Which CPU to Choose for a 7900 XT? Ryzen 7 7700 or Ryzen 5 9600X?

[dgianstefani]

Well sorta..... I mean the comparison is because of the same price or there abouts as is the same for the OP, the 7700K was like more then double the price of the 1600X at the time. So it was to see how your purchase was yrs down the track. Honestly I havent and will have to look up reviews on the 7700K/6700K vs 1600X in 2025 to really know.

The difference between the said CPU's he is comparing against since there close in price will be very close to eachother as shown in benchmarks but there both not very old, we will have to see how the 6/12 fairs yrs down the track against the 8/16, my guess is the 7700 will be a little more ahead in the long run increasing its gap but not as much as what the older i5 vs 1600X where, thats my guess anyway.

The comparison you were making was based on a CPU with two extra cores, hence you noticing the similarity with the 9600X/7700. But you were ignoring the fact that it had eight extra threads. The price is irrelevant. The difference between only four threads and having twelve threads is massive. Core for core the 7600K was much better for gaming, but it only had four cores and no HT. So later games that used 6-8 threads did better on the otherwise slower 1600X. This wasn't a problem for the HT enabled but still four core 7700K though, that beat the 2700X (with double the threads) by 10% and was essentially the same performance as the 3700X, let alone the 1600X.
Unless you're implying 12 threads won't be enough for gaming, the same situation doesn't apply to the 9600X/7700, which both have SMT.

Though funnily enough, disabling SMT gives you better gaming performance on Zen 5. Makes sense, because disabling SMT makes each core a little faster, and as long as there's enough threads, ST is what matters. You can see this in the 9600K, a 6C/6T Skylake CPU, with two fewer threads than the older 7700K, beating the 3700X, a 8C/16T Zen 2 part.

What all this boils down to is: is 12 threads enough for gaming? I strongly suspect the answer is yes, at least for the next five or so years. I doubt the next gen of consoles will suddenly have more than 8C/16T CPU, so I doubt games will start needing more than eight threads.

 

[jesdals]

I would go with the cheapest 8 core 7xxx series cpu because next gen AM5 will come soon and a 6 core 9600 seems like a stop gap - in Denmark a 9600 is only 50 kr cheaper than a 7700, thats like 5 dollars

 

[blinnbanir]

Totally depends on what you play. If for example you like Strategy Games a 7700X may make more since with more cores. If FPS is your lean then the 9600X will be a better choice with improved IPC. If the price is right a 9900X would satisfy both camps. The Inter CCD argument becomes moot when you realize what a nano second is. I have a 9900X3D and it keeps my 7900XT humming to the point where people think I am making it up. Even with screenshots they refuse to believe my numbers. AM5 is super fast at Gaming.

 

[Alyux]

Totally depends on what you play. If for example you like Strategy Games a 7700X may make more since with more cores. If FPS is your lean then the 9600X will be a better choice with improved IPC. If the price is right a 9900X would satisfy both camps. The Inter CCD argument becomes moot when you realize what a nano second is. I have a 9900X3D and it keeps my 7900XT humming to the point where people think I am making it up. Even with screenshots they refuse to believe my numbers. AM5 is super fast at Gaming.

Most entertaining post on this thread so far. Unironically can't tell if you're joking or not.

 

[Denver]

The 7700 will offer some advantages in compiling shaders and installing games. Critics here might disagree, but UE5 "the industry's dominant engine" is increasingly optimizing for multithreading, and that's the path forward. Future consoles are likely to feature 12-core CPUs, and with Zen 6 pushing the boundaries even further, it's time to let 6-core setups fade into the past.

 

[blinnbanir]

Most entertaining post on this thread so far. Unironically can't tell if you're joking or not.

City Skylines 2, TWWH3 and some heavy Single player Games like Dragons Dogma 2 love CPU cores. If the Game engine uses them it has more information to feed to the GPU. It is still math. I also only use AMD software to get my numbers while just about every review uses MSI Afterburner. Meanwhile Marvel Rivals or CS GO will run nice on 6 core CPUs. People use 3770Ks to live stream Marvel Rivals. Of course the same 3 or 4 individuals will come with the same "thoughts" every time.

 

[Alyux]

People use 3770Ks to live stream Marvel Rivals. Of course the same 3 or 4 individuals will come with the same "thoughts" every time.

Damn. You're actually serious. That's unfortunate.

 

[phanbuey]

Both are good - 9600x would be my choice - newer, higher clocks, slightly better mins and 1% lows from the reviews I've seen. I would put a -20 curve on it and maybe OC the ram as well.

It is a stopgap though - I would upgrade to Zen 6 next year.

7700 would be my choice if someone is going to keep the rig for a few years with no upgrades.

^ source.

You can see in the CPU heavy games (CP 2077, last of us pt 2, and starfield) the 7700 has better mins.

 

[sLowEnd]

If it's just for games, then get the one that's cheaper. The 7700 and 9600X perform closely enough that it doesn't matter which you get, IMO.
If there's a 10 buck difference between the two, buy the cheaper one and spend the difference to get yourself some snacks.

 

[Misiu]

My answer is to get whatever is cheaper. As other mentioned if you planning to use the PC without upgrading for few years get Ryzen 7700. Use -30 or -40 curve optimiser and +200Mhz PBO. You will get 7700x performance and you can disable hyper threading to game faster on 8 cores. If you don't want to tinker with the settings, you want to upgrade the CPU in the near future, and all you do is gaming get 9600x because it has better IPC and slightly faster single core for gaming. But don't disable hyper threading as new games work better on 8 cores.

 

[dgianstefani]

My answer is to get whatever is cheaper. As other mentioned if you planning to use the PC without upgrading for few years get Ryzen 7700. Use -30 or -40 curve optimiser and +200Mhz PBO. You will get 7700x performance and you can disable hyper threading to game faster on 8 cores. If you don't want to tinker with the settings, you want to upgrade the CPU in the near future, and all you do is gaming get 9600x because it has better IPC and slightly faster single core for gaming. But don't disable hyper threading as new games work better on 8 cores.

Six fast threads is fine for gaming, and Zen 5 actually works better with SMT off.

We found the Missing Performance: Zen 5 Tested with SMT Disabled

Reviews of AMD’s Zen 5 processors this week surprised many, with lower-than-expected results. After some investigation, we discovered that turning off Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) can yield notable performance gains, particularly in gaming. This article presents our findings, including...

www.techpowerup.com

7700 has just 5% MT advantage over 9600X using all 16 vs 12 threads, any software (most) that doesn't fully use all 16 threads and that 5% advantage will disappear. Also bearing in mind Zen 5 is a future looking architecture with very wide cores. Current software doesn't fully utilise that. So future proofing is not about core count, it's about MT, and how well software takes advantage of wide architectures. 9600X is just better overall.

 

[RejZoR]

If priced the same, you obviously pick the newer one. 9600X has less cores however (6 vs 8). If you're mostly just gaming, that shouldn't be much of a difference but has newer Zen 5 architecture which should be a bit faster by itself. When considering these, I'd look at 9700X and how much this one costs compared to 7700X. If it's not much, I'd go with this one instead. Same core count as 7700X but newer and clocked higher.

 

[Redwoodz]

Neither, really at current pricing. 7800X3D or 9700X- $365 vs $305.

 

[RejZoR]

Neither, really at current pricing. 7800X3D or 9700X- $365 vs $305.

How much is 7700X for you?

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

Ryzen 7 7700, the 8 cores will help you in the future

unless its a X3D the ryzen 9000 series was universal panned as underwhelming

 

[A Computer Guy]

Hello,

I'm looking for a CPU to pair with my 7900 XT, but I'm stuck at a decision point. I'll mainly be using it for gaming, but I can't decide between the Ryzen 7 7700 and the Ryzen 5 9600X. They're priced almost the same, within about €10 of each other.

According to TechPowerUp, the 9600X performs better overall, but in the Hardware Unboxed video, the 7700 does better in some games. Interestingly, the 9600X performs better in titles like Hogwarts Legacy according to TechPowerUp.

TechPowerUp: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-5-9600x/18.html
Hardware Unboxed:

Ahh, the classic conundrum of newer faster less cores vs. older slower more cores for about the same price. I do not envy your position. I would pick the 9600x but I would also admit it's a bit of a tossup. Regardless of which one you buy you still win. Good luck.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

The i7 12700kf is 179$ at newegg btw

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Ahh, the classic conundrum of newer faster less cores vs. older slower more cores for about the same price. I do not envy your position. I would pick the 9600x but I would also admit it's a bit of a tossup. Regardless of which one you buy you still win. Good luck.

I like how the OP hasn't chimed in for two weeks and this thread is still going. That being said last I checked the 7700/7700X is $210-220 and the 9600X is $156-160 so it really comes down to region the OP is in right now the 9600X is clearly better at that price. Otherwise it's a toss up as both will likely have pretty good upgrade options down the line and they sorta just trade blows depending on game.

On the intel side the 14600K is the best alternative if you can find it at $170-180 but I would go with the 9600X for the much better upgrade path personally.

 

[Redwoodz]

How much is 7700X for you?

$249