Unleash Budget-Friendly Performance: AMD’s Affordable Zen 5 Chip Revolutionizes Budget PC Builds

AMD Quietly Introduces Ryzen 5 9600 Non-X Variant, Brings Back Wraith Stealth Cooler

At CES 2025, AMD has announced a new Ryzen 5 9600 processor, a slightly slower version of the already existing Ryzen 5 9600X. This new chip drops the ‘X’ from the name and is expected to be a more affordable option for those looking to build a budget-friendly PC.

What’s the Difference?

The Ryzen 9600 is identical to the 9600X in terms of its cores and cache (6-core, 12-thread chip). The only difference is a slightly reduced clock speed. The base clock speed is reduced from 3.9GHz to 3.8GHz, and the boost speed is reduced from 5.4GHz to 5.2GHz. This processor can still be overclocked, but don’t expect as much room to push clocks as with the 9600X.

Cooler Included

The Ryzen 9600 will come with a Wraith Stealth cooler, saving PC builders a bit of money as they won’t need to buy a separate CPU cooling solution. This is a departure from the standard practice of bundling Ryzen chips with a Wraith air cooler.

Pricing and Availability

We don’t yet have a release date or official price for the Ryzen 9600, but we can make some educated guesses based on the pricing of the 9600X. The 9600X launched with an MSRP of $279 / £269.99 / AU$479, so the vanilla Ryzen 9600 could come in at $229 / £219 / AU$399. However, AMD may choose to price it even lower, potentially around $200 or less.

Analysis: Coolly Cheap (with Any Luck)

The Ryzen 9600 is a welcome addition to the Ryzen 9000 range, and we hope AMD doesn’t keep it on the backburner for too long. It’ll be a great option for those looking to build a budget-friendly PC, especially with the new more affordable B840 and B850 AM5 motherboards that also launched at CES 2025.

Conclusion

The Ryzen 9600 is a solid choice for those looking for a budget-friendly processor with a decent cooler included. We’ll be keeping an eye out for more information on pricing and availability, and we’re excited to see how this new chip performs in the real world.