AMD Ryzen 5 9600 Non-X CPU Sneaks Into Zen 5 Chip Lineup With A Cool Surprise
Several major players in the PC space have made a splash at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, and that includes AMD, which unveiled an onslaught of new processors. We saw AMD expand its 3D V-Cache lineup with more desktop models and even some mobile "Fire Range" variants for laptops, but one chip that launched without any fanfare is the Ryzen 5 9600.
Not to be confused with the Ryzen 5 9600X, the non-X variant is a new addition that AMD quietly added to its product stack. And by quietly, we mean there was no mention of the newest Ryzen part in a press release or at CES that we're aware of, or anywhere else. However, AMD did add a product page for the Ryzen 5 9600, with detailed specifications.
Like the Ryzen 5 9600X that we reviewed last August, the non-X Ryzen 5 9600 is a mainstream SKU with a 6-core/12-thread makeup. However, the clocks are not the same. The non-X model has a 3.8GHz base clock and a 5.2GHz max boost clock, which are 100MHz (base) and 200MHz (boost) lower than the Ryzen 5 9600X. Otherwise, you're looking at the same 32MB of L3 cache and same 65W TDP.
Everything else is the same too, in terms of speeds and feeds—it supports up to 192GB of dual-channel DDR5 memory, it features onboard Radeon graphics based on RDNA 2 (128 shaders, up to 2.2GHz), and so forth. But there is a key distinction.
According to AMD's product page, the non-X Ryzen 5 9600 comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler. That makes it stand out among AMD's Zen 5 desktop lineup as the sole entry (so far) to come with a bundled cooler. Every other Ryzen 9000 series processors is a BYOC (Bring Your Own Cooler) affair.
That's not a monster cooler by any stretch, but it does potentially represent an added value proposition. It just depends on how pricing lands. Here's how things stack up in Zen 5 land (current Amazon street pricing)...
- Ryzen 9 9950X: $593.99
- Ryzen 9 9900X: $409.99
- Ryzen 7 9800X3D: $449.00
- Ryzen 7 9700X: $329.00
- Ryzen 5 9600X: $245.00
- Ryzen 5 9600: ???
The Ryzen 5 9600X launched at $279 but is available for a little less these days, including in AMD's own webstore (same price as Amazon). We'd expect the Ryzen 5 9600 to sell for somewhere south of that figure, though by how much remains to be seen. It's probably unrealistic to expect a $199 price point, but if AMD can get close, it would an intriguing addition, especially with a bundled cooler.
Also, we fully expect this chip to show up in the US market at some point, as opposed to being a special SKU for China like we've seen in the past. On the Ryzen 5 9600 product page, AMD lists both a retail boxed ID (100-100000718BOX) and tray ID (100-000000718), otherwise known as OEM.
