AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs AMD Ryzen 5 9600

Compare AMD Ryzen 9 Desktop 12 core CPU vs AMD Ryzen 9000 Series 6 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

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Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

8422 points
8451 points
0.34% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

8440 points
12073 points
43% significantly better gaming score

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

8406 points
15% slightly better multitasking score
7298 points

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

8392 points
19% slightly better heavy workload score
7044 points

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Ryzen 9 3900X and the Ryzen 5 9600? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

276.80 points
24% slightly higher Blender score
221.97 points
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

9907 points
14339 points
44% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

1704 points
3205 points
88% significantly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

12
100% significantly more cores
6

Threads

Number of logical processing units

24
100% significantly more threads
12

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.80 GHz
0.03% slightly higher clock speed
3.8 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

4.6 GHz
5.2 GHz
13% slightly higher turbo speed

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

105 W
65 W
61% significantly lower TDP

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

2
Identical
2

L1 Cache

Smallest embedded memory, but the fastest

768 KiB
60% significantly more L1 cache
480 KiB

L2 Cache

Secondary embedded memory, slower than L1 cache

6 MiB
Identical
6 MiB

L3 Cache

General memory pool for all cores

64 MiB
100% significantly more L3 cache
32 MiB

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

130th of 1,089
128th of 1,089

Family

The product line

Ryzen 9 Desktop
Ryzen 9000 Series

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2019 July
2025 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR4
DDR5

Is Unlocked

Can this CPU can be overclocked

Yes
Yes

Ryzen 9 3900X vs Ryzen 5 9600 specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 9600 beats the Ryzen 9 3900X in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Ryzen 9 3900X in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Ryzen 9 3900X has significantly more cores than the Ryzen 5 9600. Indeed, the Ryzen 9 3900X has 12 cores compared to 6 cores found in the Ryzen 5 9600. It also has more threads than the Ryzen 5 9600. Our comparison shows that the Ryzen 9 3900X has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Ryzen 5 9600. Despite this, the Ryzen 5 9600 has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Ryzen 5 9600 outputs less heat than Ryzen 9 3900X thanks to a significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. The data shows that both these CPUs have same sized L2 caches. The Ryzen 9 3900X also has significantly more L3 cache.

Modern CPUs generally have more logical cores than physical cores, this means that each core is split into multiple virtual cores, improving efficiency for parallel workloads. Indeed, the Ryzen 9 3900X has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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