7900 vs 9700X

[testcy]

Which would you buy between Ryzen 9 7900 and Ryzen 7 9700X for the same price (the first comes with a stock cooler) and why?

[Hinjima]

8 minutes ago, testcy said:

Which would you buy between Ryzen 9 7900 and Ryzen 7 9700X for the same price (the first comes with a stock cooler) and why?

For gaming? A 9700x will be sliiightly faster than a 7900 and games don't really take advantage of the 12 cores.

But for the same price its a tough choice. The stock cooler for a Ryzen 7000 non X CPU's are okay but they run loud under heavy load.

[freeagent]

Are you able to grab a Thermalright or something later?

 

I would grab the 9700X for sure. Zen 5 is fast, and with a good tune you should be able to max out your chip.

[jaslion]

For what usecase? They both have points they perform better at xompared to the other.

[Dedayog]

39 minutes ago, testcy said:

Which would you buy between Ryzen 9 7900 and Ryzen 7 9700X for the same price (the first comes with a stock cooler) and why?

What's it for?

 

Is this for the build you've been working on or just looking for discussion of the two CPUs?

 

Lots of context lacking 

[testcy]

47 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

For gaming? A 9700x will be sliiightly faster than a 7900 and games don't really take advantage of the 12 cores.

But for the same price its a tough choice. The stock cooler for a Ryzen 7000 non X CPU's are okay but they run loud under heavy load.

For general use, not particular gaming, more cores faster multiple tasks?

33 minutes ago, freeagent said:

Are you able to grab a Thermalright or something later?

 

I would grab the 9700X for sure. Zen 5 is fast, and with a good tune you should be able to max out your chip.

I can't buy a Thermalright so it will have ti be some more expensive air cooler. Why Zen 5 and why not max out 7900?

18 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

What's it for?

 

Is this for the build you've been working on or just looking for discussion of the two CPUs?

 

Lots of context lacking 

General use, not particularly gaming, running multiple tasks, like archiving and copying lots of data.

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, testcy said:

For general use, not particular gaming, more cores faster multiple tasks?

I can't buy a Thermalright so it will have ti be some more expensive air cooler. Why Zen 5 and why not max out 7900?

General use, not particularly gaming, running multiple tasks, like archiving and copying lots of data.

What does copying lots of data mean?  Downloading from the internet, like a pirate?

 

Moving files for no reason?

 

What requires one to just copy lots of data?  Archiving?  Are you in a business where you're making copies and archiving for people or businesses?

 

Your use case is so vague as to be a "just answer my question and don't ask me specifics" type answer.

 

Are you or are you not going to use one of these CPUs, and for what EXACTLY?

 

If you're just curious and want to chat about stuff, that's fine too.

 

[thrasher_565]

there asking what you uses it for because more cores or less faster cores they do different things for different tasks. so one can beat it in one thing and the other will beat it in another. there so many other things then just games and youtube. most any cpu will work for youtube so...

 

7900 seems better on other things comes with a cooler uses more power thow i guess one cone over the 9700x

 

so there so close really

 

9700x looks like more lanes on 

X870E 8x Gen4

X870 4x Gen4

 

192 GB ram vs 128 GB 7900

 

Max Memory Speed

2x1R

DDR5-5600

2x2R

DDR5-5600

 

vs 7900

 

Max Memory Speed

2x1R

DDR5-5200

2x2R

DDR5-5200

Edited October 2, 2025 by thrasher_565

[testcy]

8 hours ago, Dedayog said:

What does copying lots of data mean?  Downloading from the internet, like a pirate?

 

Moving files for no reason?

 

What requires one to just copy lots of data?  Archiving?  Are you in a business where you're making copies and archiving for people or businesses?

 

Your use case is so vague as to be a "just answer my question and don't ask me specifics" type answer.

 

Are you or are you not going to use one of these CPUs, and for what EXACTLY?

 

If you're just curious and want to chat about stuff, that's fine too.

 

I fail to understand the implication of copying and downloading. I asked because I am curious and because the two CPUs have about the same price and seem to be very close in performance.

[Dedayog]

2 hours ago, testcy said:

I fail to understand the implication of copying and downloading. I asked because I am curious and because the two CPUs have about the same price and seem to be very close in performance.

They'll both copy data easily.  

 

I fail to see the relevance.

 

Are you asking specifics?   Like how fast can one cpu copy 156gb of data vs the othwr?

 

It's going to be down to the drives and lan/internet connection more than the CPU.

 

Otherwise check YouTube for blender comparison or other software you're interested in.  That's what we would do to answer you. But yes, more cores helps in various tasks, while the single core uplift is better for gaming and other tasks that dubt sorras across cores as well

 

[freeagent]

I typically buy R9 for the high boost clocks. I could have bought Zen 4, but why when Zen 5 exists? 

 

9700X should have higher boost clocks than 7900, as well as higher IPC.

[YoungBlade]

For a gaming focused build, or for use cases that take advantage of AVX-512, the 9700X will be better. The single CCD design gives it an advantage in gaming, and Zen 5 is about 3-5% faster for gaming in general, so those two factors in combination makes the 9700X about a 5-10% advantage on average for games. And Zen 5 has a much stronger AVX-512 implementation, so the 9700X usually bests the 7900 in those cases.

 

For multicore productivity workloads that don't leverage AVX-512, which is the vast majority of multicore productivity workloads, then the 7900 would be better. So for rendering, code compilation, compression work, and the like, the 7900 is faster by 20-30% depending on the workload.

 

For general tasks, like web browsing, office work, and normal multitasking, like a Zoom meeting while checking routes on Google Maps with dozens of tabs open, or watching YouTube while chatting on Discord and playing games casually, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two in practice. They're effectively identical in that use case.

[Ha-Satan]

3 hours ago, YoungBlade said:

or watching YouTube while chatting on Discord and playing games casually

This is a huge birdwalk off topic, but how in the FUCK do people do this? This kind of usage seems to be common among The Youths but it sounds awful. How in the fuck do people function with their attention split like this? 

 

Like, I want to focus on ONE THING AT A TIME. If I'm gaming, I'm gaming. If I'm watching something, I'm watching something. If I'm chatting with someone, I'm chatting with them. Attempting to split my focus between all three sounds horrendous.

[Dedayog]

4 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

This is a huge birdwalk off topic, but how in the FUCK do people do this? This kind of usage seems to be common among The Youths but it sounds awful. How in the fuck do people function with their attention split like this? 

 

Like, I want to focus on ONE THING AT A TIME. If I'm gaming, I'm gaming. If I'm watching something, I'm watching something. If I'm chatting with someone, I'm chatting with them. Attempting to split my focus between all three sounds horrendous.

They don't.  They half listen, basically miss a shitload but they need to be "involved" in everything cuz some one may mention something later about Drake's new song or Bad Bunny or some TikTok craze. They can't say they aren't aware, cuz the world may end.

 

FOMO among the youth is a huge fucking deal.  HUGE!

 

[YoungBlade]

32 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

This is a huge birdwalk off topic, but how in the FUCK do people do this? This kind of usage seems to be common among The Youths but it sounds awful. How in the fuck do people function with their attention split like this? 

 

Like, I want to focus on ONE THING AT A TIME. If I'm gaming, I'm gaming. If I'm watching something, I'm watching something. If I'm chatting with someone, I'm chatting with them. Attempting to split my focus between all three sounds horrendous.

I don't think you can function with attention that split.

 

The human brain can't really multitask for complex tasks. We can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time, but that's because those tasks are automatic once you've built up the muscle memory.

 

Someone can point to an example of a chess professional playing 5 games simultaneously against average people, but the reason why is that, at 2600 elo and above, chess tactics are automatic like walking is for normal people. They don't have to reason out that a move is going to be a pin or that their opponent left a piece hanging. All of that information that to us mere mortals is something we need to analyze, they know the second they look at the board. The only reason this is possible is because they have mastered a relatively specific domain and are using that skill at, to them, a trivial level.

 

Instead of having Magnus Carlson play 5 randos, if you had him play 5 other grandmasters, suddenly, he's going to have a lot of problems, because the complexity of games will quickly ramp to a level that needs his full attention. The same thing is happening when someone is multitasking with YouTube, Discord, and gaming.

 

Unless the videos, conversations, and games are all formulaic, then you can't actually do it all at once. You will reach points where the complexity rises to a level where more than one will require your full attention, and the multitasking fails. You'll even eventually get to a point in the video where you have to pay attention to understanding what the presenter is talking about, but at the same moment, your friend asks for your opinion about a nuanced subject, and you get into a strategic decision in your game all at once.

 

When that happens, the house of cards crumbles. You will fail at at least two of those tasks.

 

So I'm the same way. Unless the gaming I'm doing is something like building a very large but simplistic structure in Minecraft, I can't do a second task at the same time.

 

If I'm talking to a friend on Discord about something important, I can't be also defending my base in Riftbreaker. Let alone trying to do both of them while also paying sufficient attention to a video.

[Ha-Satan]

1 hour ago, Dedayog said:

They don't.  They half listen, basically miss a shitload but they need to be "involved" in everything cuz some one may mention something later about Drake's new song or Bad Bunny or some TikTok craze. They can't say they aren't aware, cuz the world may end.

Yeah, I don't have kids so I don't see this directly that often, but recently I've spent some time around some of my younger relatives (i.e. teenagers) and holy fuck they are on their phones 100% of the time. Like, cannot put them down for dinner or even a 5 minute conversation with their family.

 

I try to keep in mind that my parents' generation probably felt similar things about my generation, but it doesn't change the fact that seeing this kind of behavior still makes me really worried.