9000 CPUs

The new Ryzen 9000 chips look decent but I’m saving an upgrade for something better

The waiting game

Processor battles are always fun, but much less so if you get caught up in the excitement and buy the wrong CPU. With Ryzen 9000, AMD is definitely playing it safe. They know people are going to hop on the Ryzen 9000 train, but an even bigger number of people will move to AMD if Ryzen 9000X3D manages to best Arrow Lake in games. We’re in for quite a battle this year, and it just further establishes that patience is key.