First AMD Ryzen 7 9700X reviews point to underwhelming performance

The AMD Ryzen 9000 series was initially planned to launch on July 31, but it eventually got delayed to today, August 8. However, not all the announced desktop Zen 5 processors are available to purchase yet. Among the four, the Ryzen 5 9500X and Ryzen 7 9700X can be purchased now, while the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X are planned to be released on August 15.

Nonetheless, now that the Zen 5 desktop processor benchmarks are out, we can get a proper idea of what the Ryzen 9000 series brings to the table. The good news is that the new processors are cheaper than the launch price of their predecessors. As for the not-so-good news, the first reviews of the Ryzen 7 9700X, in particular, are pointing to a disappointing performance.

Hardware Unboxed has put the current top-end Zen 5 CPU to the test, and based on the overall benchmark results, the new Ryzen 7 9700X is a bit underwhelming. Yes, it does win in terms of efficiency when compared to the Ryzen 7 7700X, but the performance gains aren't as high as initially expected.

As the reviewer notes, the single-core performance is 10% better, but multi-core performance is only 2% faster in Cinebench. When it comes to content creation workloads, the new Ryzen 7 9700X offers 3% higher performance than the 7700X in Photoshop and is 6% faster in Premiere Pro.

Regarding gaming performance, it's only slightly faster than the Ryzen 7 7700X when benchmarked with the Nvidia RTX 4090. In some games and applications, the Ryzen 7 9700X was slower. So even though the newer processor brings Zen 5 architecture and is comparatively cheaper, it's not worth upgrading to just yet.

One thing to note is that Gamers Nexus thinks that the Ryzen 7 9700X is a wasted opportunity for AMD when it comes to the Zen 5 desktop debut. Moreover, Gamer Nexus's benchmark points to similar results, reaffirming that this is how the processor is meant to perform.

If you have a system that is a few generations old and want to upgrade, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a better option. With deals, it even falls near the $359 launch price of the Ryzen 7 9700X (curr. $366.83 on Amazon).