Closer Look: AMD FX-9590

The AMD FX-9590 CPU sits on top of the FX lineup of CPUs. As such, it touts the highest clock speeds of all of AMD’s FX series CPUs. The FX-9590 runs at 4.7GHz out of the box and has a maximum turbo clock speed of a massive 5GHz. The FX-9590 is, of course, a black edition CPU, so there may even be a little more headroom in there. This is especially true considering the fact that the CPU has been out for a while now and yields are certain to be higher and more stable.

The main difference in the FX-9000 series CPUs over the FX-8000 series CPUs is the RAM support. The FX-9590 and the FX-9370 support DDR3 RAM with speeds up to 2133MHz on a 990FX motherboard. The FX-8370 and the other FX-8000 series CPUs only support DDR3 RAM up to 1866MHz. You would undoubtedly be able to overclock your RAM using the FX-8000 series, but the higher native support sets the FX-9590 and FX-9370 a little apart from the rest of the series.

Considering the fact that the FX-8370, with a 4GHz clock speed, was recently released with an MSRP of $199, the price drop of the FX-9590 to $229 represents an excellent price point in my opinion. For only $30, the FX-9590 comes with the higher RAM support speed and 700MHz of extra oomph. Of course, you are looking at drawing about 95W more power with the FX-9590. The higher end FX-9000 series CPUs have a TDP of 220W, compared the 125W of the FX-8370 CPU. For that matter, the FX-8370E CPU, which demonstrated excellent overclocking capability and performance, sips a measly 95W of power.

Of course, it is my opinion that the customers who will be most interested in the FX-9590 probably won’t be as concerned about taking it easy in terms of power usage. AMD recommends using the FX-9590 with the high-end Radeon R9-290X series of video cards, which tend to suck up a lot of power as well. I know that, for me personally, if I’m going to go all out for my gaming rig, I’m not going to let 95 extra Watts of power to deter me.

So how do these processors stack up? Let’s find out.