AMD Ryzen 5 9600X

The Ryzen 5 9600X is a mid-range desktop CPU of the Granite Ridge product family that features 6 Zen 5 cores (12 threads) running at 3.9 GHz to 5.4 GHz, PCIe 5 support and a basic iGPU. The Ryzen was launched in June 2024, with sales slated to start some time in August.

Architecture and Features

Just like Strix Point APUs, Granite Ridge processors make use of the new Zen 5 microarchitecture. However, there are no efficient cores here; all of 9600X's cores are full Zen 5 cores. Furthermore, Granite Ridge is a multi-die design with only the CPU cores produced using a fairly modern 4 nm TSMC process. Strix Point processors are a single-die design, from what we know.

According to AMD, Zen 5 delivers a 16% IPC improvement over Zen 4 thanks to branch prediction improvements and other refinements.

Elsewhere, the 9600X has 32 MB of L3 cache and 24 direct PCIe 5 lanes (3.93 GB/s throughput per lane) with up to 12 additional PCIe 4 lanes available depending on the motherboard. It supports DDR5 RAM as fast as 5600 MT/s, ECC memory included - this too depends on the motherboard.

The 9600X is unlocked for overclocking. Naturally, the AM5 socket CPU fully supports Windows 11, 64-bit Windows 10 as well as many Linux distros.

Performance

In our in-house testing, the 9600X delivered multi-thread performance on par with the Intel Core i5-12600K and the octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D chip which is very impressive considering the price difference.

Graphics

The Radeon 610M comes equipped with just 128 unified shaders running at up to 2,200 MHz. Its gaming performance is slated to be extremely low and only just sufficient for pre-2020 games in resolutions such as 1024x768.

Power consumption

The CPU cores are built with TSMC's N4P process for good, as of mid 2024, power efficiency. (Apple is the leader in this regard with the second-generation 3 nm process.)

The Ryzen 5's long-term TDP is 65 W. It'll probably consume at least 100 W when under heavy short-term loads. If overclocked, the power consumption figures will increase significantly.

Series	AMD Granite Ridge (Zen 5, AM5)
Codename	Granite Ridge
Series: Granite Ridge (Zen 5, AM5) Granite Ridge AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 4.3 - 5.7 GHz 16 / 32  64 MB L3 AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4 - 5.6 GHz 12 / 24  64 MB L3 AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 3.8 - 5.5 GHz 8 / 16  32 MB L3 AMD Ryzen 5 9600X « 3.9 - 5.4 GHz 6 / 12  32 MB L3
Clock Rate	3900 - 5400 MHz
Level 2 Cache	6 MB
Level 3 Cache	32 MB
Number of Cores / Threads	6 / 12 6 x 5.4 GHz AMD Zen 5
Power Consumption (TDP = Thermal Design Power)	65 Watt
Manufacturing Technology	4 nm & 6 nm
Max. Temperature	95 °C
Socket	AM5
Features	DDR5-5600 RAM, PCIe 5 + PCIe 4, SMT, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX512, FMA3, MMX (+), SHA, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A
GPU	( - 2200 MHz)
64 Bit	64 Bit support
Architecture	x86
Announcement Date	06/02/2024
Product Link (external)	www.amd.com

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