AMD Ryzen 9 5000 Series Processors

The Ryzen 9 5000 Series chips here are the top of AMD's Zen 3 line for the AM4 socket. There are three: the 12 core, 24 thread Ryzen 9 5900X (3.7 GHz base, up to 4.8 GHz boost), and two 16 core, 32 thread parts, the Ryzen 9 5900XT (3.3 GHz base, up to 4.8 GHz) and the Ryzen 9 5950X (up to 4.9 GHz). All three are rated at 105 W TDP, support PCIe 4.0 and DDR4 memory, and AMD covers them with a 3 year warranty.

Choose by workload. For gaming with streaming or occasional editing, the 5900X has fewer cores but higher base clocks. For rendering, video encoding, compiling or virtual machines, the 16 core 5900XT and 5950X finish multi-threaded jobs faster. None of these processors has integrated graphics, so a graphics card is required. None comes with a cooler, so budget for a capable tower air cooler or a 240 mm or larger liquid cooler. They fit AM4 motherboards. PCIe 4.0 needs a board whose chipset supports it, and older AM4 boards may need a BIOS update before they recognise a Ryzen 5000 processor.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the Ryzen 9 5900XT and 5950X? Both have 16 cores and 32 threads on Zen 3. The 5950X clocks slightly higher, at up to 4.9 GHz against 4.8 GHz.

Do these processors work with DDR5 or AM5 motherboards? No. They use the AM4 socket and support DDR4 memory only.

Is a cooler included in the box? No. The 5950X, 5900XT and 5900X ship without a cooler, so a separate one is needed.