AMD has followed a policy of power efficiency since the introduction of the Ryzen processors in 2017. The Ryzen 7000 family deviated from this policy with higher TDPs and PPTs than preceding lineups, but the chipmaker managed to one-up Intel in the efficiency department (by a long margin) either way. The upcoming Ryzen 9000 CPUs will prefer power efficiency over performance. According to a report from WCCFTech, the Ryzen 9000 chips won’t ship with Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) enabled by default.
The Ryzen 7000 CPUs are the hottest Ryzen chips, partly due to the transistor density (TSMC N5), but also due to the higher power limits. AMD even had to officially confirm that these parts were designed to run at 95C. Luckily, the same won’t be the case with the upcoming Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” family of processors.
The report from WCCFTech claims that the Ryzen 9 9950X (Granite Ridge flagship) will consume a maximum of 190W, down from 230W on the 7950X and 253W on Intel’s upcoming 15900K/Core Ultra 9 285K (Arrow Lake-S).
The Ryzen 9 9950X will be 35% faster than the 7950X, drawing 25% less power, and that too in a compute-intensive workload like Cinebench R23. The Zen 5 desktop flagship also one-ups the Core i9-14900KS which sips up to 300W of power in the same benchmark.
Like existing Ryzen processors, the 9950X and its siblings will support PBO, but it’s only recommended for multi-threaded workloads where all the threads are utilized. Enabling PBO enhances the boost clock residency, but worsens efficiency as the voltage and power limits are raised. The thermals will be similar to the Ryzen 7000 parts (in this state), somewhere in the 90-95C range. Most users are, therefore, better off tweaking the curve optimizer.
AMD’s Ryzen 9000 processors are scheduled to launch on the 31st of July, likely at lower prices than the Ryzen 7000 family. They are fully compatible with 600-series motherboards, including the B620, B650, B650X, X670, and X670E. The 700 series motherboards are expected to launch in the fall.
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