Several weeks ago, AMD has publicly stated that it’s Ryzen 9000 series will not outperform the cache-laden Ryzen 7 7800X3D thanks to its impressive gaming performance, albeit the gap is “not as much as you would expect.” However, the Ryzen 7 9700X, its nearest 8-core counterpart, might get a spec bump to outperform the X3D chip, according to Wccftech.
Ryzen 7 9700X Gets A Power-up?
When announced in Computex 2024 earlier this month, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X comes with a conservative 65W TDP, we mentioned that the lower TDP for the 8-core part should make it especially efficient against Intel’s counterparts. The 65W rating has been the default for Ryzen’s 8-core parts in the Zen 3-based Ryzen 7 5800X, but AMD has since raised the TDP limits for Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 series to facilitate more aggressive boost behavior in exchange for more performance.
From a marketing perspective, however, advertising the Ryzen 9000 simply wouldn’t make sense if the Ryzen 7800X3D outperforms them all in gaming – but you can’t go back and nerf this mighty chip, after all. Hence, the next best option is to raise the power limit, which is said to be 120W once again, like its predecessor. That’s almost double the power given to this chip if this change is indeed true, and this should allow the chip to really stretch its legs in multi-core performance, though beating the 7800X3D remains unlikely as higher TDP limits rarely affect single-core performance.
It’s worth noting that in its current form, the Ryzen 7 9700X has a significantly lower boost clock than its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7700X, due to its power limits. The former is rated at 3.8GHz base clock, whereas the latter chip has a 700MHz higher base clock at 4.5GHz. (The Ryzen 7 7800X3D has a 4.2GHz base clock, for reference.) Raising the TDP should give the chip plenty more headroom for higher all-core clocks, but it’s unclear if changing the spec practically last minute is a viable approach, as it is believed that Ryzen 9000 will launch by July 31st.
Another way for AMD to make a last minute change, potentially, is by introducing a new model altogether. A hypothetical “9700XT” or “9800X” may just be enough to differentiate from the vanilla 9700X, while giving the option for users to pick the higher TDP variant if multi-core performance (on a reasonable budget) is what they’re after.
Pokdepinion: Sounds like launching the “9800X” would be the next best option – there’s a gap in the numbering there, might as well just use it.
