"The world's most powerful CPU" is AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X, and it's now available to buy alongside its 9900X sibling

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and 9950X in plastic packaging.

What you need to know

• AMD officially launched its Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X chips based on the Zen 5 architecture.
• Prices hit $649 and $499, respectively, making them considerably more expensive than the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips released last week.
• The Ryzen 9 9950X has 16 cores and a 170W TDP, while the Ryzen 9 9900X has 12 cores and a 120W TDP.
• Ryzen 9000 X3D variants are still expected to be announced at some point, though there's no confirmation yet from AMD.