AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Processor Review: Unleashing 6-Core Power for Gaming and Content Creation

I’ll be honest, this thing is a dumpster fire, and it’s time we all face the reality of how terrible it is. After reviewing the Ryzen 7 9700X, which left us utterly disappointed, it’s hard not to have some degree of optimism, no matter how brief. So, let’s get this over with and talk about the specifications and benchmark data for the Ryzen 5 9600X.

This thing is a 6-core, 12-thread processor that clocks at 5.4 GHz, 100 MHz higher than the 7600X. But hey, that’s not exactly impressive when you consider the price tag. At $280, the 9600X is a whopping 40% more expensive than the current asking price of the 7600X, which is a really nice processor at that price. The 9600X, on the other hand, could very easily be a dead on arrival.

Before we dive into the benchmarks, I want to address something that’s been bothering me – the notion that the 9700X is power-efficient compared to the 7700X. Yeah, the 7700X was never a power-hungry part to begin with, but let’s be real, the 9700X isn’t exactly efficient either. It’s 7% faster, but at the same power level, and that’s just not worth it.

Let’s move on to the benchmarks, shall we? Running Cinebench, we see that the 9600X is 7% faster than the 7600X. Now, that’s not a huge jump, but hey, at least it’s something. Unfortunately, older parts like the Core i5-12600K are still faster, so…

And that’s not even mentioning the platform costs, which are astronomical. You’d be much better off getting the 7700X or, for $100 more, the 7800X3D. At least then you’d get a processor that’s worth your hard-earned cash.

What we learned is that the 9600X is a bad product. It’s slower than its predecessor, and it costs 40% more. That’s just unacceptable. Zen 5, the architecture that powers the 9600X, has been a major letdown. I mean, come on, AMD – what happened to the old you? You used to push the boundaries of innovation, and now you’re just phoning it in.

In the end, I’m not going to waste my time on PBO data, because, let’s be real, it’s just not going to make a difference. This processor is a dumpster fire, and it needs to be taken out back and put out of its misery.