AMD confirms Ryzen 9000 CPU series pricing: 9950X starts at $649

In summary: AMD’s new Zen 5 CPUs have been officially announced with launch-day MSRPs for the Ryzen 9000 series processors. While some prices are higher than anticipated, all Zen 5 chips are priced lower than their Zen 4 predecessors at launch. The performance improvements and cost comparisons to current Ryzen 7000 chips will be closely monitored.

The flagship Ryzen 9 9950X, featuring 16 cores, 32 threads, a max boost clock of 5.7GHz, and 80 MB of cache, starts at $649. The Ryzen 9 9900X, a 12-core, 24-thread, 5.6 GHz chip with 76 MB of cache, launches at $499. Both mid-range Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs are priced at $359 and $279, respectively, with the latter two CPUs shipping on August 15.

AMD Ryzen 9000 Series processors are ready to deliver world-class gaming and creator performance.

Available Aug 8:
• Ryzen 7 9700X
• Ryzen 5 9600X

Available Aug 15:
• Ryzen 9 9950X
• Ryzen 9 9900X pic.twitter.com/L9YOAyKmHg

– AMD Ryzen (@AMDRyzen) August 6, 2024

AMD claims that Zen 5 offers a 16% IPC performance improvement over Zen 4 and a 14% general performance advantage over 14th-generation Intel chips. Independent reviews are currently evaluating these claims.

Competition from Zen 4 remains strong in the short term, as Ryzen 7000 CPUs are available at lower prices until existing stock is depleted. The Ryzen 7950X, 7900X, 7700X, and 7600X are currently priced at $522, $358, $286, and under $200, respectively.