AMD released the Ryzen 9000 series in 2024, running on the same AM5 platform as the Ryzen 7000 series of chips. Compared to previous-gen AMD processors, Zen 5 made notable efficiency and performance improvements. Sitting just behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X flagship is the Ryzen 9 9900X with 12 cores and 24 threads. It’s an incredible chip, but so is the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X. Sure, it may have six fewer cores, but that’s still six to work with at up to 5.4 GHz before overclocking.