AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8-Core Processor, Radeon Graphics, 8 Core, 16 Thread, 65W, AM5 40MB - Silver

Despite what you can see in internet reviews, this is a great CPU with a great flexibility, you can set it by default in 65W mode for a balanced performance in every day tasks usage and low cost energy bill that is very important for some people, or unlock the 105W option for more demanding tasks and have a very good performance, paring this CPU with a good GPU and you will be happy with the end result, in conclusion, not every body needs to go with a RYZEN 3D CPU for good performance, this is a great long run cost/performance CPU in my humble opinion. (Had build two PCs with this CPU for work and gaming, very happy so far)

Unlike the mobile products introduced at the same time with the Zen 5 architecture, which feature heterogeneous big and small cores, updated integrated GPU architecture, and integrated NPU among other flashy features, the new Ryzen 9000 desktop series does not have major architectural changes compared to the previous generation. Instead, it achieves higher frequencies and improved performance through microarchitectural refinements and new manufacturing processes, while also optimizing heat control and power efficiency within the existing framework of core count and expandability. In terms of performance, the single-core performance this time unsurprisingly surpasses Intel’s 13th/14th generation Core processors, which are its competitors. The advantage further amplifies in environments that can efficiently utilize the AVX-512 instruction set. In the gaming scenarios we tested, the Ryzen 7 9700X, even with its default 65W TDP configuration, showed sufficient performance release. For games where the bottleneck is not heavily dependent on memory and cache, its performance is almost on par with the Core i7-14700K, although the latter consumes significantly more power and generates more heat. However, the Ryzen 7 9700X, with only eight cores, falls short in rendering and encoding scenarios that can fully utilize multiple cores. Even when the Ryzen 7 9700X is pushed to a TDP of 105W or higher, thus achieving an average performance boost of around 8% and a maximum of about 15% compared to the default 65W setting in these scenarios, it still cannot match the performance of the Core i7-14700K, which houses 8P (performance) cores and 12E (efficiency) cores and has had its default performance restrained. In this domain, the gap between the two products is such that they could hardly be considered direct competitors. In terms of heat control, this generation also shows noticeable improvements. Even when switching to higher PBO/TDP settings, the temperature limit is often not the first to be hit in many full-core, fully open scenarios. This gives users more flexibility in building systems with limited cooling conditions or manually optimizing fan speed control curves. In conclusion, the strength of the Ryzen 7 9700X lies in its commendable gaming performance and excellent power efficiency based on it. Its weaknesses are in multi-core performance and games sensitive to memory/cache performance. For these shortcomings, AMD plans to address them with the upcoming 12 and 16-core Ryzen 9 9900X/9950X and the “X3D” series with 3D V-Cache. Although the Intel Core i7-14700K remains stronger in absolute performance and versatility, its recent quality issues have caused many potential users to reconsider, thus providing more market space for the entire Ryzen 9000 series, including the Ryzen 7 9700X.

If you're building a new Gaming PC this is a GREAT choice. I used this ad part of an upgrade from an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X. It Runs cool, doesn't burn itself out, and is a pretty straight forward item to install. I'm extremely pleased with the results at this price point.