AMD Ryzen 7 9700X CPU Review

Today sees the AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPUs launching as part of the new 4nm Zen 5 line-up and AMD have decided to launch the range with two dates in mind. First up is the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 reviews which go live today and then, followed by the Ryzen 9 parts which are going live a little later in the month with retail sales coinciding with each release. We’ve managed to get our hands on the Ryzen 7 9700X; a CPU that comes in with the same core and thread count as its predecessor, the 7700X, as well as being 700MHz….slower. Are we expected to believe that the new Zen 5 architecture and newer 4nm fabrication process will yield some magical results by increasing performance, or have AMD decided to instead, switch their focus into other areas, like improving efficiency by reducing the TDP on the 9700X instead? This leaves us and consumers with a lot of unanswered questions, because if that's the case, is there really a reason to upgrade if you're already sporting a Zen 4 CPU? Well that's what our main focus is going to be on today, because while we've tested a whole host of different CPUs from both AMD and Intel, the big question is always going to come down to what uplift, if any can be obtained from this shiny new piece of silicon. Ok, so first things first. I want to address the elephant in the room. You may or may not have seen that we posted on social media just under a week ago about how we weren’t getting sampled for this launch, and at the time of writing this, it’s less than 24 hours until the embargo launch time, so we’ve had to scramble things together pretty quickly, without looking to reduce our benchmarks down, so you can expect our usual in-depth run of tests as well as a ton of content on this chip in the coming weeks with memory scaling, a full 42 game suite of tests, and some head to heads too, so make sure you stick around for that. That aside, we were able to source a chip and here we are with the 9700X, a CPU that on paper doesn’t seem all that dissimilar from the Ryzen 7 7700X. When I say dissimilar, it really comes down to the specifications that have been set out for this specific SKU. On paper, it all seems a bit strange with the same core and thread count to its predecessor, while reducing the speed, though AMD's claims of up to a 16% increase in IPC is certainly an interesting point, but IPC improvements don't always result in raw performance in every application, and especially not in games, much like how consumers were lead to believe that more cores and threads relayed to huge jumps in framerates, when in actuality, that most certainly isn't the case. While gaming is one side of the puzzle, AMD have SKUs directly linked for those use-case scenarios in the form of the X3D line-up, with the 7800X3D proving to be extremely popular, while for the workstation conscious user, the Ryzen 9 has always been touted as the best for the job, if you're prepared to pay for it. So where does the Ryzen 7 9700X now position itself in a market where AMD are not only competing directly with Intel, but now seemingly competing with themselves? That's what we're going to find out today, because from a first glance, this is just a Ryzen 7 7700X with a few tweaks here and there, including a lower power profile, but is that enough to make a splash? Luckily, there is more to it. When comparing the current Zen 5 microarchitecture to the previous Zen 4 microarchitecture, AMD claims that Zen 5 will see substantial improvements over the last generation, particularly in caching and instruction-fetching. The L2 cache size is doubled to 1 MB per core, the I-Cache is upgraded to 32 KB, and the D-Cache to 48 KB. With dual I-Fetch/decode pipes, Zen 5 can handle more instructions per cycle than Zen 4's single pipe. Also improved are the Execution Units with 6 Integer ALUs and 6 FP operations per cycle, giving better overall performance and an efficient chip. AMD has optimised and designed Zen 5 for better data flow and power efficiency, outperforming Zen 4. It has 4 load pipes for 512b AVX-512 workloads and wider L2 cache paths to improve data handling. AMD, for its part, has also changed how it implements AVX-512 in Zen 5: it forgoes one single full path of AVX-512 data. Instead, the processor has two 256-bit paths, making up a more efficient data path layout. Finally, Zen 5 retains SMT, keeping two threads per core for better multi-threaded performance. The Zen 5 cores themselves are built on TSMC's N4X process, which, technically speaking, should significantly improve overall capabilities in IPC and ST performance compared to the 5nm that Zen 4 was based on. By that token, N4X provides an 11% increase in performance, a 22% gain in power efficiency, and a 6% boost in transistor density compared to the 5nm nodes. Furthermore, more EUV layers and fewer masks reduce production costs by about 6%. Edit [1st September 2024]: AMD have now worked directly with motherboard vendors to increase the TDP, in the hope that it unlocks extra performance that may not have necessarily been there at its stock rated 65W TDP. The likes of MSI have rolled out BIOS updates that will increase the TDP back up to 105W, now matching the power targets set by the predecessor Ryzen 7 7700X AMD Ryzen 7 9700X Specifications: Cores: 8 Threads: 16 Base Clock: 3.8 GHz Boost Clock: Up to 5.5 GHz L3 Cache: 32 MB TDP: 65W Socket: AM5 Architecture: Zen 5 (Granite Ridge) Process Node: 4nm Integrated Graphics: AMD Radeon™ Graphics PCIe Version: PCIe® 5.0 Additional Features: Unlocked for overclocking AMD EXPO™ Technology support About the AMD 9700X Specs wise, both the new and old CPU are packing 8 cores, both sporting 16 threads, and from a first glance, the 4.5GHz base clock of the 7000 series CPU seems wildly more powerful than this shiny new 9700X, so are we expecting AMD to have nerfed us with this new Zen 5 based CPU? Well there are some areas that it comes out on top. Yes, the base frequency comes in at 3.8GHz, a pretty staggering 700MHz slower than its predecessor, but it does come in with a boost clock of up to 5.5GHz, though even then, that’s only 100MHz faster than the 7700X, so it doesn’t sound all that impressive, so hey, what gives? Why, if I’m on Zen 4 should I upgrade to this, and why if I’m on something older, don’t I just upgrade to the 7700X instead? Well aside from the faster 5600MHz JEDEC supported memory speed, and the 65 Watt TDP, compared to 105W on the 7700X, there’s much more going on under the hood. Firstly, we’re now rocking a 4nm process for the CPU cores, a novel move forward from the 5nm application that we saw on the 7700X, though the I/O is still sporting an older 6nm process, but thanks to that change in terms of fabrication, the transistor count has managed to increase by a pretty astounding 27%, now at 8.315 million, all while keeping the die size essentially the same so much of the same, but also some slight differences, which is where our expected extra performance should come from. Due to some tweaks under the hood, AMD are claiming a 16% improvement in IPC along with refinements thanks to the new architecture meaning better energy efficiency and better enhancements in terms of AI capabilities. We now also have better and faster EXPO based memory speeds and new motherboards on the way with the new X800 series range launching next month, though that is more about features and less about any extra added performance. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Processor Test Systems Test System (AM5) Motherboard Gigabyte X670E AORUS Master Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review Review Buy Now GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM TEAMGroup T-Force Delta RGB 7600MHz CL36 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Test System (AM4) Motherboard Gigabyte X570S AORUS Master Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review Review Buy Now GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz CL16 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Test System (Z690) Motherboard MSI Z690 UnifyBIOS Version 7D28v17 Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM TEAMGroup T-Force Delta RGB 7600MHz CL36 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Test System (Z790) Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM TEAMGroup T-Force Delta RGB 7600MHz CL36 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download) AIDA64 (download) Blender 3.6.0 Classroom (download) CapFrameX 1.7.0 (download) Cinebench R23 (download) Corona 1.3 (download) CPU-Z (download) Geekbench 5 (download) Google Octane 2.0 (link) GPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Keyshot Viewer 11.2.1 (download) Mozilla Kraken 1.1 (link) PCMark 10 Express (download) PugetBench For Davinci Resolve Super PI 2.1 WP (download) V-Ray 5.00.20 (download) WebXPRT 4 (link) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. A Plague Tale Requiem Cyberpunk 2077 F1 23 Far Cry 6 Hogwarts Legacy Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Remnant II Shadow of the Tomb Raider Starfield Resolutions 1080p (Full HD) Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw at both idle and load, we now have the ability thanks to sensors built into the system to find the exact CPU package power draw during any one instance. We now check power draw during Cinebench R23 single and multi-core runs as well as during a set amount of games. Temperatures Temperatures are measured in a very similar way to power consumption and are taken during a Cinebench R23 multi-core and single-core run, as well as during a set amount of games at the max levels seen. Starting things off with 3DMark Timespy and there really isn’t much in it when looking at the uplift from the 7700X to the newer 9700X at just over 1% in the overall score so could be argued identical due to margin of error. We do however see a larger gain of 4% in the CPU score moving up from the previous generation, but for the extra cost involved in buying the 9700X at $359, it’s not exactly off to a great start in our first synthetic benchmark test though it does put it not too far behind the Ryzen 9 7900X. As we move onto Blender, again, the most stark comparison I can make is comparing the 9700X to its predecessor, the 7700X and again, it’s here where we do see an uplift, but nothing of significance at under 3% which again, would still be argued as margin of error, and we’d chalk that up as practically identical, as it’s nothing that you’d notice in real world tasks. Moving onto Corona and we see a pretty measly 2 seconds shaved off the render time, with the 9700X now matching the time of the 7800X3D which before we’ve even got to gaming performance, you know should be the stronger contender, so I’m struggling to find a reason to recommend the 9700X at this stage, though it is early in our benchmarks. In V-Ray, we start to see a slightly healthier improvement over the 7700X, with 7% more Vsamples, though how this relates to real world ray tracing we’ll show in our gaming tests, but if modelling using V-Ray, it could save you a bit of time in your final render, but again, not anything of huge difference, especially when factoring in the extra cost involved. As we move onto Cinebench R23, again we see a small uplift, but you’re probably starting to see a bit of a trend that while the performance does increase, it’s by very negligible amounts seeing a multi-core score increase again by just under 3%. In terms of the single core score, it sounds a lot more impressive with a 12% uplift, but as we’re dealing with a lower score in general, a percentage increase can sound larger than what it actually is. In our last synthetic benchmark, we have Geekbench and if you hadn’t guessed it, in terms of multi-core performance, we’re again at just under 3% going from the 7700X to the 9700X while single core again seems much better, with a score of 2536, which is a pretty hefty 19% above the 7700X, so who knows, but maybe we could see some stronger uplifts in gaming performance given how many games are geared more for strong single threaded performance opposed to being able to utilise mass amounts of cores and threads. A Plague Tale Follow the grim tale of young Amicia and her little brother Hugo, in a heartrending journey through the darkest hours of history. Hunted by Inquisition soldiers and surrounded by unstoppable swarms of rats, Amicia and Hugo will come to know and trust each other. As they struggle to survive against overwhelming odds, they will fight to find purpose in this brutal, unforgiving world. Available now on Steam. So starting our gaming benchmarks off with A Plague Tale Requiem on the ultra preset, and sadly, we only see a 1% increase in performance over the 7700X, though looking at the rest of the CPUs tested, it does seem that we’re somewhat limited, especially on the AMD platform, where even the 7800X3D comes in matching the performance of the new Zen 5 CPU. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. In Cyberpunk, there really isn’t much to say. In fact, the 7700X actually outperforms the 9700X by a single FPS, though with such a margin, we’d call it identical, and it goes to show that the extra 100MHz boost clock really doesn’t do anything from the new Ryzen 7 in this game, at least on these settings. Changing the settings slightly by enabling Ray Tracing does have an effect though as the 9700X comes in with 88 frames per second, which is a marginal 6% improvement over its predecessor, though it’s still no match for the likes of the i7 14700K, which funnily enough, is the CPU that AMD were aiming to compete against with this new Zen 5 based chip. F1 23 Be the last to brake in EA SPORTS™ F1® 23, the official video game of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship™. A new chapter in the thrilling "Braking Point" story mode delivers high-speed drama and heated rivalries. Available now on Steam. F1 23 gives us such high frame rates, that the average user is unlikely to ever notice anyway, even with big improvements, whereas smaller improvements just don’t add any argument for buying this new chip, and that’s exactly the case when we look at the difference between the 7700X and this shiny new 9700X which packs another 2% performance. While our testing showed this consistently coming in around the same, I’d still, at such a low level deem this as margin of error and again, would struggle to tell you to buy the 9700X. Hogwarts Legacy Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. Embark on a journey through familiar and new locations as you explore and discover magical beasts, customize your character and craft potions, master spell casting, upgrade talents and become the wizard you want to be. Experience Hogwarts in the 1800s. Your character is a student who holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart. Make allies, battle Dark wizards, and ultimately decide the fate of the wizarding world. Your legacy is what you make of it. Live the Unwritten. Available now on Steam. Hogwarts Legacy shows a smaller 6% improvement moving from Zen 4 to Zen 5, which is nice to see, but again, the disparity for the amount of extra performance you get versus the extra cost of having the 9700X just doesn’t make all that much sense, especially if you’re looking for a CPU for gaming as the 7800X3D, albeit slightly more expensive again, makes much more sense. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered In Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, the worlds of Peter Parker and Spider-Man collide in an original, action-packed story. Play as an experienced Peter Parker, fighting big crime and iconic villains in Marvel’s New York. Web-swing through vibrant neighbourhoods and defeat villains with epic takedowns. Available now on Steam. Spider-Man keeps the momentum though does drop slightly with a generational improvement of 8%, which just shows the 9700X in an even worse light. Again, the 7800X3D seems the better buy, or even something like the Ryzen 5 7600X which at these high frame rates, the difference wouldn’t be noticeable, but the cost saving to your wallet would be, and could be used on other components to improve your system. Enabling Ray Tracing sees the margin between the 7700X and 9700X drop even further with the newer Zen 5 CPU sitting just 6% faster than the Zen 4 based equivalent. This also only puts the 9700X 7% faster than the 7600X, which is a much more affordable CPU in comparison, so in terms of value for money, which we will look at shortly, it just falls a bit short. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC. Available now on Steam. Microsoft Flight Sim shows our biggest uplift moving from the 7700X to the 9700X of just over 13%. This is more inline with what AMD were claiming, and is nice to see, especially in a game that is so CPU intensive. Sadly, it’s still below where you’d expect it to be based on the cost factor alone, though given the fact that it’s the newest product on the market, you will be expected to pay the early adopter tax making it not great value for money right now. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart With all new graphical and technical enhancements for deeper immersion, Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC takes full advantage of the power of the PC to bring every corner of this massive, rich and detailed world to life including increased draw distances; higher quality global illumination and ambient occlusion for improved day and night lighting; improved reflections and deeper, higher resolution shadows at all distances; tessellated tree textures and improved grass and fur textures for added realism in every plant and animal. Available now on Steam. Ratchet & Clank is next up, and there really isn’t much to say for this one, as the 7700X and 9700X are separated by just a single frame per second at 201 and 202 FPS respectively. Considering we have an IPC improvement of 16% and a faster boost clock, albeit of 100MHz, it doesn’t make one single bit of difference to the gaming performance in this title and I think for the money, there’s much better offerings on the market. Enabling Ray Tracing and its much more of the same. Small but negligible differences and no real answer to those running a Zen 4 based CPU like the 7700X to have the want or need to upgrade, especially when the 9700X only packs another 2% more performance. I really wanted more for the 9000 series, but I fear that me Remnant II Remnant II is the sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes that pits survivors of humanity against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses across terrifying worlds. Play solo or co-op with two other friends to explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself. To succeed, players will need to rely on their own skills and those of their team to overcome the toughest challenges and to stave off humanity’s extinction. Available now on Steam. Remnant II sees a 12% uplift, which again sounds good, but in the realistic world of looking at value for money, things still don’t line up as you’d want them too. Even more so when you look at other CPUs on the market from both AMD and Intel they offer better performance, for not much more money over and above the 9700X. Shadow of the Tomb Raider Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be. Available now on Steam. Shadow Of The Tomb Raider is our second to last game, and being quite a CPU intensive title and again it’s all a bit of a let down. While the performance on the 9700X is good at 231 frames per second, the increase in performance just doesn’t warrant the extra cost over the 7700X giving us just 3% extra performance. Considering the 7000 series will likely start dropping in price making something like the 7700X even better value while this new CPU gets left by the wayside. Starfield Starfield is the first new universe in over 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next-generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery. Available now on Steam. Lastly in Starfield, if you hadn’t guessed by now. The performance that the 9700X displays is disproportionate to the retail price, at least in comparison to the competition, whether that be from itself with the 7700X or the i7 14700K which packs another 11% more performance for 11% more cost, which actually makes sense, unlike what we’ve seen here today with the value to performance argument from the 9700X. How Much Does it Cost? The 9700X is launching for $359 which is a small decrease from the 7700X's original launch price of $399. This equates to a 10% decrease in price, which would be great if the performance of the 9700X reflected anything other than what we've seen, but sadly that's not the case, and while the price is good, it's not representative of the performance that's on offer, and I feel that's going to be a huge sticking point for a lot of consumers, especially those who are already rocking a Ryzen 7000 series because based on the uplift, or lack thereof, there's no reason to upgrade. If you decide that the 9700X is for you, then you can pick one up from here, though there is one big thing to consider and that is with any new product, you're going to be expected to pay the early adopter tax, but on the flipside, the price of older products, and namely being the Ryzen 7 7700, will end up seeing the price reduce in the coming months, so for those on a strict budget, there's an opportunity to essentially get the same processor, but for even less money. Conclusion So, where do I start with wrapping this up? I’m at a bit of a loss because this is meant to be the next generation, and it just doesn’t feel like it is. This feels like much of the same. I would have actually been happy if AMD called this the 7700 XT or Ryzen 7 7750X or something because the increase in IPC and other refinements just don’t do enough to warrant it being a new generation, or the next generation of products. It just falls a bit flat in that sense, and it seems that AMD are potentially happy about taking that stance in terms of marketing not only this CPU, but the complete line-up. I always thought that the specs of this were a little out there. The fact that the clock speed is 700MHz lower than its predecessor is an odd move, and it seems that AMD are happy to focus on the energy efficiency side, instead of honoring a reason for consumers to actually go out and buy it, because I can tell you now, energy is an important factor, but it is never at the forefront of a gamer or enthusiasts mind. That is solely reserved for performance and cost. Now speaking of cost, it’s always worth looking at the overall averages and the cost per frame, because that’s where you can really get a full picture as to what’s going on with things. It’s here where in terms of average FPS across the 13 games that the 9700X comes in just over 4% faster, which after talking and liaising with other media, that’s not too far off from what they have and obviously will be game dependent, but it seems that even then, the range is from between 1% faster and 4% or so faster, so at least we know we’re right on the money for that. The thing that isn’t right on the money however, is the pricing in terms of cost per frame. The 7700X, admittedly isn’t the new kid on the block, but is the CPU that is being superseded comes in with a cost per frame of $1.89, which is pretty impressive when you consider that the likes of the i7 14700K comes in at $2.38 per frame, and while the 9700X does beat that, at $2.25 per frame, I just feel that it’s too much considering how much extra performance you don’t really get. Like I mentioned earlier, you will be paying the early adopter tax with any new product, but generally you also pay more but get more, and with this, it’s just not there. Heck, you could save money if you’re still on AM4 by simply upgrading to a 5800X3D and getting that extra performance from what you’re on now and still come in cheaper than buying a 9700X along with a new motherboard and DDR5 memory. There’s certainly choices to be made right now, and I think the clear one for AMD is to drop the price of the 9700X to a maximum of $320, ideally even lower than that. Then there’s an argument for buying it based on the relative performance, because in all honesty, apart from a CPU that’s going to run a bit more efficiently, I don’t feel like you’re getting anything else for your money over a Ryzen 7000 series CPU, so maybe it’s back to the drawing board for AMD on this one.