AMD Ryzen 9500F CPU spotted - nicely affordable 6-core Zen 5 workhorse could be inbound

AMD has apparently got a new Zen 5 desktop processor on the boil which is aimed at the budget end of the market, namely the Ryzen 5 9500F.

VideoCardz spotted the processor (which was also flagged by BenchLeaks on X) and it's a 6-core (12-thread) effort running at 5.05GHz as shown in the leaked GeekBench result which has surfaced for the CPU.

Obviously take this with some salt - it's a single leaked benchmark at the moment, so it's far from certain this chip is actually inbound - but it would appear to be a more affordable take on the AMD Ryzen 5 9600. That's a 6-core processor, and the compromise with the Ryzen 5 9500F would be slightly slower clocks, alongside a lack of integrated graphics (which is what the F suffix indicates).

As to how much slower the clock speed might be, when we consider that the last-gen Ryzen 5 7500F offers a boost of 5GHz, we can assume that the 9500F will probably sneak that up to 5.1GHz (even though technically the leak shows the chip at 5.05GHz, that's likely related to the CPU being a sample).

The Ryzen 9600 runs at 5.2GHz, so the theoretical Ryzen 9500F might only be 100MHz shy of that.

The hope is that it could be priced at a very affordable level to make a tempting current-gen choice for a budget gaming build.

Another recent rumor suggests there's also a Ryzen 9700F inbound from AMD, with this chip being listed on the ASUS website. If that refresh is coming, a Ryzen 9500F in tow seems more likely, too. Based on clues dropped by motherboard manufacturers, these new F models of Zen 5 processors may be imminent.