Consumer CPUs in the last generation or two have grown by leaps and bounds in their numbers of cores and levels of power consumption. AMD's versions of its Ryzen 7000 processors without the "X"—like the $429 AMD Ryzen 9 7900 here—have tweaked clock and power settings to bring them under 100 watts (100W), and they include a serviceable cooler. That's perfect if you don't want to spend half as much on your system cooling as on your CPU. In the interest of brevity, this review will skip repeating all the details we've already covered in our past Ryzen 7000 desktop chip reviews, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. Instead, we'll primarily compare the Ryzen 9 7900 with the Ryzen 9 7900X. The one without the "X" is generally the better deal if you're a particularly efficiency-minded high-end user. However, if raw multicore power is your aim, we recommend the Editors' Choice award-winning Intel Core i7-13700K. Either way, a Ryzen 7000 or a 13th Gen Intel chip will l...
AMD's Ryzen 9 7900 has some of the best power efficiency and performance per watt among desktop CPUs. With its included cooler, it's a capable and low-power 12-core option, all for a similar price to the higher-end 7900X.
Exceptional performance per watt; Includes effective stock cooler in the box
Same street price as higher-binned 7900X