Question Ryzen 9 7900 or Ryzen 9 7900X

Apr 14, 2023
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Hello,

According to the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 5 7600 Review: Zen 4 Gets More Affordable article, it doesn't really make sense to buy the 7900x over the 7900 because the latter can reach the same performance just by enabling the OC setting in BIOS.

I'm quoting a line here:
The Ryzen 9 7900 has a 3.7 GHz base clock, a full 1 GHz lower than the $474 Ryzen 9 7900X comparable, but it boosts to 5.3 GHz. That’s only 300 MHz lower than the 7900X, which is reasonable considering the 7900's 65W/88W power rating compared to the 7900X’s 170W/230W spec.

The rest of the 7900’s key specifications are identical to the 7900X, but AMD also throws in the capable RGB Wraith Prism cooler.

I'm not exactly sure about the power consumption and efficiency of these two. Will the 7900X always consume more power because of the TDP of 170W?
Will the 7900 be more efficient with the power it does consume?

I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out which one to get.
  • I don't really need the cooler because I'm getting an AIO solution.
  • Secondly, I found the 7900X actually slightly cheaper than the 7900 right now.

If the efficiency and power consumption are worse for 7900X than 7900 I'll probably get the 7900, thinking long-term.
What do you think?
 
...
What do you think?
If you've found the 7900X for less then that's the one to get, otherwise get the 7900. Once both are running on PBO with performance curve optimized power consumption will doubtless be very close as well as performance. But if you really want the tiny bit lower power consumption of the 7900 you can simply lower performance (enable Eco Mode perhaps) of the 7900X to get there resulting in similar performance to the 7900 in stock settings. It's really kind of a no brainer: go with the cheaper of the two.
 

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