AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X Review: A Return to Gaming Dominance
Tom’s Hardware Verdict
The Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X bring the Zen 4 architecture and new connectivity, like PCIe 5.0 and DDR5. The Ryzen 9 7950X slots in as the overall performance champ for PCs, while the Ryzen 5 7600X is unquestionably the fastest gaming chip on the market for $300.
Pros
- +
Class-leading single- and multi-thread
- +
Higher boost frequencies
- +
Reasonable price-per-core
- +
Overclockable
- +
DDR5 and PCIe Gen 4.0
- +
iGPU
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AMD’s flagship 16-core $699 Ryzen 9 7950X and entry-level six-core $299 Ryzen 5 7600X are the bookend models in the new Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” lineup, and they take leading spots on our list of Best CPUs and our CPU Benchmark hierarchy with Intel-beating performance in nearly every category, including gaming and applications.
Intel’s hybrid Alder Lake processors caught AMD flatfooted, taking the lead in both performance and value at every price point. The Ryzen 7000 processors fire back with the new Zen 4 architecture, which AMD claims increases IPC by 13%, etched on the TSMC 5nm process.
That combo delivers incredible peak clocks of 5.7 GHz — an increase of 800 MHz that marks a record for AMD’s Ryzen family. It’s also surprisingly a higher clock speed than we see with even Intel’s fastest chips, at least until the company’s 6 GHz Raptor Lake chips come to market.
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| Row 0 — Cell 0 | Price | Cores / Threads (P+E) | Base / Boost Clock (GHz) | Cache (L2+L3) | TDP / Max | Memory |
| Ryzen 9 7950X | $699 | 16 / 32 | 4.5 / 5.7 | 80MB | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 9 7900X | $549 | 12 / 24 | 4. 7 / 5.6 |
76MB | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 7 7700X | $399 | 8 / 16 | 4.5 / 5.4 | 40MB | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 5 7600X | $299 | 6 / 12 | 4.7 / 5.3 | 38MB | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
Paired with vastly improved power delivery, which comes courtesy of a new platform, AMD’s process and architecture advances deliver truly explosive performance gains. AMD’s new chips drop into the new AM5 socket, which the company has committed to supporting until 2025, on 600-series motherboards. In addition, the new platform comes replete with support for the latest interfaces, like DDR5 and PCIe 5.
0, largely matching Intel’s connectivity options. AMD has even developed its own EXPO DDR5 memory profiles for overclocking, rivaling Intel’s XMP standard. The Ryzen 7000 chips also come loaded with other new tech, like a new Radeon RDNA 2 iGPU for basic display output and support for AVX-512 and AI instructions.
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at Amazon for $588.99
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As a quick preview of our extensive tests on the following pages, the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X makes incredible gains — it’s up to 15% faster at gaming, 21% faster in single-threaded work, and 45% faster in threaded work than its predecessor, setting a new bar for the highest-end mainstream chips. In fact, the $3,299 Threadripper Pro 5975WX is only 17% faster than the 7950X in threaded work, but it costs almost six times more.
That’s not to mention that the 7950X beats the Core i9-12900K across the board.
The Ryzen 5 7600X is equally impressive, delivering up to 18% faster gaming performance than its predecessor in tandem with 25% and 34% gains in single- and multi-threaded work, respectively, ushering in a new unmatched level of performance at the $300 price point.
Both chips beat Intel’s flagship in gaming. However, as impressive as they are, they aren’t perfect: The Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 series has a high $300 entry-level price point and only supports pricey DDR5 memory instead of including less-expensive DDR4 options like Intel. That muddies the value proposition due to the expensive overall platform costs. AMD also dialed up power consumption drastically to boost performance, inevitably resulting in more heat and a more power-hungry system. You do end up with more performance-per-watt, though.
Ryzen 7000 takes the lead in convincing fashion, but its real competitor, Raptor Lake, doesn’t come until next month.
Nevertheless, Intel claims its own impressive performance gains of 15% faster single-threaded, 41% faster threaded, and a 40% ‘overall’ performance gain, meaning we’ll see a close battle for desktop PC leadership. In the meantime, here’s how the current chips stack up. (Be sure to check out our full boost, thermals, power, and IPC testing, too.)
As a reminder, the Ryzen 7000 processors come with the N5 TSMC 5nm process node for the core compute die (CCD) and the TSMC 6nm process for the I/O Die (IOD). You can see learn about this design in our Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 all we know article.
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| Row 0 — Cell 0 | Price | Cores / Threads (P+E) | Base / Boost Clock (GHz) | Cache (L2/L3) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Memory |
| Ryzen 9 7950X | $699 | 16 / 32 | 4. 5 / 5.7 |
80MB (16+64) | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 9 5950X | $546 ($799 debut) | 16 / 32 | 3.4 / 4.9 | 74MB (8+64) | 105W | DDR4-3200 |
| Core i9-13900K / KF | ? | 24 / 32 (8+16) | 3.0 / 5.8 | 64MB (32+36) | 125W / 253W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Core i9-12900K / KF | $589 (K) — $564 (KF) | 16 / 24 (8+8) | 3.2 / 5.2 | 44MB (14+30) | 125W / 241W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 |
| Ryzen 9 7900X | $549 | 12 / 24 | 4. 7 / 5.6 |
76MB (12+64) | 170W / 230W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 7 7700X | $399 | 8 / 16 | 4.5 / 5.4 | 40MB (8+32) | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 5 7600X | $299 | 6 / 12 | 4.7 / 5.3 | 38MB (6+32) | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 7 5600X | $199 ($299 debut) | 6 / 12 | 3.7 / 4.6 | 35MB (3+32) | 65W | DDR4-3200 |
| Core i5-13600K / KF | ? | 14 / 20 (6+8) | 3. 5 / 5.1 |
44MB (20+24) | 125W / 181W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Core i5-12600K / KF | $289 (K) — $264 (KF) | 10 / 16 (6+4) | 3.7 / 4.9 | 29.5MB (9.5+20) | 125W / 150W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-4800 |
This is how Ryzen 7000 stacks up against Intel’s existing Alder Lake chips, along with information we’ve collected about Intel’s yet-to-be-fully-announced Raptor Lake. Be aware that the Raptor Lake specifications in the above table are not yet official.
The 16-core 32-thread Ryzen 9 7950X is $100 less than the original launch pricing of the Ryzen 9 5950X. AMD also kept the entry-level pricing at the same $299 with the Ryzen 5 7600X, which is a high bar for entry to the Ryzen 7000 family. Conversely, Intel has said it will increase its chip pricing due to economic factors, so we’ll have to wait to see its official pricing to judge the 7600X’s positioning.
AMD didn’t increase core counts with the Ryzen 7000 family — instead, it focused on architectural and process node enhancements that deliver more performance per core. The company also worked on improving its power delivery to unleash more performance, which we’ll dive into a bit later.
The $699 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X comes with a 4.5 GHz base and 5.7 GHz boost, with the latter being the highest boost frequency of the four initial Ryzen 7000 processors. The chip comes with 16 MB of L2 cache, a doubling over the prior-gen models, and 64MB of L3 cache. This chip has a 170W TDP rating and a max power draw of 230W, the highest power consumption of any Ryzen chip yet. The 7950X vies with Intel’s Core i9-12900K for now, but it will eventually face the Core i9-13900K that will come with eight additional efficiency cores for a total of 24 cores.
The $399 6-core Ryzen 5 7600X has a 4.7 GHz base and 5.3 GHz boost clock. This chip has 6MB of L2 cache, double that of its predecessor, and 32MB of L3.
The Ryzen 5 7600X has a 125W TDP rating and a peak power draw of 181W, marking a new high for Ryzen 5. The 7600X will compete with the Core i5-12600K for now, but the Core i9-13600K should arrive next month with an additional four e-cores, for a total of 14 cores. We also have a review of the 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 7900X here.
The Raphael processors drop into a new AM5 socket that supports the PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 interfaces, matching Alder Lake on the connectivity front. The Socket AM5 motherboards can expose up to 24 lanes of PCIe 5.0 to the user.
Ryzen 7000 supports DDR5-5200 if you install one DIMM per channel (1DPC), but that drops to DDR5-3600 for 2DPC. AMD also introduced its own new memory overclocking spec to compete with Intel’s XMP. The new EXPO profiles are very similar to the existing XMP profiles we’re accustomed to. Still, they are designed specifically for AMD processors, allowing one-click memory overclocking to predefined speeds. AMD has partnered with the major memory vendors to create EXPO kits, and the company expects 15 or more to be available at launch with speeds reaching up to DDR5-6400.
As before, AMD also supports ECC memory by default, but implementation is up to the motherboard vendor.
The Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X don’t come with bundled coolers. Instead, AMD recommends a 240-280mm liquid cooler or equivalent for Ryzen 9 processors. Meanwhile, you’ll need a mid-frame tower cooler (or equivalent) for the Ryzen 7 and 5 models. You should expect loaded temperatures to regularly reach 90C to 95C, which is within spec and won’t damage the chip.
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| Year / Processor | Peak Frequency | Frequency Gain | Process, Architecture |
| 2017 — Ryzen 7 1800X | 4.1 GHz | — | 14nm Zen 1 |
| 2018 — Ryzen 7 2700X | 4.3 GHz | +200 MHz / +5% | 12nm Zen+ |
| 2019 — Ryzen 9 3950X | 4. 7 GHz |
+400 MHz / +9% | 7nm Zen 2 |
| 2020 — Ryzen 9 5950X | 4.9 GHz | +200 MHz / +4% | 7nm Zen 3 |
| 2022 — Ryzen 9 7950X | 5.7 GHz | +800 MHz / +16% | 5nm Zen 4 |
Here we can see AMD’s progression in clock rates over the Ryzen era. As you can see, the 800 MHz increase in clock speeds with the 7000 series processors marks the largest single gain in Ryzen’s history. For now, AMD has the highest official clock speed on the market, but Intel says that Raptor Lake will have a peak 6 GHz clock rate. That will likely arrive on a pricey KS special edition model, but Intel hasn’t said when it would come to market.
This generation of chips finds the chipmakers again embroiled in a frequency war, with both chipmakers pushing their consumer chips to the highest clocks we’ve seen with their modern offerings.
That also brings higher power consumption, so we also see higher TDP figures from both chipmakers as they increase frequencies.
Naturally, we have to view the increased power consumption through the prism of how much performance-per-watt the processor provides. Here, AMD has made big strides courtesy of the architecture and process node enhancements. We’ll provide more detail in the power consumption section.
- MORE: Best CPUs for Gaming
- MORE: CPU Benchmark Hierarchy
- MORE: AMD vs Intel
- MORE: Raptor Lake All We Know
- 1
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Into the Zen 4 Era
Next Page iGPU Benchmarks and AM5 Motherboards, Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X
Paul Alcorn is the Deputy Managing Editor for Tom’s Hardware US. He writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage and enterprise hardware.
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X review: the best processor for most people
TechRadar Verdict
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is hands down the best processor on the market for most people, especially if you’re looking for phenomenal overall performance for the long term and at a great price. Just be prepared to spend more than the intial sticker price for the upgrade.
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
Pros
- +
Outstanding overall performance
- +
Accessible price point
- +
PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 for AMD systems
- +
Lower price than predecessor
Cons
- —
Requires a new motherboard
- —
No DDR4 compatibility, so new DDR5 is required
- —
Not the best for professional content creators
Why you can trust TechRadar
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Two minute review
When it comes to AMD processors, the Ryzen 9s get all the love that isn’t lavished on Threadrippers, but you sleep on the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X at your peril, since it just might be the best AMD CPU ever produced for the masses.
The Ryzen 7000 series launch lineup includes the Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, and Ryzen 5 7600X alongside the 7700X, but it’s the 7700X the looks to hit the sweet spot between performance, price, and efficiency that puts it at the top of the product stack in our estimation.
Gen over gen, the only real competition the Ryzen 7 7700X has is the Ryzen 9 5950X, which has twice the processing cores of the 7700X. Still, the Ryzen 7 7700X all but buries it in terms of real world applications and gaming, while going the distance on multi-core-heavy content creation tasks, even if it can’t outperform chips with twice the number of cores as itself.
But that’s not to say the Ryzen 7 7700X isn’t a fantastic prosumer processor for creatives, and photographers will especially want to see what the 7700X has to offer, as it runs Photoshop and Lightroom like a dream.
Video editors and 3D modelers will also find it has enough power to get the job done, and for those who might be working on a tighter budget, you can’t argue with its very accessible price point for this kind of chip.
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700X at Amazon for $332
More than anything, gamers are going to want to check this chip out since it easily goes toe to toe with the best gaming processors on the market, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and the Intel Core i9-12900K, and comes out ahead overall and at a lower MSRP.
That MSRP doesn’t tell the whole story though, since the Ryzen 7 7700X requires a whole new motherboard, and – unlike Intel Alder Lake chips – will also require you to buy DDR5 RAM, which at the moment is still pretty expensive, even as prices are coming down.
The move to the AM5 socket does bring with it PCIe 5.0 compatibility, so the Ryzen 7 7700X will be able to take advantage of both of these new technologies. Better still, the move to DDR5 also brings AMD EXPO, which is a one-click memory overclocking tech similar to Intel’s XMP. The one technology we would like to have seen on the Ryzen 7 7700X is the company’s 3D-VCache, which made the Ryzen 7 5800X3D such an excellent processor.
Even without this technology though, the move to TSMC’s 5nm node has more than made up for it, as incredible clock speeds out of the box and unlocked overclocking means that enthusiast system builders who might not have the budget to shell out for the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X won’t have to actually make all that much of a sacrifice by going with the Ryzen 7 7700X.
And for most people, the AMD Ryzen 7700X is simply the best AMD processor they are likely to see for years to come, and with the addition of DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, they’ll be ready for whatever the future throws at them.
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Price & availability
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is part of the next-gen processor vanguard, and arguably the most exciting. (Image credit: Future)
- How much does it cost? MSRP $399 (about £340 / AU$575)
- When is it available? September 27, 2022
- Where can you get it? Available in the US (UK and Australia dates forthcoming)
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is available as of September 27, 2022, for $399 in the US.
It will be available in the UK and Australia as well, though we don’t have exact pricing or availability at the time of this review. We have reached out to AMD for clarification, and we’ll update this review when we hear back. It should sell for around £340 in the UK and AU$575.
There was no AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, so an exact comparison against its predecessor is difficult, especially since the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G was an APU, so it had a very different architectural aim. That said, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X retailed for $449, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X retailed for $299, so the Ryzen 7 7700X slots in fairly well between these two.
Compared to the Intel Core i7-12700K, the Ryzen 7 7700X is about $10 cheaper (or about $20 more expensive than the i7-12700KF variant), and while we never did an explicit Core i7-12700K review, comparing it to the Intel Core i9-12900K, you can get very competitive performance with the Ryzen 7 7700X against Intel’s best processor for nearly $190 less – and that’s even considering the new AM5 motherboard and DDR5 you’ll need to buy.
Both AMD Zen 4 and Intel Alder Lake will require investment in a lot of new hardware, so the extra savings on the Ryzen 7 7700X gives it a definite advantage, but how long this will hold once Intel Raptor Lake is released later this year remains to be seen. That said, everyone is expecting Intel’s Raptor Lake chips to sell for more than their relevant Alder Lake counterparts, so AMD’s value advantage here might widen further in the weeks and months ahead.
- Value: 4.5 / 5
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AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Chipset & features
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X will require a whole new AM5 motherboard for most people, as well as DDR5 RAM. (Image credit: Future)
- PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 come to Ryzen chips
- Significantly faster clock speeds and 5nm architecture
- No 3D-VCache
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X key specs
Process: 5nm
Socket: AM5
Cores: 8
Threads: 16
Base frequency: 4.5GHz
Boost frequency: 5.4GHz
L3 cache: 40MB
TDP: 105W
PCIe: 5.0
Max RAM: 128GB Dual-Channel DDR5
Unlocked: Yes
Integrated Graphics: 2-core RDNA 2 GPU
The eight-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is among the first AMD Zen 4 processors to launch, featuring Team Red’s next-generation 5nm architecture along with PCIe 5.
0 and DDR5 RAM support.
These latter two features bring AMD into line with Intel, which released its initial Alder Lake lineup in November 2021. Unfortunately, the new Ryzen 7000-series doesn’t include DDR4 RAM compatibility, which Alder Lake chips still support, as will the 13th-generation Intel Raptor Lake.
You do, however, get TSMC’s new 5nm FinFET and significantly increased clock speeds for faster, more efficient cores. There was no Ryzen 7 5700X, so the nearest comparable predecessor was the eight-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, which had a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz.
The Ryzen 7 7700X meanwhile has a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, which is a base clock increase of just over 18% and a nearly 15% increase in boost clock speed. This also puts the 7700X’s base clock nearly within striking distance of the boost clock of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (4.90 GHz).
And while the Ryzen 7 7700X doesn’t come with 3D-VCache like the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, it still features 8MB more L3 Cache (40MB total) than the 5800X’s 32MB, or a 25% L3 cache boost.
AMD redesigned the chip housing for the Ryzen 7000-series, and not everyone is happy about it. (Image credit: Future)
Looking over at the big.LITTLE design of the 10nm i7-12700K, you have eight performance cores (P-cores) with a total of 16 threads and four efficiency cores (E-cores), with one thread each, so the Ryzen 7 7700X is at a slight thread disadvantage.
The i7-12700K’s core clocks are also significantly «slower», with its P-core base clock at 3.60 GHz and its boost clock hitting 4.9GHz. It’s E-core base clock runs at 2.70GHz, boostable to 3.80GHz. All Ryzen 7 7700X cores are performance cores, so even though its base clock is 25% faster than that of the i7-12700K’s P-cores and its boost clock running just over 10% faster than the i7-12700K’s P-cores, Intel’s chips still have a slight advantage thanks to its E-cores managing background tasks that can bog down the Ryzen 7 7700X’s cores.
On top of that, the Ryzen 7 7700X has a lower TDP (105W) than the i7-12700K (125W), so it doesn’t have nearly as much raw power flowing through it, which makes its performance all the more impressive owing to it also being a more efficient processor, but more on that in a bit.
Finally, it does have to be noted that the die housing and connectors have changed (no more bendable pins!), and the «feet» of the housing can get gunked up with thermal paste if you’re not careful.
Fortunately, you really shouldn’t have much trouble with this after you slot the chip into your new board and slap your old AM4 cooler on it, since AMD uses the same hardware for securing a cooler to the chip as it did with AM4. You might have to buy new RAM, but at least you don’t have to go shopping for a new CPU cooler if you are upgrading from an AM4 chip (assuming the cooler can handle the increased thermal load, that is).
- Features: 5 / 5
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Performance
- Outstanding gaming performance
- Sizeable overall performance jump, gen-over-gen
- Integrated 2-core RDNA 2 GPU
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The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a substantial leap over all of the Ryzen 5000-series processors that preceded it, and essentially delivers comparable performance to the Ryzen 9 5950X when averaged over all benchmarks.
Whether its raw single-core or multi-core performance, real-world use, content creation, or gaming performance, the Ryzen 7 7700X brushes aside pretty much every other processor on the market we’ve tested that isn’t the Core i9-12900K or the Ryzen 9 7950X.
On specific benchmarks, it might fall behind the Core i9-12900K – which was the best processor on the market until the Ryzen 9 7950X came along – or the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which was the best gaming processor around until the Ryzen 7 7700X took the lead (for now).
And this does include the Ryzen 9 7950X, which scored just behind the Ryzen 7 7700X, on average, in our tests. We’ve yet to test the Ryzen 9 7900X, so this might change in a few weeks, but with an MSRP $50 less than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, this is definitely the processor to consider when looking for a new gaming CPU.
The 7700X only really gets completely blown out by the i9-12900K in terms of raw multi-core performance, which was a fight an eight-core, 16-thread processor could never win against a 16-core/24-thread chip in just one generation.
Still, across all categories, the Ryzen 7 7700X is consistently in the mix on most benchmarks, even if it isn’t always winning. But there are still plenty of surprises from this CPU, including a 25.28% improvement in overall performance against the Ryzen 7 5800X, and a 35.39% increase over the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G.
This latter chip is comparable to the Ryzen 7 7700X in that it has an integrated GPU, unlike the Ryzen 7 5700X, but it has a much 40W lower TDP (65W against 105W) and half the L3 cache, so the 5700G really never stood a chance here.
Interestingly, the Ryzen 7 7700X scores 15.12% lower than the Core i9-12900K overall, but this makes up half the ground of the Ryzen 7 5800X’s 32.25% overall performance shortfall against the same chip.
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On synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 7700X’s single core performance pulls slightly ahead of the Core i9-12900K on average, and averages about a 27% increase in single-core performance over the Ryzen 7 5800X, and a just over 33% increase in multi-core performance.
In terms of general computing performance as measured by PCMark 10, edges out the Core i9-12900K (9,512 to 9,399), and handily beats the Ryzen 7 5800X (9,512 to 8,305) for a 14% better performance, on average.
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When it comes to content creation, multicore performance really is king, and this is arguably the Ryzen 7 7700X’s «weakest» category. When it comes to video editing and encoding as well as 3D rendering, the Core i9-12900K pretty much takes the crown in every test, coming in second to the Ryzen 9 5950X in Blender 3.3.0’s Junkshop rendering test, (112 to 120, respectively). The Ryzen 7 7700X comes in a respectable third with a score of 90, however, well ahead of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D (68) and the Core i5-12600K (66).
The Ryzen 7 7700X does score at least one win though, and by a pretty wide margin.
It does very well with PugetBench for Photoshop, scoring a 1,478 to the Core i9-12900K’s 1,396. Only the Ryzen 9 7950X scored better in our tests (1,487), and honestly that is well within the margin of error to consider it a tie, in our opinion.
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In terms of gaming, we tested the Ryzen 7 7700X against competing chips using a standard 1080p game resolution, with the lowest graphics settings possible using an RTX 3090 graphics card to remove any potential GPU performance bottlenecks to isolate the CPU performance during our gaming benchmarks.
Consistently, the Ryzen 7 7700X went toe-to-toe with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which has substantially more L3 cache which dramatically speeds up CPU gaming performance.
Which one came out the FPS winner depends on the game, but on average, the Ryzen 7 7700X edges out every other chip we tested, with the Core i9-12900K taking the win in Cyberpunk 2077 and Total War: Warhammer III, but even then it was very close.
The most notable thing about the performance of the Ryzen 7 7700X is how it manages to perform as well as it does against chips with the same or higher TDP. Over our entire testing session with the 7700X, it maxed out its power draw at 121.222W and more or less matched the performance of the Ryzen 9 5950X, which needed 144.895W at its peak.
Worse still is the Core i9-12900K, which did outperform the Ryzen 7 7700X by about 18% overall, but its max power draw was 251.61W, or more than double the Ryzen 7 7700X’s peak power usage.
The long and short of it is that even though the 7700X is fighting more powerful processors to a draw or at least putting up a good fight in defeat, it is expending much less energy to do so.
- Performance: 5 / 5
Should you buy the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X?
(Image credit: Future)
Buy it if.
..
You want one of the best gaming processors around
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is the best gaming processor we’ve tested, on average. More chips are on the way, but for right now, this one takes the crown.
You want great performance for your money
The value proposition of the Ryzen 7 7700X is undeniable, and though it’s entry price is more midrange than budget, it is well worth stretching your budget a bit if you can.
You want an integrated GPU
The Ryzen 7 7700X comes with a dual-core RDNA 2 GPU built in, so you don’t need a discrete graphics card, which is great for general business purposes.
Don’t buy it if…
You need best-in-class content creation performance
While this chip is great for just about everything, content creation performance is respectable, but there are better chips for that kind of work.
You’re on a tight budget
The Ryzen 7 7700X is going to require a new motherboard and DDR5 RAM to use, so if you don’t already have an AM5 board and DDR5 RAM handy, this might be a much more expensive upgrade than its MSRP lets on.
Also Consider
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
If you’re looking for the best gaming processor that doesn’t require you to upgrade your motherboard and RAM to use, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is still the best gaming CPU for the AM4 socket.
Read more: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
If money is no object or you’re at least willing to spend the extra $300, the Ryzen 9 7950X is easily the best processor to hit the consumer market in terms of raw performance, but it’s definitely for the enthusiasts out there rather than the «value» shoppers.
Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X review
Intel Core i9-12900K
If you’re looking for the best processor for content creation, you’re going to be hard pressed to find better than the Core i9-12900K. It’s expensive, sure, but this is the processor you’re going to want for video editing, rendering, and the like.
Read more: Intel Core i9-12900K review
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Final Report Card
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| Value | At $399, it’s cheaper than its predecessor on paper, but unless you have an AM5 motherboard and DDR5 RAM kit handy, this can be a costly upgrade. | 4.5 / 5 |
| Features | The introduction of PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 is a welcome addition, as is TSMC’s 5nm process, but the lack of DDR4 support is a slight ding on an otherwise fantastic design. | 4.5 / 5 |
| Performance | Across the board, this processor can more than hold it’s own against Intel’s best, and it can even outperform it when it comes to general everyday use and gaming. And while it’s content creation chops fall short of AMD and Intel’s 16-core beasts, this is a fantastic compromise for content creators on a budget. |
5 / 5 |
| Final score (average) | As a pure value proposition, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is probably the only processor most people outside of professional video production teams and PC enthusiasts will need for at least another decade. | 4.67 / 5 |
- First reviewed September 2022
How we test processors
When it comes to processors, we look at four key metrics: synthetic single and multi-core performance, «general» performance, creative performance, and gaming performance.
- Synthetic single and multi-core benchmarks test the performance of specific instruction sets and processor operations like floating-point calculations using benchmark tools like GeekBench, Cinebench, and CPU-Z.
- General performance is how the processor performs during typical use conditions using PCMark 10.
- Creative performance is a measure of how well the processor performs in several popular creative workloads like Handbrake, Blender, and Adobe Photoshop.
Where possible, we explicitly disable GPU accelerated operations or test rendering using the CPU by itself. - Gaming performance measures how well the processor calculates gaming operations like in-game physics by running several games’ integrated benchmark tools like CyberPunk 2077, Metro: Exodus, and F1 2022. In all cases, we run the benchmarks on the lowest graphics settings available at 1080p and using the most powerful graphics card we have available and with 32GB RAM to isolate the actual CPU operations we are testing without having to worry about inteference with excessive memory or graphics management.
Once this is done, we average the scores across each category for a final report card broken down by use case, and then we finally divide these scores by the processor’s MSRP to measure its performance-for-price to determine how good of a overall value the processor is for the average consumer.
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Price Comparison
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John (He/Him) is the US Computing Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.
Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.
You can find him online on Twitter at @thisdotjohn
Currently playing: The Last Stand: Aftermath, Cartel Tycoon
best processors from Intel and AMD » Pro100Gamers
Last year, the best processors for gaming were not just gradually better, as they do every year, but radically, fundamentally better. Intel’s Alder Lake family has already solidified its position after a brilliant launch with several more affordable processors such as the Core i5-12400F found below, while AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series has received a striking new design and plenty of future-proofing features. This is truly an exciting time for the small silver rectangle market.
Naturally, amid all the talk of DDR5 compatibility, hybrid architectures, and PCIe 5.0 capabilities, a gaming processor should ultimately run games well and unleash the full potential of the best graphics cards. It remains a matter of balance between core count and clock speed: faster cores will allow your PC to recalculate numbers fast enough to get more frames per second, and while having more cores has generally been better for workstations than gaming platforms, modern games are better.
optimized to take advantage of multiple cores simultaneously.
Intel’s current 12th generation Alder Lake series chips are particularly good at finding this balance. Their hybrid architecture allows them to dedicate the fastest cores to gaming tasks and offload background tasks to smaller, more efficient cores, a clever tactic that makes Alder Lake chips win our benchmarks.
For now, you can find our picks of the best gaming processors below, all based on our own testing.
Best gaming processor 2023
Intel Core i5-12600K
Best Intel processor for gaming and best processor for gaming overall
Intel Core i5-12600K Specifications: Cores / Threads: 10 (6P + 4E) / 16 Base clock: 3.7GHz (P cores), 2.8GHz (E cores) Maximum clock speed: 4.9 GHz (P cores), 3.6 GHz (E cores) Motherboard socket: LGA 1700 Recommended motherboard chipsets: Z690/H670/B660/H610 Cooler Included: No PCIe 4.0 Support: Yes TDP: 150W
If Intel’s 11th Gen Rocket Lake lineup was just an intermediate option, then the Intel Core i5-12600K is what many have been waiting for.
While it’s more expensive than the Core i5-11600K (and its main competitor, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, discussed below), it’s worth it, thanks in no small part to the new hybrid architecture. The addition of E-cores increases the total number of cores without affecting the thermal and power requirements of the main P-cores too much; as a result, the Core i5-12600K gets a significant boost in single-core performance over previous generations and an even greater increase in multi-core capability.
Of course, this does not lead to a drastic increase in gaming performance, but it is still an improvement — so much so that this chip overtook the Ryzen 5 5600X in our gaming benchmarks. Temperatures are also low enough for the Core i5-12600K to pair well with the base air cooler, so the only concern for installation will be getting an Intel 600-series motherboard.
In addition to better performance, the Core i5-12600K also offers better future protection than the Ryzen 5 5600X. It supports DDR5 RAM as well as DDR4 and will be compatible with PCIe 5.
0 hardware as soon as it becomes available. Like all 12th generation Alder Lake chips, it also increases the number of available PCIe 4.0 lanes over Rocket Lake. Overall, this is the best all-around processor we’ve tested.
Intel Core i5-12400F
Best Inexpensive Gaming Processor
Intel Core i5-12400F Specifications: Cores / Threads: 6 (P-cores only) / 12 Base clock: 2.5 GHz Maximum clock frequency: 4.4GHz Motherboard socket: LGA 1700 Motherboard chipset: Z690/H670/B660/H610 Cooler Included: No Unlocked for overclocking: No PCIe 4.0 Support: Yes TDP: 65W
There’s a strong case to put the Intel Core i5-12400F at the top of this list; in my gaming tests, it was either on par with the Core i5-12600K or slightly faster, despite having fewer cores and a noticeably lower price.
To be honest, if the Core i5-12600K wasn’t unlocked for overclocking and didn’t have extra E cores to handle background processes, then the Core i5-12400F could well take the top spot.
But I still recommend it, especially if you don’t have the skills or the means to overclock. Or, really, if you only want a PC for gaming and nothing else — the Core i5-12400F may have «only» 6 P cores, but as it turns out, that’s all you need to get high-end performance even with a high-end graphics card.
In addition, the Core i5-12400F is not a weakling for general computing. It outperforms the Ryzen 5 5600X in Cinebench, and its modest power requirements keep it quiet and cool even on a cheap air cooler.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Best AMD Processor for Gaming
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Specifications: Cores / Threads: 6 / 12 Base clock: 3.7GHz Maximum clock frequency: 4.6 GHz Motherboard socket: AM4 Recommended motherboard chipsets: B550/X570 Cooler Included: Yes PCIe 4.0 Support: Yes TDP: 65W
Intel’s Alder Lake chips are generally more attractive, but AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X is an equally capable gaming processor. In many games, you probably won’t even notice the difference in FPS between this CPU, the Core i5-12600K, and the Core i5-12400F.
Indeed, thanks to the AMD Zen 3 architecture, the Ryzen 5 5600X CPU is both fast and highly efficient, reducing heat generation and directing more PSU power to the graphics card. Plus, it comes with its own cooler, and you don’t need mega-expensive or super-fast RAM to get the most out of your processor—which isn’t always true on the other side of the fence where Intel stands. What’s more, Ryzen 5 5600X is compatible with all AMD motherboards based on X570 and B550 chipsets with AM4 socket, and most X470 and B450 motherboards will support it after BIOS update, giving you more flexibility when choosing a motherboard.
Yes, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5900X processors are technically slightly faster and better for tasks like video editing, streaming, etc., but if all you want is a solid foundation for good old gaming PC, the Ryzen 5 5600X offers everything you need (especially since our tests showed that its gaming performance really doesn’t fall far behind its more expensive brethren).
AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
Best Budget CPU for Gaming
AMD Ryzen 3300X Specifications: Cores / Threads: 4 / 8 Base clock: 3.8GHz Maximum clock frequency: 4.3 GHz Motherboard socket: AM4 Recommended motherboard chipset: B450/B550 Cooler Included: Yes PCIe 4.0 Support: Yes TDP: 65W
It’s hard to find on sale these days, but the AMD Ryzen 3 3300X remains a very good entry-level gaming processor…if you can get it. It is significantly cheaper than all of its Intel competitors and offers a surprising amount of power for its modest price. Indeed, in our tests, it nearly matched AMD’s more expensive Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen 5 3600X processors, making it a much better buy for PC builders on a budget.
Overall desktop performance of the Ryzen 3 3300X is also strong for a quad-core processor. What’s more, its single-core performance actually outperforms the Core i5-10600K in my benchmark tests, cementing its status as one of the best-priced processors in the world.
It’s a fantastic choice for both gaming and everyday desktop use, and it comes with its own very good cooler, making it even more value for money.
Again, keep in mind that the Ryzen 3 3300X has been very hard to come by since its release, and it is currently unknown when it will be available again. For now, you can also wait and see if an equivalent entry-level model will appear in the Ryzen 7000 series and be worth buying instead — there’s a good chance it will, and with more modern specs like PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support.
Intel Core i9-12900K
Best High-End CPU for Gaming
Best CPU for Gaming 2023: Best Intel And Amd 6 Processors
Intel Core i9-12900K Specifications: Cores / Threads: 16 (8P + 8E) / 24 Base clock: 3.2GHz (P cores), 2.4GHz (E cores) Maximum clock speed: 5.2GHz (P cores), 3.9GHz (E cores) Motherboard socket: LGA 1700 Recommended motherboard chipsets: Z690/H670/B660/H610 Cooler Included: No PCIe 4.0 Support: Yes TDP: 241W
Let me start by saying that you absolutely don’t need a powerful processor like the Intel Core i9-12900K just for gaming.
However, if you’re only willing to pay top dollar for the very best CPUs, there’s nothing on the market that can beat this 16-core goliath in sheer power.
Even the Ryzen 9 5950X — which, to Intel’s credit, is even more expensive — can’t match the top-notch 12th generation in terms of single-core and multi-core performance. So if you’re using your gaming PC for tasks like streaming or video editing, there’s a strong case for this processor. And while the Core i5-12600K remains much more profitable specifically for gaming, the additional speed of the i9 P-coreswill help squeeze a few more frames out of top-end video cards. The
Core i5-12600K also runs much cooler and consumes much, much less power under load, so you’ll need to make sure the Core i9-12900K is accompanied by a quality liquid cooler and a powerful PSU. You will have to overcome quite a few obstacles, but in the end you will be rewarded with the fastest gaming processor of the current generation.
Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the best AMD processor for Socket AM4
June 27
2022
Back in early 2022, AMD introduced the Ryzen 7 5800X3D gaming processor with revolutionary 3D V-Cache memory technology.
The novelty was positioned as the best gaming processor in principle or the last flagship CPU for the AM4 platform, which will partially lose its relevance this autumn due to the release of the Zen 4 processor family with support for DDR5 memory and a new edition of the PCIe interface. Only at the beginning of summer, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D finally reached the shelves of Ukrainian stores, so it’s time to look at the new product from the “reds”, which was destined to surpass Intel products on its territory — in games.
Brief Specifications
From the name alone, it’s obvious that the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a modification of the Ryzen 7 5800X with 3D V-Cache memory, which we’ll talk about a little later. Before us is the flagship home processor for the AM4 platform with 8 cores, 16 threads, a frequency of 3.4GHz-4.5GHz and a rather modest power consumption of 105W. AMD engineers managed to cut the Ryzen 7 5800X a little for the sake of efficiency and ease of use, while not losing in pure performance, although without record overclocking figures.
The accelerator controller is capable of working with dual-channel DDR4 3200 RAM, which is the standard for the AM4 platform.
3D V-Cache technology
The main interest in the updated processor is the built-in cache memory. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D uses a record-breaking 96MB L3 cache for the home segment, 64MB of which are built using 3D V-Cache technology — vertical placement of chips directly on the chip. The world’s first 3D V-Cache processor is designed and manufactured using TSMC’s 7nm FinFET process technology to increase component density and improve overall CPU power efficiency. 9 L3 Cache6MB is able to increase the efficiency of computing and reduce delays in data exchange. AMD marketers claim a 15% advantage of the $449.99 processor over the $609 Intel Core 12900K competitor and last year’s own Ryzen 7 5800X solution.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D real test video below does show a 5-15% performance increase, but not in all games.
For example, in Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5, the Intel Core 12900K outperforms the new product from the Reds, while RDR 2, Hitman 3, Death Stranding work better on a processor with 3D V-Cache memory.
Current gaming processor prices 2022
Intel has finally taken a step into the future with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 with the release of Alder Lake processors, while AMD will take this step this fall. However, the solutions available today to the buyer are more than enough for NVIDIA and AMD video cards, so the choice traditionally comes down to cost.
Comparison chart of the best Intel and AMD processors in the LuckyLink online store
|
Name |
Features |
Price |
|
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (100-100000061WOF) |
12 cores, 24 threads, 64 MB L3 cache, up to 4. |
