AMD Ryzen 9 7900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Is it Worth the Upgrade?

AMDs Zen 4 CPUs in the form of Ryzen 7000 Series are some of the best processors in the market right now. The Ryzen 9 7950X is a multi-core beast that can shred multithreaded applications with ease. But its smaller comrade, the Ryzen 7 7900X is one of the best overall CPUs for gaming, video rendering, and other high computational tasks. This of course continues the legacy of the previous gen Ryzen 5000 Series of CPUs. If you currently rock a Ryzen 9 5900X and are looking to upgrade to the latest AM5 platform, especially the 7900X, then you will want to know the performance difference between the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X. So, in this guide, we made a thorough AMD Ryzen 9 7900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X comparison.

We will take a look at their basic specifications, compare their application and gaming performance against some of the competition from both Intel and AMD CPUs. In the process, we will also take a look at their clock speeds, power consumption, and CPU temperatures. If you are looking to purchase a new CPU, then we hope that this guide could help you make a better buying decision.

A Brief Note on AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

It was a time during which AMD is dominating the productivity and gaming market (especially the entry-level and mid-level systems). AMD launched the Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs in November 2020. Of all the processors in the line-up, the Ryzen 9 5950X was the top-of-the-line CPU but the one that most tech enthusiasts were excited for was the Ryzen 9 5900X.

Today, the core count number are all over the place. But back when AMD released the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, a consumer grade 12 core CPU with a $549 price tag and the performance it offered, was just unthinkable.

Based on the updated Zen 3 Architecture, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X has 12 cores and 24 threads and was manufactured using TSMC’s 7 nm process node.

The clock frequencies of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X are 3.7 GHz base clock and 4.8 GHz boost clock. The TDP of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is 105 Watts. There is no integrated graphics. So, you have to pair a graphics card to even start the system.

Important Features of Ryzen 9 5900X

• 12 Cores 24 Threads
• Zen 3 Architecture
• AM4 Socket
• Supports only DDR4 Memory
• Cache: L2 is 512 KB per core (Total 6 MB) and L3 is 32 MB per CCD (Total 64 MB)
• Total 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes (4 of them are reserved for chipset)
• No Integrated Graphics
• TDP is 65 Watts
• Manufacturing Node is TSMC 7 nm for both CCD and IOD

A Brief Note on AMD Ryzen 9 7900X

While the AMD Ryzen 9 7950 is a $699 top-of-the-line CPU in the AMD Ryzen 7000 Series, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is $150 less and looks like the most value-oriented processor.

Even though Intel and Apple started designing processors using a hybrid architecture, AMD struck with their tried-and-tested “all powerful cores” for their Zen 4 based Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs. Specifically, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X has 12 cores and 24 threads.

Speaking of Zen 4, AMD completely revamped the architecture with Zen 4 that has 13% better IPC performance than previous generation architecture. With this new architecture, AMD had to let go of their popular AM4 socket and bring in a new AM5 Socket.

Another thing AMD is popular is for their “Chiplet” designs. In the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, the CPU consists of 3 chiplets, two of them are the Core Complex Dies (CCD) with 6 cores each and one Input – Output Die (IOD).

Under the hood, each CCD consists of 8 CPU Cores. But in case of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, AMD disables two cores in each CCD. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X has the same CCDs but utilizes all the 8 CPU Cores per CCD.

In order to keep the cost down, AMD designed the CCD using TSMC 5 nm node and the IOD using TSMC 6 nm node.

There are some big changes in terms of memory a well. Unlike Intel’s 13^th Gen CPUs that support both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, AMD made their Zen 4 CPUs compatible with only DDR5 memory.

Coming to the L2 Cache of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, it has L2 Cache of 1 MB per core. So, this makes the total L2 Cache of AMD Ryzen 9 7900X at 12 MB (12 * 1 MB). In terms of L3 Cache, AMD divided this into two sections based on the Core Complex Dies i.e., each CCD Module gets 32 MB of L3 Cache. So, the total L3 Cache of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is 64 MB (1 * 32 MB).

Important Specifications of AMD Ryzen 9 7900X

• 12 Cores 24 Threads
• AM5 Socket
• Supports only DDR5 Memory
• Cache: L2 is 1 MB per core (Total 12 MB) and L3 is 32 MB per CCD (Total 64 MB)
• Total 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (4 of them are reserved for chipset)
• RDNA2 based Integrated Graphics (base clock of 0.4 GHz and boost clock of 2.2 GHz)
• TDP is 170 Watts
• Manufacturing Node is TSMC 5 nm for CCD and TSMC 6 nm for IOD

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: Specifications

In the following table, we made a side-by-side list of all the essential specifications of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X.

		AMD Ryzen 9 7900X	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Cores (Threads)		12 (24)	12 (24)
Base Clock Rate		4.7 GHz	3.7 GHz
Turbo Clock Rate		5.6 GHz	4.8 GHz
Cache	L2	12 MB (1 MB per Core)	6 MB (512 KB per Core)
	L3	64 MB (32 MB per CCD)	64 MB (32 MB per CCD)
Power		TDP 170 Watts	TDP 105 Watts
Process Technology	Core Complex Die	TSMC 5 nm	TSMC 7 nm
	Input Output Die	TSMC 6 nm
Socket		AM5 (LGA)	AM4
Code Name (Architecture)		Zen 4	Zen 3
PCIe Lanes		Total 28 PCIe 5.0 Lanes of which 24 are available for Motherboard Manufacturers and 4 are reserved for Chipset	Total 24 PCIe 4.0 Lanes of which 20 are available for Motherboard Manufacturers and 4 are reserved for Chipset
Memory Support	DDR4	—	Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s
	DDR5	Up to DDR5 5200 MT/s	—
Integrated Graphics		AMD RDNA2 GPU (Base Clock 0.4 GHz and Boost Clock 2.2 GHz)	None
Price		MSRP $549	MSRP $549

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: Performance

Let us now compare the performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU against the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X.

Test System

Before we begin, here is a quick look at our Intel and AMD test systems.

Application Benchmarks

Cinebench R23 Multi-Core (Higher is Better)

Let us start with the most popular benchmark tool, the Cinebench R23. After the 10-minute multicore loop test, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X got a score of just over 29000 points while the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X got just under 23000 points.

So, if you compare the performance of AMD Ryzen 9 7900Xand AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, then the former boasts a 26% performance improvement.

Cinebench R23 Single-Core (Higher is Better)

Coming to the single core performance in the Cinebench R23, there is no change in the story. In this test, the 7900X got a score of just over 2000 while the 5900X couldn’t get past 1600. The single-core performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is 26% better than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X.

PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Multi-Threaded/Overall (Higher is Better)

Next, we have another popular benchmark tool from PassMark, the CPU Mark. The following results show the overall or multi-threaded CPU Mark Score of all the processors in this test. The 7900X leads the chart with a score of just under 53000 while the 5900X could only get 41300.

In this test, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X shows a 27% performance boast over the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X.

PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Single-Threaded (Higher is Better)

Coming to the single threaded performance in CPU Mark, the story continues as the Zen 4 based AMD Ryzen 9 7900X shows its dominance. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X beats the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X by roughly 21%. What’s not surprising is the dominance of 13700K over 7900X.

Blender Open Data Render Time (Lower is Better)

Another popular open-source tool is Blender. For the next couple of tests, we will see the render times and number of samples per minute in Blender version 3.4. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X took 30 seconds over 7 minutes while the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X took just under 10 minutes. So, a good 2-1/2 minutes difference.

Blender Samples Per Minute (Higher is Better)

The results for number of samples in a minute for Blender Render is also very similar to the render time results where the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X has a good lead over the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X. Here you can see the samples per minute score across the three test scenes: monster, junkshop, and classroom. The 7900X could easily push more than 460 samples while the 5900X could only get 340.

Adobe Photoshop 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)

The Adobe suite has a couple of important tools that many creators and artists’ use. We will start with the Adobe Photoshop 2022. It has a built-in Puget System Standard Benchmark.

If you look at the overall scores, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X has a significant lead over the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X where the former got 1543 while the latter only got 1243.

Adobe Premier Pro 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)

Next application in the Adobe suite is the Premier Pro 2022. The performance gap between the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is about 18% in favor of the former. In both the Adobe tests, the 7900X shows a good lead over 5900X but the Intel Core i7 13700K is too good for 7900X.

7-Zip File Manager Compression (Higher is Better)

One of the popular and widely used open-source applications is the 7-Zip File Manager. It helps in archiving files. For this test, we are performing the built-in benchmark feature. Here is the result in million instructions per second (MIPS) for compressing using a standards 32 MB dictionary size and 10 passes. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X managed over 133k MIPS while the Ryzen 9 5900X could only get slightly over 100K.

7-Zip File Manager Decompression (Higher is Better)

In decompression, the AMD Ryzen CPUs dominate the charts with AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and Ryzen 9 5900X right at the top.

But between the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, the former boasts a 22% performance gain.

Chromium Code Compilation Time (Lower is Better)

Developers working on large projects need a stable multi-threaded system with a powerful CPU. So, we tested the code compilation performance by taking the open-source Chromium project code.

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X took roughly 16 minutes more than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X to finish the compilation.

Corona 1.3 Render Time (Lower is Better)

The last “application” benchmark is the Corona 1.3, which is a high-quality shading engine for production rendering. Let us now see the rendering time of different Intel and AMD CPUs.

While the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X leads the chart and finished the render in just 50 seconds, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X took 60 seconds.

Gaming Benchmarks

Let us move to some gaming performance. We tested some popular titles at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 (1080p). To keep things CPU bound, we didn’t play any games in higher resolution as the GPU will dominate the performance at those resolutions. We are running all the games in DirectX 12 with Ray Tracing and DLSS off.

Far Cry 6

• Resolution: 1920 × 1080
• DirectX 12
• Game Setting: Ultra
• DirectX Raytracing: Off

The first game is Far Cry 6. Here, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X struggles to go past 150 fps while the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X couldn’t even go past the 125 fps mark. Here are the rounded off average frames and also 1% low fps.

Cyberpunk 2077

• Resolution: 1920 × 1080
• DirectX 12
• Game Setting: Ultra
• Texture: High
• Ray Tracing: Off
• DLSS: Off

Next, we have another popular title, Cyberpunk 2077. In this game, both the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X perform similarly but sadly they couldn’t go past 130 fps.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

• Resolution: 1920 × 1080
• DirectX 12
• Game Setting: High
• DLSS: Off

Last but not least, we tested the Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X put up some fight but ultimately fall short of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X.

Looking at all these gaming numbers, we can clearly say that the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is one of the best gaming CPU out there.

Clock Speed

We ran the AIDA64 Stress Test for 10 minutes and here are the maximum frequency and average frequency of all cores.

CPU Temperature

During the same AIDA64 Stress Test, we monitored the CPU Temperatures with Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler. Here are the CPU temps for your reference. When we compare the CPU temperatures of 7900X and 5900X, there are very similar and also a lot cooler than some of the Intel CPUs.

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Power Consumption

During the Blender render, we measured the CPU Package Power Draw using the HWiNFO tool. The following table consists of the peak CPU Package Power Draw as reported by HWiNFO. With an increase in the TDP number, it is no surprise that the 7900X draws over 200W while the 5900X hovers around 135W.

Is it Worth the Upgrade from AMD Ryzen 9 5900X to AMD Ryzen 9 7900X?

Both the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X have a price tag of $549. But you can clearly see the difference in performance in terms of both productivity and gaming.

If you own the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, then you know that you cannot buy the Ryzen 9 7900X and use it as a drop in replacement. They have different architectures but importantly, they have different sockets.

That said, if you are ready to invest in the AM5 platform with new DDR5 Memory and productivity is your main workload, then the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a very good CPU.

However, the story is different in gaming. From the tests, we saw that the gaming performance of both the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X have very similar performance. So, if your primary workload is gaming, then you won’t notice much difference, at least in CPU bound games.

If you are looking for a strictly gaming CPU and want the AM5 experience, then the Ryzen 7 7700X or the Ryzen 5 7600X seem like a better and certainly cheaper alternatives.