Ryzen 9 9900X vs Ryzen 5 4500
Short answer: which is best?
Ryzen 9 9900X is 109 % stronger than Ryzen 5 4500. Ryzen 9 9900X ranks #8 of 104 measured processors at WhatFPS (14,249 CPU score in its best run — best of 3 rigs, 4 verified runs). Ryzen 5 4500 ranks #70 of 104 measured processors at WhatFPS (6,817 CPU score in its best run — 1 rig, 1 verified run). Each part is shown at its best run, picked from 5 verified WhatFPS runs — measured, not estimated, not self-reported.
Measured comparison
| Metric | Ryzen 9 9900X | Ryzen 5 4500 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU score, best run (the processor's own performance) | 14,249 | 6,817 |
| Best rig (GAMING — whole PC) | 15,624 | 4,954 |
| Integer (MT) | 12.5 Gop/s | 3.8 Gop/s |
| Single-thread (1T) | 0.9 Gop/s | 0.49 Gop/s |
| Draw calls/s (DX11) | 15,532,558 | 7,131,766 |
| Cores / threads | 12 / 24 | 6 / 12 |
| L3 cache | 64 MB | 8 MB |
What the numbers mean
The headline score is the part's best measured run, and the measurements under it come from that same run. It shows what the part has been proven to do — not what an average rig gets out of it. 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 9 9900X · All measurements for Ryzen 5 4500