Ryzen 7 9700X vs Ryzen 5 9600X

Short answer: which is best?

Ryzen 7 9700X is 8.8 % stronger than Ryzen 5 9600X. Ryzen 7 9700X ranks #14 of 92 measured processors at WhatFPS (11,971 CPU score over 1 verified runs). Ryzen 5 9600X ranks #20 of 92 measured processors at WhatFPS (11,003 CPU score over 2 verified runs). The numbers are measured in 3 verified WhatFPS runs — not estimated, not self-reported.

Measured comparison

MetricRyzen 7 9700XRyzen 5 9600X
CPU score (the processor's own performance)11,97111,003
Best rig (GAMING — whole PC)13,1978,806
Integer (MT)8.1 Gop/s6.7 Gop/s
Single-thread (1T)0.89 Gop/s0.88 Gop/s
Draw calls/s (DX11)16,108,27310,063,326
Cores / threads8 / 166 / 12
L3 cache32 MB32 MB

What the numbers mean

The CPU score is the processor's own performance — that is what we rank on. GAMING is the whole rig's score in the best PC we measured the processor in, and leans heavily on the graphics card. A strong processor in a weak PC gets a low GAMING score without being worse. We show both and never mix them.

All numbers come from our benchmark suite: four hand-built 3D scenes written directly against the graphics APIs in Rust, the same load on every PC. The methodology is open at https://whatfps.com/metodik

All measurements for Ryzen 7 9700X · All measurements for Ryzen 5 9600X