AMD’s Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core Desktop CPU has been tested on Geekbench and performs impressively better than Intel’s 14th Gen CPUs.
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core CPU Delivers 16% Single-Core Performance Improvement Over 7900X, Crushes Core i9-14900KS in Geekbench Benchmark
The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X “100-000000662” CPU is a 12-core, 24-thread variant. This chip has a base clock of 4.4GHz and a boost clock of up to 5.6GHz with a 76MB cache. What’s interesting about this chip is that it has a TDP of 120W, much lower than the 170W of Ryzen 9 7900X chips.
Again, while the chip retains the same boost clock as the Ryzen 9 7900X, the base clock sees a reduction of -300MHz, which again puts it within the 120W power limit, but again, the 12-core should be able to show off some nice multi-threaded capabilities. Below are the TDP comparisons between the four chips from this generation versus the previous one:
- Ryzen 9 7950X (170W) -> Ryzen 9 9950X (170W)
- Ryzen 9 7900X (170W) -> Ryzen 9 9900X (120W)
- Ryzen 7 7700X (105W) -> Ryzen 7 9700X (65W)
- Ryzen 5 7600X (105W) -> Ryzen 5 9600X (65W)

As for the performance benchmark, the chip was tested in the Geekbench 6 benchmark on an ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Gene motherboard with 32GB of DDR5 memory. The chip was running at a peak frequency of over 5.6GHz (5664MHz). In terms of performance, the Ryzen 9 9900X scored 3401 points in the single-core test and 19,756 points in the multi-core test.
This puts the single-core performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-core CPU ahead of the current fastest chip, the Intel Core i9-14900KS which scores around 3250 points in the single-core test and even the multi-core test is quite phenomenal for this 12-core part with the Core i9-14900K which scores around 20,500 points on average. Compared to the Ryzen 9 7900X 12-core, the Ryzen 9 9900X delivers a 16% uplift in the single-core and 11% uplift in the multi-core test.
It should also be remembered that the Intel Core i9 CPUs here were tested on the pre-installed “Intel Baseline Default” settings, which further reduce the chips’ performance to ensure better stability. These new profiles can result in up to a 15% performance degradation over stock settings.
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
These are impressive performance numbers that, if proven true, would really showcase the strong single-core performance advantage that Zen 5 CPUs have to offer. Of course, Geekbench is just one synthetic benchmark, so we can’t really base overall performance on a single test, but as we’ve mentioned before, we expect the final numbers to be stellar for AMD Ryzen 9000 Desktop CPUs. According to AMD themselves, Geekbench is one of the best-case scenarios for Zen 5’s IPC uplift, with an increase of up to 19% over Zen 5, as you can see in the slide below:

A few days ago we also discussed the performance figures of Cinebench R23. That showed the same chip with impressive efficiency, although that was a technical sample. These new results however seem to be from a real retail chip.
0
7000
14000
21000
28000
35000
42000
The AMD Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” Desktop CPUs, including the Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core, will be hitting stores again later this month on the AM5 platform, so stay tuned for more information.
AMD Ryzen 9000 “Granite Ridge” Desktop CPU Specifications:
CPU name | Architecture | Cores / Wires | Base/Boost Clock | cache | Graphical display (integrated) | Memory support | TDP | Price (recommended retail price) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
What is the Ryzen 9 9950X3D? | Zen 5 | 16/32 | To be defined | 128MB L3 + 16MB L2 | 2 x RDNA 2 CU’s | DDR5-5600 | To be defined | To be defined |
Ryzen 9 9950X | Zen 5 | 16/32 | 4.3 / 5.7 GHz | 64MB L3 + 16MB L2 | 2 x RDNA 2 CU’s | DDR5-5600 | 170W | $649 USD? |
What is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D? | Zen 5 | 24/12 | To be defined | 128MB L3 + 12MB L2 | 2 x RDNA 2 CU’s | DDR5-5600 | To be defined | To be defined |
Ryzen 9 9900X | Zen 5 | 24/12 | 4.4 / 5.6 GHz | 64MB L3 + 12MB L2 | 2 x RDNA 2 CU’s | DDR5-5600 | 120W | $549 USD? |
What is the Ryzen 7 9800X3D? | Zen 5 | 8/16 | To be defined | 96MB L3 + 8MB L2 | 2 x RDNA 2 CU’s | DDR5-5600 | To be defined | To be defined |
Ryzen 7 9700X | Zen 5 | 8/16 | 3.8 / 5.5 GHz | 32MB L3 + 8MB L2 | 2 x RDNA 2 CU’s | DDR5-5600 | 65W/120W? | $399 USD? |
Ryzen 5 9600X | Zen 5 | 6/12 | 3.9 / 5.4 GHz | 32MB L3 + 6MB L2 | 2 x RDNA 2 CU’s | DDR5-5600 | 65W | $299 USD? |
News Source: Benchleaks