Micro Center has
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core Granite Ridge AM5 4.40GHz Unlocked Desktop Processor (100-100000662WO, Heatsink not included) on sale for
$359.99. Select free store pickup where available.
Thanks to community member
RyzenPrime for finding this deal.
Note: Availability for store pickup may vary by location.
Specs & Features:
- 12 Cores and 24 processing threads, based on AMD "Zen 5" architecture
- 5.6 GHz Max Boost, unlocked for overclocking, 76 MB cache, DDR5-5600 support
- For the state-of-the-art Socket AM5 platform, can support PCIe 5.0 on select motherboards
- Heatsink not included
Top Comments
Now the reason for the price is due to gaming, there's a stigma around amd 12 core processors because of 1 processor that's bad in this regards the 7900x3d. The reason is because it's 2x ccd which each have 6 cores. Meaning if you run that thing in 12 core mode you lose out on "most" of the benefits of x3d, so you paid more for less gaming performance.
However. This 9900x is not an x3d processors and does not have this issue. The only thing different from the 7900x and 9900x that matters is that the 7900x took 75nanoseconds to talk to each ccd. The 9900x however takes 200nanoseconds. But here's the thing. They made up for it in other improvements to the processor that actually allows you to gain massive performance when you use both ccd in games at 1080p and 4k high framerates. This is due to an improvement they made that is obvious when comparing a 1x ccd 7900x vs 9900x.
You can see that they really made the 9000 series a beast in gaming they fixed every thing that was wrong in an already great 7000 series... and even gamers nexus is reporting on the rumor of x3d versions 9950x and 9900x potentially having double the x3d... this was in a prototype 5000 series .. and gamers nexus said they try not to report on rumors that are likely not possible. but they did an interview and showed that exact 5000 series prototype... so they know its possible...but they aren't sure if it will be done because the price would be giant having both ccd be x3d.
So every single amd 9000 processor including this 9900x is solid.
Now if you want to compare an x3d processor to it, then you're wasting your time. The 9800x3d beats the pants off the 9950x simply because of the x3d cache, so just know that it's gonna be anywhere from 5% to 25% less frames in cpu bound games. The outliers being something like bouldars gate 3 which is horribly unoptimized on the cpu side, I'm sure they'll fix that one day or in the sequel.
So yeah. Get the 9900x it's the best bang for buck. You don't even have to worry about which ccd your games run on. Even turning off the core that windows prefers will barely affect performance on these awesome processors.
also one last note... not every game is going to be cpu bound for you, there's so many scenarios where even a 9600x would suffice due to the gpu doing all the work.
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about 9% single core performance improvement with 50W more energy efficiency.
What do you think?
Personally if I were putting together a new rig this is the proc that can suffice for most workloads including gaming. I mean w/ this proc you are likely bound by the GPU not the CPU anyways. If you run 4k high count and all the fancy settings on, then by all means spend.
So the answer it is not CLEAR cut all X-series is not for gaming because this X-series has 2x the L3 cache of any other Ryzen out there and this processor can handle more computation for less money.
I use the 9900X for video work. Finally scrub through footage without stutter 🙌.
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Now the reason for the price is due to gaming, there's a stigma around amd 12 core processors because of 1 processor that's bad in this regards the 7900x3d. The reason is because it's 2x ccd which each have 6 cores. Meaning if you run that thing in 12 core mode you lose out on "most" of the benefits of x3d, so you paid more for less gaming performance.
However. This 9900x is not an x3d processors and does not have this issue. The only thing different from the 7900x and 9900x that matters is that the 7900x took 75nanoseconds to talk to each ccd. The 9900x however takes 200nanoseconds. But here's the thing. They made up for it in other improvements to the processor that actually allows you to gain massive performance when you use both ccd in games at 1080p and 4k high framerates. This is due to an improvement they made that is obvious when comparing a 1x ccd 7900x vs 9900x.
You can see that they really made the 9000 series a beast in gaming they fixed every thing that was wrong in an already great 7000 series... and even gamers nexus is reporting on the rumor of x3d versions 9950x and 9900x potentially having double the x3d... this was in a prototype 5000 series .. and gamers nexus said they try not to report on rumors that are likely not possible. but they did an interview and showed that exact 5000 series prototype... so they know its possible...but they aren't sure if it will be done because the price would be giant having both ccd be x3d.
So every single amd 9000 processor including this 9900x is solid.
Now if you want to compare an x3d processor to it, then you're wasting your time. The 9800x3d beats the pants off the 9950x simply because of the x3d cache, so just know that it's gonna be anywhere from 5% to 25% less frames in cpu bound games. The outliers being something like bouldars gate 3 which is horribly unoptimized on the cpu side, I'm sure they'll fix that one day or in the sequel.
So yeah. Get the 9900x it's the best bang for buck. You don't even have to worry about which ccd your games run on. Even turning off the core that windows prefers will barely affect performance on these awesome processors.
also one last note... not every game is going to be cpu bound for you, there's so many scenarios where even a 9600x would suffice due to the gpu doing all the work.
Boss, if you're not doing much with your current CPU why are you wanting to look at something like a 9950x3d?
I'd seriously just keep rocking that 7900x until the next chipset and mobos come out.
about 9% single core performance improvement with 50W more energy efficiency.
What do you think?
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/comp...en-9-9950X [cpubenchmark.net]
Boss, if you're not doing much with your current CPU why are you wanting to look at something like a 9950x3d?
I'd seriously just keep rocking that 7900x until the next chipset and mobos come out.
My comment was just musing about how a 10% uplift isn't that much unless you really need it, but going to the x950 line with 16 cores is a big boost. As it stands, my DaVinci Resolve timelines which used to stutter on my old rig play in real time on the current one and Fooocus AI generation takes about 20 seconds per image, so I'm doing fine.
As for waiting for new chipsets and mobos, that's a bit of a problem because mobos are so freaking expensive now. I have an ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E that I was able to snag an open box from Micro Center for *only* $250 (half-off then, now they're $400 new) which has all the Gen 5 stuff there's little use for and tons of USB 3.0 ports (13!) so having to start over with another spendy mobo doesn't sound like fun. Thus I'm hoping whatever comes along will work with the existing mobo so I can wring more years out of the overall build.
Computers are so expensive now. I used to do full builds for about $1500 INCLUDING GPU. My current rig cost $2500 and that was with lots of discounts, open box, etc. which saved $1000. While I moved from A or B to S-tier because of video editing wants, zoiks at the economics and it's not like this stuff is getting cheaper. Then again, it cost me $320 in 1997 for 64MB (that's MEGA, not giga) of EDO RAM! Now you can get 64GB of DDR5-6000 RAM for $200. 1000 times more capacity and who knows how much faster for 2/3 the price.
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