Ryzen™ 9 9900X 12-Core, 24-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor

If you are not familiar with Amazon Vine, it is basically Amazon trading free* products for honest reviews. You see a lot of Vine reviews that are cookie cutter and based on templates. I aim to make my reviews honest and non-cookie cutter (other than this intro and disclaimer). * These items are not actually free as Vine members pay income tax on the items they receive. Therefore, I will never order something from Vine unless I actually intend to use it. I think this is important for readers to understand because it means I will never order an item just to provide a fake five star review to a company. If I review something as good, it means I actually enjoyed using it or it fills its intended purpose correctly. Items that don't meet my expectations will be reviewed accordingly. Why I ordered this item: My AMD 5700x was having a hard time keeping up with my audio production needs. This CPU went on sale so I jumped on it. Likes: * This processor offers pretty extreme performance. Twelve full-featured cores is absolutely bonkers on a CPU that was on sale for $370. * This thing absolutely churns through Ableton. I can have 30 tracks with multiple plugins and effects on each one, and this CPU does not break 10% usage. I don't know how that is possible considering how hard the same song was on my old 5700x. It's the most powerful CPU I have ever used. * I have had no operational issues with this CPU at all. Everything on my new PC runs smoothly. Games are glassy and productivity apps are rock solid. No likes: * This CPU can get hot. I knew that going in and bought an adequate cooler. Still, it's something to consider. Would I pay full price for this product: I would pay the $370 I paid again because this processor is awesome. Final thoughts: I'm very happy with my choice on this processor. I had a lot of options and almost went with an X3D model, but I don't game much any more and I knew this would be better for audio production. One word of advice - if you are considering this CPU vs an Intel option, know that AMD processors have full-fledged cores while Intel uses Performance and Efficiency cores. Efficiency cores are not as powerful as the full featured cores AMD offers, so in multithreaded applications in general, AMD offers a more powerful experience when comparing similar core counts to Intel.

This processor was used with a Gigabyte AORUS B860 Elite Wifi7 motherboard in a new Windows 11 Pro build. Performance is great, the new system feels very fast and benchmarks are as expexted for this processor, with excellent bang for the buck. There have been no hardware or software performance or stablility issues of any kind, and a decent air cooler is more than sufficient to keep this 120W TDP processor from running hot.

This thing is a beast - admittedly it was more than I needed when I got it, but I'm pleased so far. I do some gaming but moderate at best - this is paired with an RTX-5070 and the CPU isn't holding it back. The AM5 has pins in the socket, so installation is easy. The main reason for getting this is that do a fair bit of video compression and transcoding, and it's great to be able to run those intensive tasks and still have some CPU overhead where I can use other Windows utilities at the same time. I'm using a cheap air cooler, too, and temps are not an issue. I haven't overclocked this, but that'll be a potential future trial.

Love it, It delivered more than I expected. Awesome for editing UHD HDR 10bit video. Allows air cooling easily, pushed over 90% for extended periods, did not exceed 70°C with decent air cooler. Fast, reliable and stable.

Great processor works great under load. Fast, powerful for demanding applications and perfect for high end gaming. Great compatibility. Stable processor. Definitely runs a hot. Get a good cooling solution.

Nice unit, crunches through everything being thrown at it for a simple long term email and video box. When it's not doing anything important, it's power consumption is about 25 watts. Hard to complain about that!

Works just as it should and I have had zero issues in the 4 months it has been in use. Have not had any issues with cooling, or compatibility. I would recommend this CPU!

I run Linux with different self-hosted services, data sciense libraries, data analytics, and of course gaming. This CPU can run everything well, under good temperatures. I wanted the 9950X, and I wanted the 9950X3D, but those are way more expensive. This CPU covers all of my needs at a very affordable price.