AMD Ryzen 7 3700X review
Our Verdict
The Ryzen 7 3700X doesn’t dazzle with a dozen cores, but it’s still an impressive CPU. It’s the sensible choice when compared with the more extreme 3900X.
For
- Efficient and fast
- PCIe Gen4 and 7nm
- Relatively affordable
Against
- Slightly slower in games
- Limited overclocking potential
- Is the firmware done yet?
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AMD’s third-generation Ryzen CPUs boast higher clockspeeds and more cores than the previous first and second gen parts, and the Ryzen 7 3700X is now one of the best CPUs for gaming. Zen 2 CPUs are so good that AMD almost doesn’t need the faster offerings. Its second-string 3700X is perfectly capable of running the offense, and it isn’t quite as demanding when it comes to signing bonuses and contracts. For those teams (aka PCs) with salary cap concerns that can’t quite justify chasing the 3900X, the 3700X is a versatile QB that can throw a quick short pass, scamper downfield for a modest gain, or even launch the long ball when occasion requires.
When it comes to playing football—running PC games—there’s not a huge difference between the 3700X and the 3900X. In fact, there’s hardly any difference at all. For gaming, the 3700X and 3900X are effectively tied, and you can safely ignore the barely faster 3800X.
It’s 1-4 percent better (according to tests at Tom’s Hardware) for the extra $70. But I’m jumping ahead.
Here’s what the specs on AMD’s 2nd and 3rd gen Ryzen parts look like:
(Image credit: Future)
Maximum boost clocks on the 3800X are only 100MHz higher than the 3700X, but minimum ‘guaranteed’ clocks are potentially 300MHz higher. In practice, however, the 3700X mostly runs well above the minimum clockspeed, particularly in light to medium workloads. If you do a lot of 3D rendering or video encoding, moving to the Ryzen 9 3900X makes sense, but for everyone else the 3700X is a great choice. Alternatively, the previous gen AMD parts are now priced to move—the Ryzen 7 2700X regularly sells for $220 or less.
I’ve covered the architectural updates in detail elsewhere (Ryzen 3000 and Zen 2 architectural updates), so I’m not going to rehash that here. Basically, Zen 2 is better, smaller, and faster than Zen+ and the original Zen architectures. How much faster? That depends on what you’re doing, so let’s get to the benchmarks.
(Image credit: Future)
Ryzen 7 3700X testbed
Ryzen 7 3700X
Wraith Prism cooler
MSI MEG X570 Godlike
16GB G.Skill DDR4-3200 CL14
Corsair Force MP600 2TB
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G3
Phanteks Eclipse
All of the benchmarks that follow were done running the latest Windows 10 May 2019 update, with updated drivers and BIOS firmware. Unlike some other sites (and I’m not faulting their testing protocols. It’s just not how I do things), all CPUs are tested with high speed DDR4-3200 CL14 memory, with XMP memory profiles enabled. That’s sort of overclocking, and potentially helps AMD CPUs more than Intel chips, but this is the lightest/easiest form of overclocking around and all modern CPUs have easily handled the higher memory speeds. Every PC is on equal footing as much as possible, in other words.
As with other Ryzen CPUs, I didn’t do extensive overclocking tests on the Ryzen 7 3700X. That’s because it generally doesn’t help much. You sacrifice boost clocks for higher all-core clocks, though with the 3700X there’s at least a bit more gain from enabling Precision Boost Overdrive.
It’s still only 200MHz extra at best, which means less than a 5 percent improvement, and often in the 1-3 percent range. The days of massive gains via overclocking your CPU are largely behind us now. Intel’s Core i9-9900K might get an extra 400MHz vs. stock, and AMD’s CPUs might get an extra 200-300MHz, which just isn’t that exciting. It’s the blessing and curse of increased competition.
All of AMD’s third-gen parts were tested in the MSI MEG X570 Godlike board (with similar results from Asus and Gigabyte boards). Besides the memory, I used a Gigabyte Aorus NVMe Gen4 2TB SSD for the main drive (another part of the AMD review kit), with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition graphics card.
(Image credit: Future)
Ryzen 7 3700X gaming performance
Starting with gaming performance, here’s how the Ryzen 7 3700X stacks up. All ten games are tested at 1080p ‘ultra’ (generally the highest possible settings, outside of super-sample anti-aliasing), and each test is run multiple times to ensure the consistency of results.
Minimum fps is calculated as the average fps for the bottom three percent of frametimes—find the 97 percentile frametime, and sum up all frametimes above that, dividing by the number of frames. This provides a more useful metric than pure minimum fps or pure 97 percentile.
Image 1 of 11
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future)Image 1 of 11
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future)Out of ten games tested, the 3700X and 3900X are pretty much tied, with the 3900X hanging on to a scant 0.
5 percent lead in framerates. That’s well within margin of error, and that’s with an RTX 2080 Ti at 1080p; move up to 1440p or 4K, or downgrade to a slower GPU, and the gap would almost completely disappear.
What about Intel and its Core i7-9700K and Core i9-9900K? The 9700K actually tops the overall gaming performance chart—yup, Hyper-Threading isn’t always beneficial for games. That makes the 9700K 10 percent than the 3700X, while the 9900K is 9 percent faster. Of course, that’s when running games at 1080p with the fastest current GPU available. The gap would be substantially smaller at 1440p and basically non-existent at 4K.
In other words, like the 3900X, AMD can’t lay claim to the gaming performance crown and in fact comes in behind even the older i7-7700K, depending on the game. If gaming is your number one priority, you’re still better off with an Intel CPU (never mind the various security exploits that have been patched over the past 18 months).
(Image credit: Future)
Ryzen 7 3700X application performance
Hit the showers and leave the field of games behind, and differences between the 9700K and 3700X swap places.
Thanks to the extra threads available via SMT, the 3700X is about 18 percent faster than the 9700K in multithreaded workloads. Include all of the benchmarks and it’s about a 7 percent lead for AMD overall—and at a lower price, since you’d still need an aftermarket cooler with the 9700K.
Image 1 of 22
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future)As I discussed in the 3900X review, it’s important to remember what these CPU benchmarks really mean.
3D rendering and y-cruncher are great tools for using all possible CPU resources. They’re also tools that the vast majority of people will never use (3D rendering in particular). Video encoding at least has some bearing on streaming performance, though I still think amateur streamers are better off using GPU encoding, and pro streamers should have a dedicated streaming PC.
The Zen 2 architectural updates are definitely a factor in CPU performance, and TSMC’s 7nm process gives AMD a manufacturing lead over Intel for the first time in… ever. Look no further than power use, where the 3700X topped out at 179W for heavily multithreaded workloads compared to the 9900K’s 242W, or the 9700K’s 208W. Intel’s 10nm node is now shipping, and may ultimately prove similar or perhaps even superior to TSMC’s 7nm, but it’s only in laptop parts and that doesn’t look set to change any time soon. Instead, rumors are that future 10th Gen 14nm Comet Lake Intel processors will keep Intel’s desktop playoff hopes alive.
Which feels incredibly weird, but whatever.
(Image credit: Future)
Ryzen 7 3700X is an impressive CPU
AMD’s Ryzen processors continue to put the pressure on Intel, forcing increasingly potent CPUs into mainstream pricing. With third generation Ryzen, AMD effectively sounds the death-knell for HEDT platforms. I still love the idea of extreme performance, and the 56-core and 64-core server chips are cool, but I certainly don’t need them in my home PC. Frankly, with chips like the Ryzen 9 3900X, I don’t need any of the HEDT processors from Intel or AMD. When you can get a great 8-core chip for $329, and 12-core chips for $499, why bother with a more expensive motherboard, memory, CPU, and PSU?
Ryzen 7 3700X is a great CPU overall, and it’s arguably the sensible choice for most users. Why blow a ton of cash on your CPU and then have to cut back on your graphics card, storage, motherboard, and/or memory? Bang for the buck is always better if you step down a notch or two from the top-of-the-line parts.
Raw performance is nice, but the balanced approach is often better. There’s nothing wrong with backing off a bit and getting a slightly less potent part at a far more reasonable price.
(Image credit: Future)
There are really only two potential concerns with the Ryzen 7 3700X. First, if you are planning on buying a top-tier GPU like the RTX 2080 Ti or RTX 2080 Super, and if you’re shooting for 144fps, Intel CPUs still win out in gaming performance. It varies by game, but at 1080p ultra I’ve measured up to a 30 percent difference in framerates, and even at 1440p high can still favor faster CPUs.
Second, overclocking of the latest AMD and Intel CPUs is becoming severely limited. On Intel, you can at least play with individual core multipliers, so maybe 5.0GHz on all cores, and 5.2GHz on 1/2-core loads. If you manually overclock an AMD chip, it’s one multiplier, period. So you might lose singlethreaded performance for a slight gain in multithreaded performance. PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) allows the CPU to exceed the default clockspeeds depending on thermals, though you’ll generally want liquid cooling and still only get an extra 200MHz at most.
And just to be clear, neither of those drawbacks are insurmountable problems.
Anyone looking at building an AMD based PC will find a lot to like with the Ryzen 7 3700X. It’s basically as fast as the more expensive third gen Ryzen parts when it comes to gaming, and certainly fast enough for most other tasks. It’s also about 10 percent faster than the previous generation Ryzen 7 2700X in gaming performance, and 15 percent faster overall. And it might improve even a bit more if AMD and its partners ever get the firmware and turbo stuff sorted out.
Read our review policy
Ryzen 7 3700X
The Ryzen 7 3700X doesn’t dazzle with a dozen cores, but it’s still an impressive CPU. It’s the sensible choice when compared with the more extreme 3900X.
Jarred’s love of computers dates back to the dark ages when his dad brought home a DOS 2.3 PC and he left his C-64 behind. He eventually built his first custom PC in 1990 with a 286 12MHz, only to discover it was already woefully outdated when Wing Commander was released a few months later.
He holds a BS in Computer Science from Brigham Young University and has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge ‘3D decelerators’ to today’s GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | TechRadar
TechRadar Verdict
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is a brilliant piece of hardware. With a TDP of just 65W, this chip is capable of delivering raw performance that would take other processors much more power to equal. The reasonable price tag is just a bonus.
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The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is the perfect representation of what AMD has tried to do for its mainstream consumers. It not only gets a boost in power over the chip it’s replaced but it offers lower power consumption as well.
And, while it might not quite match the performance of other AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation processors such as the Ryzen 9 3900X, it offers a lot of performance for not a lot of money.
Building on the Ryzen 7 2700X’s 8-core, 16-thread setup, it is the ideal CPU for a lot of users.
Essentially, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X has a lot going for it, from its performance and low power consumption to its very reasonable price. It is the best CPU for the masses. And, if you’re not convinced, just read the rest of this review to see what this processor is truly made of.
This is everything you get with the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X. (Image credit: Future)
Price and availability
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (LED AMD Ryzen 7) at Amazon for $263
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X was rolled out on July 7, 2019 for $329 (£319, AU$519), which puts it in the same general price range as the last-generation Ryzen 7 2700X. This means that at least we’re not seeing any considerable price jumps from generation to generation.
It gets more interesting, however, when you compare the Ryzen 7 3700X to its main competitor. The Intel Core i7-9700K is available for $374 (£384, AU$595), an 8-core processor with no hyperthreading, which means that the Ryzen 7 3700X offers twice the processing threads at a lower price tag.
Intel is still king when it comes to single-core performance, but when it comes to multi-core ones, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is the absolute beast.
Image 1 of 9
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X’s single-threaded performance still falls behind Intel. (Image credit: Infogram)
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an absolute behemoth when it comes to multi-threaded workloads. (Image credit: Infogram) The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X’s single-threaded performance still falls behind Intel. (Image credit: Infogram) The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an absolute behemoth when it comes to multi-threaded workloads. (Image credit: Infogram) (Image credit: Infogram) The Ryzen 7 3700X has lower power consumption and higher performance at the same time. (Image credit: Infogram) The Ryzen 7 3700X has lower power consumption and higher performance at the same time. (Image credit: Infogram) The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X has less stringent cooling needs. (Image credit: Infogram) The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X has less stringent cooling needs.
(Image credit: Infogram)
Specs and chipset
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, like the rest of AMD’s Zen 2 processors, is built on a 7nm manufacturing node – the smallest in a commercially available CPU. What this means for most people is lower power consumption and much improved performance at the same time.
This decision to 7nm has brought a beefy 15% boost to IPC (instructions per clock) performance. Effectively, compared to a Ryzen 2nd Generation processor at the same clock speed, you will get a straight 15% increase in performance. That’s not big enough to be evident in day-to-day workloads, but it does still mean something.
The improvements don’t just end at IPC. With Ryzen 3rd Generation, as the CPU cores are on their own chiplets, AMD was able to pack way more L2 and L3 cache into the Ryzen 7 3700X – with 4MB and 32MB, respectively. Essentially, this processor has a grand total of 36MB of Cache, which AMD lumps together as ‘GameCache’. This GameCache isn’t anything entirely new, but it does show that this will help boost gaming performance in some cases – especially in older 1080p esports games.
The major addition to the 3rd Generation of Ryzen, however, is PCIe 4.0. When paired with an AMD Navi graphics card like the Radeon RX 5700 XT or RX 5700, you’ll experience much better performance, thanks to increased bandwidth.
However, the way we look at it, SSDs are the real stars of the PCIe 4.0 show. Through this superior connection, NVMe SSDs are potentially up to 51% faster than their non-PCIe 4.0 peers. In our own testing, the Aorus PCIe 4.0 SSD that AMD provided was able to get up to 4,996 MB/s sequential read speeds. That’s remarkably fast for an SSD.
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The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X managed 118 fps when paired with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. (Image credit: Infogram)
(Image credit: Infogram) (Image credit: Infogram) (Image credit: Infogram)Test system specs
CPU: 3.8Ghz AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8-core, 36MB cache, up to 4.4GHz)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
RAM: 16GB G.
Skill Royale DDR4 (3,400MHz)
Motherboard: ASRock Taichi X570
Power Supply: Corsair RM850x
Storage: 2TB Gigabyte Aorus M.2 SSD (NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4) Case: Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB
Operating system: Windows 10
Performance
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X has a 65W TDP, and with that fairly low amount of power, it’s able to deliver quite a lot. This processor can keep up with even the Intel Core i9-9900K, a processor that considerably costs more and consumes more power, with its TDP of 95W.
The proof is in our benchmarks. In Cinebench R15, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X got 2,087 points, next to the 1,873 scored by the Intel Core i9-9900K.
In addition, the Ryzen 7 3700X scored a monstrous 34,515 in Geekbench compared to the 9900K’s 33,173 in the multi-core test. However, in the single-core test the Ryzen 7 3700X did fall behind, only scoring 5,590 points to the 9900K’s 6,333.
What this all means is that the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an absolute beast when it comes to multi-threaded workloads, especially at this price point. If you’re counting on doing some video editing or compiling one hell of an Excel spreadsheet, you’re going to see firsthand a performance boost with the Ryzen 7 3700X.
In gaming, however, Intel pulls ahead, though only by a smaller margin than before. In Middle Earth: Shadow of War at 4K, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X managed 118 fps when paired with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, compared to the 120fps that the Intel Core i9-9900K was able to produce. That’s not a substantial difference by any means, but it is still a win in Intel’s corner.
We do have to commend AMD, however, for including the Wraith Spire cooler with the Ryzen 7 3700X. While it isn’t exactly the most robust cooler in the world, it was able to keep the processor under 80 degrees Celsius, even during the most intensive tests.
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is another impressive release from AMD and its 3rd Generation of Ryzen chips.
(Image credit: Future)
Final verdict
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is another impressive release from AMD and its 3rd Generation of Ryzen chips. With it, you’re getting 8-cores and 16-threads, with a boost clock of 4.4GHz. It may not be the strongest contender ever made on paper, but when you see and feel the actual performance gains it offers, you’re certainly getting a lot of bang for your $329 (£319, AU$519) buck.
Bear in mind, however, that if you already have something like the Ryzen 7 2700X, this generation doesn’t offer the biggest boost in performance. You might want to wait another year or so before dropping a few hundred bucks, or even opt to splurge on a higher-end but pricier chip.
With another remarkable chip from the Ryzen 3000 series, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for AMD processors. If the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is any indication, Team Red’s recent upset isn’t likely to end any time soon.
First reviewed July 2019
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Jackie Thomas is Deputy Editor at Decisionary.
Previously, she was TechRadar’s US computing editor. She is fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but she just happens to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don’t be afraid to drop her a line on Twitter or through email.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X review: the best 8-core gaming CPU
AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X is a generational CPU update that’s worth shouting about. Packed with the very latest AMD chiplet architecture, AMD Zen 2, and a minimal 65W TDP, this chip is the best eight-core processor in the Ryzen 3000 lineup – and all for little more than the Ryzen 7 2700X‘s price at launch.
The smart design of AMD Zen 2 allows the red team to bring high-performance, high-core-count computing to the mainstream. The ‘revolutionary chiplet design’ of the architecture, built on the 7nm process node, could be just the thing to kick Intel into second place and raise it up as number one purveyor of go-to gaming chips.
We’re putting that theory to the test with the Ryzen 7 3700X. This chip features the same total core count as its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 2700X, at eight cores and 16 threads. Plenty enough silicon for us gamers, and quite a bit else. AMD has seen fit to make some big changes to the underlying tech to increase instructions per clock (IPC) and power efficiency for even more bang for your buck than last time.
It’s a tad cheaper than the Intel Core i7 9700K, the de facto high-end gaming chip of the moment from Intel. And that also includes the Wraith Prism cooler. That’s a pretty good get.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X specs
The Ryzen 7 3700X ushers in a new generation of AMD CPU architecture: Zen 2. Incorporating a new mixed-node chiplet design, this particular eight-core chip is fitted with a single 7nm CCD, complete with two 100% operational four-core CCX clusters. Co-inhabiting the AM4 socket space alongside that single CCD is a lone 14nm cIOD I/O die, which houses all of the non-core and I/O functionality.
Maintaining a steady flow of data between each discrete chiplet is AMD’s Infinity Fabric interconnect.
This menagerie of silicon chiplets sits happily at 3.6GHz base clock, and will boost up to 4.4GHz when required. That’s only a touch higher than the Ryzen 7 2700X at 3.7GHz base and 4.3GHz boost, which may make for some doubts as to the proficiency of this 7nm business. In a sense you’d be right to think so on clock speed alone. This first generation of chips on 7nm hasn’t made for a drastic uptake in clock speed over 12nm parts – those days are over – but there’s more to Zen 2 than mere clock speed.
| Ryzen 9 3950X | Ryzen 9 3900X | Ryzen 7 3800X | Ryzen 7 3700X | Ryzen 5 3600X | Ryzen 5 3600 | |
| Cores/threads | 16/32 | 12/24 | 8/16 | 8/16 | 6/12 | 6/12 |
| Turbo clock | 4.7GHz | 4.6GHz | 4.5GHz | 4.4GHz | 4. 4GHz |
4.2GHz |
| Base clock | 3.5GHz | 3.8GHz | 3.9GHz | 3.6GHz | 3.8GHz | 3.6GHz |
| TDP | 105W | 105W | 105W | 65W | 95W | 65W |
| Total cache | 72MB | 70MB | 36MB | 36MB | 35MB | 35MB |
| Price | $749 | $499 | $399 | $329 | $249 | $199 |
This chip walks a fine line between expeditious efficacy and power efficiency. In fact, it’s the only X-series chip above the Ryzen 5 3600 to be squeezed into a 65W TDP. That’s all thanks to the 7nm process node allowing for much greater efficiency over its 12nm or 14nm predecessors. Total platform power of this octa-core processor reached just 148 watts under load in x264 v5.0 – 37% less than that required by the Ryzen 7 2700X.
The Zen 2 architecture is more than a process shrink, it’s an entirely overhauled architecture.
AMD has increased IPC by a whopping 15% with Zen 2, achieved though various architectural changes. Notable changes include: front-end advances, doubling floating point performance, and reducing effective latency to memory.
One such tweak is the redesigned cache hierarchy. The CCX design is still a familiar sight on the surface, but L3 cache has actually been doubled over second generation Ryzen units. That all totals to 36MB of total cache with the Ryzen 7 3700X.
With near-total parity to the Ryzen 7 3800X in almost every way, aside from a marginal drop in clock speed, it would seem that the cheaper Ryzen 7 chip could become a threat to its bigger sibling in the hands of anyone with even the slightest idea of how to overclock.
AMD Ryzen 3700X benchmarks
PCGN test bench: MSI MEG ACE X570/MSI Gaming M7 AC X470/MSI MPG Gaming Edge AC Z390, 16GB Trident Z Royal/Corsair Dominator @ 3,200MHz, Samsung 970 Evo 2TB, Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, Corsair HX1200i, Corsair h200i V2, Philips BDM3275
AMD Ryzen 3700X performance
The Ryzen 3700X is only a stone’s throw from Intel’s i7 9700K across most gaming benchmarks.
With an overabundance of titles today still heavily reliant on single-threaded performance, it’s no wonder that Intel’s 4.9GHz takes the form of a healthy lead during bouts of high CPU usage.
AMD’s creeping closer than ever to closing that gaming deficit once and for all, however, and you’re only likely to see this divergence plain as day during 1080p gaming. That’s when modern high-end graphics card are capable of spitting out frames at rapid pace and putting the pressure to keep up squarely on your CPU. Crank that resolution up to 1440p or 4K and the workload swiftly shifts onto the GPU, and that disparity between AMD Ryzen 3000 and Intel’s 9th Gen Coffee Lake chips inches even closer.
In synthetic benchmarks the Ryzen 7 3700X excels once again, landing somewhere between Intel’s i9 9900K and i7 9700K. More often than not leaning towards Intel’s top gaming chip.
The marginal clock speed drop between the Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 7 3700X has also seemingly little impact on the gaming performance between these two processors.
Only a few games take well to the 12 cores of the top chip, leaving much of the work to the rather minimal 200MHz clock speed bump between the pair.
But as a generational proposition the Ryzen 7 3700X is a significant upgrade on the Ryzen 7 2700X. In Total War: Three Kingdoms at 1080p, you can see that 15% IPC increase in action, with the Zen 2 chip outperforming its predecessor 131 frames per second on average to 114. This same story continues throughout, especially through Cinebench R20. Yet the largest success of the Ryzen 7 3700X lies just under the surface.
The Ryzen 7 3700X absolutely demolishes its predecessor in performance per watt. With a generous helping of 7nm efficiency gains, the 65W TDP of the latest chip makes for a chip that not only outperforms 2nd Gen Ryzen’s top chip, but does so without breaking a sweat at 148W total platform power in x264 v5.0 to the Ryzen 7 2700X’s 235W.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X verdict
The shift from Ryzen 7 2700X to Ryzen 7 3700X has been a major step towards snatching the performance gaming market.
AMD has ironed out the bugs, totally turned around on memory support, and put together a product that excels in the same, budget-friendly, price bracket as its predecessor.
Shaving off a couple of hundred megahertz here or there has allowed for considerable power savings, too. The 65W TDP of the Ryzen 7 3700X dramatically cuts this chip’s thirst compared to its predecessors. And while that slight saving on your electricity bill may not be convincing alone, it’s that overhead that offers overclockers a little more room to work in.
The processor still falls short of Intel in gaming at stock, however. That gap closes at higher resolutions, but the Intel i7 9700K remains out ahead in raw processor power that games love best. Yet AMD reaching near performance-parity with a cheaper product than the competition is something to behold, especially considering the aggressive pace with which it got to this point. That’s sure to win over a greater portion of the desktop market.
There is the added bonus of PCIe 4.
0 and X570 with the AMD chip. And the cooler included in the box is added value that reduces the overhead of building your system by potentially a fair wallop. On the question of value, it’s a big thumbs up for AMD and the Ryzen 7 3700X.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
The Ryzen 7 2700X was already an Intel CPU killer, leaving the Ryzen 7 3700X needing to do very little to win over the market once again. But rather than rest on its laurels, AMD has released a fantastic generational upgrade worth shouting about.
9
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X vs Ryzen 5 5600X: Gaming Performance Compared
Towards the end of last year, AMD launched its Ryzen 5000 CPUs, snatching the gaming crown from Intel after three (2 and a half) generations of Zen. Featuring an IPC boost of 19%, higher boost clocks, and wider core complexes, we’re looking at generational gains ranging from 20-35%, especially in gaming workloads. You can read our architectural deep-dive of the Ryzen 5000 CPUs and the Zen 3 core here.
We compared the inter-core and cache latency/bandwidth of Matisse and Vermeer and got some very interesting results.
In this post, we will be comparing the $299 (now $279) Ryzen 5 5600X against the now similarly priced Ryzen 7 3700X which packs two additional cores, and decide whether it’s better to opt for more cores or a higher IPC/boost clock combo for gaming.
Test Bench
- Motherboard: ASRock X570 Taichi
- Memory: Trident Royal Z 8GB x2 @ 3733MT/s (CL16)
- Cooler: NZXT Kraken X73: 360mm (Special thanks to NZXT for providing the AIO cooler)
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti
- PSU: Corsair HX1000i
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X vs Ryzen 9 5900X: Specifications
| Specs | Ryzen 5 5600X | Ryzen 5 3600X | Ryzen 7 3700X | Ryzen 9 5900X |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cores/Threads | 6/12 | 6/12 | 8/16 | 12/24 |
| Base Clock | 3. 7GHz |
3.8GHz | 3.6GHz | 3.7GHz |
| Boost Clock | 4.6GHz | 4.4GHz | 4.4GHz | 4.8GHz |
| L3 Cache | 32MB | 32MB | 36MB | 64MB |
| TDP | 65W | 95W | 65W | 105W |
| Price | $299 | $199 | $304 | $549 |
Out of the four processors that we’ll be testing, the Ryzen 9 5900X is the only one with a TDP of 105W. Despite using a high-end 360mm AIO cooler, the 5900X approached the 80-degree mark under heavy load. Technically, you can emulate the Ryzen 5 5600X by disabling one of the two CCXs on the 5900X but we decided to use the actual processors for the tests.
Ashes Escalation
1080p1080p
We tested all the games at 1080p ultra and then 720p medium to avoid any GPU bottlenecks that may otherwise affect the results. In Ashes of the Singularity at 1080, both the CPUs produced nearly identical averages and mildly different lows.
This is despite the fact that this is easily one of the most CPU-intensive games on the market.
720p
Strangely, the Ryzen 5 5600X outperformed the 3700X as well as the 5900X with respect to the averages at 720p. In terms of the lows, the hex-core 5600X was once again faster than the older octa-core Ryzen part.
720p5600X
As you can see, the Ryzen 5 5600X reaches an average CPU load of 88% and a peak of 100%. The average thread utilization is also pretty high at 97%, with a minimum of 75%. The Ryzen 7 3700X, on the other hand, averaged a tad bit lower at 84%, with a minimum of 60% and a max of 100%. The clock speeds for the latter are quite a bit lower here (by 500MHz) while the GPU utilization is roughly the same. This indicates that the delta here is primarily due to the IPC/single-threaded performance deficit between the two, despite the fact that Ashes is easily on the most heavily multi-threaded titles.
3700X5900X
Assassins’ Creed Origins
1080p1080p720p720p
Assassins’ Creed Origins produces very predictable results.
Going from the hex-core 3600X to the octa-core 3700X yields less than a handful of frames. In a similar fashion, going from the 5600X to the 5900X pushes you up by just over 5 FPS at 720p. For reference, the overall CPU utilization for the Ryzen 5 5600X averaged close to 70% while the 3700X averaged just over 55%.
Assassins’ Creed Valhalla
1080p1080p
At 1080p, Assassins’ Creed Valhalla runs into a GPU bottleneck with both the Ryzen 5 5600X and the 5900X posting similar figures when paired with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
720p720p
At 720p, although the GPU bottlenecks are removed and the 5900X rushes past the 5600X to an impressive 124 FPS (average) and 62 FPS (0.1 percentile FPS), the overall CPU usage remains rather poor, with the latter averaging just around 25% and the former staying just under 60%.
The Division 2
1080p1080p
In The Division 2, the Ryzen 7 3700X barely outpaces the 3600X at 720p but falls behind at 1080p when it comes to the averages.
The Ryzen 5 5600X is much faster than every other CPU tested, especially at lower resolutions.
720p
Once again, the CPU utilization is more or less the same across the 5600X and 3700X, but the IPC/boost clock advantage puts the former ahead of the latter.
5600X3700X5900X
Benchmarks continue on the next page…
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Ryzen 7 5700x vs 3700x Benchmark [39% Faster than 2080 Ti]
Nvidia RTX 3080 — 39% Faster than the RTX 2080 Ti for only $699
Welcome to the Ryzen 7 5700x vs 3700x benchmark comparison. In this review, we will take a deep look at how these two CPUs compare to one another, as well as how these hardware specs deliver in gaming and productivity performances.
2020 has certainly been one amazing year for technology and gaming hardware releases. Nvidia kicked things off with their 3000 series Ampere graphics cards.
While the lack of stock and unavailability is unfortunate, it allowed AMD to swoop in with their Big Navi Radeon 6000 Graphics cards who are certainly making Team Green very worried.
AMD were also busy making custom hardware for both the Sony PlayStation 5 (Price not available) and Microsoft XBox Series X ($499.00).
AMD didn’t stop there however, dethroning yet another titan in the microprocessor hardware industry, Team Blue – Intel, with their launch of the all new Ryzen Zen3 5000 CPU’s, which now beats the socks off Intel, at the one thing they still held dear – single threaded gaming performance.
With that said, let’s see how the Ryzen 5700X compares to the Ryzen 3700X.
Table of Contents
Ryzen 7 5700x vs 3700x
General Specifications
Speed & Performance
- Clock Speeds
- Cores, Threads & Bus
Cache
Memory Specs & Performance
- Memory Specs
- Memory Speeds
Lanes & Expansion Ports
Power & Temperatures
Benchmarks
- PC Setup
- 1080p Benchmarks
- Productivity Benchmarks
Conclusion
AMD Ryzen Zen3 vs Ryzen Zen2
AMD Ryzen Zen3 vs Intel
Ryzen 7 5700x vs 3700x — General Specs
Content
- General characteristic
- Productivity
- Testing
- Conclusion
General characteristic
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However, due to the fact that the operation of PrecisionBoost 2 technology has been reconfigured in favor of maximum frequencies, and not low consumption, there is no particular economy in the Ryzen 7 3700X. A system based on this processor in computational algorithms can consume 150 or even 200 watts. Eight cores work in sixteen threads. Their base frequency is 3.6 GHz, and the dynamic frequency is 4.4 GHz. The dual-channel RAM controller guarantees DDR4-3200 mode, although this is not the limit of possibilities.
Nevertheless, overclocking is still not at all about the Ryzen 7 3700X. We can say that the processor works almost at the limit of its capabilities even in the nominal mode due to the PrecisionBoost 2 technology, which is clearly hinted at by the observed operating temperatures. Despite active cooling, under prolonged loads the chipset warms up to 80-85°C, although you can usually see 45-65°C.
The maximum frequency for all cores, which we managed to “squeeze out” during manual overclocking, turned out to be only 4.2 GHz. When the supply voltage was increased to 1.4 V, the processor worked stably at this frequency and passed stress testing, however, the temperature under load increased to 105 degrees, which can hardly be considered a normal operating mode. It makes no sense to resort to such overclocking. The increase in performance under multi-threaded load will be several percent, despite the fact that when the cores are not fully loaded, the processor will work even slower than in the nominal mode.
Testing
The assembly for the tests will be as follows: ASRock X570 Taichi motherboard, 2 x 8 GB G.SKILL Flare X DDR4-3600 RAM sticks, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti video card, Samsung 960 PRO 1TB SSD and Seasonic SS power supply -860XP.
In synthetic tests and applications, the processor performs excellently.
| Ryzen 7 3700X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3DMark Time Spy Extreme CPU | 4664 |
| Ultra, FullHD | Ryzen 7 3700X |
| Battlefield V | 134 |
| Call of Duty Modern Warfare | 171 |
| AC: Odyssey | 101 |
| Apex Legends | 143 |
| Borderlands 3 | 124 |
as a similar configuration built on eight-core Intel processors. But still, despite noticeable improvements compared to its predecessors, the new generation of Ryzen remains a kind of compromise for gaming assemblies, but the scope of applicability of AMD processors in this role will clearly expand.
Conclusion
The results speak for themselves. The Ryzen 7 3700X is not so expensive compared to the cost of top-end video cards, so it is perfect for the role of a universal solution — both to play and work. In any case, you no longer need to be torn between smart and beautiful, choosing either «fast cores» or «many cores inexpensively.
» There was an offer «a lot of fast cores inexpensively», which is extremely difficult to resist.
Ryzen 7 3700X [in 15 benchmarks]
AMD
Ryzen 7 3700X
- Interface
- Core frequency
- Video memory size
- Memory type
- Memory frequency
- Maximum resolution
Description
AMD launched AMD Ryzen 7 3700X on May 27, 2019 at a suggested price of $329. This is a Matisse (Zen 2) architecture desktop processor primarily aimed at office systems. It has 8 cores and 16 threads and is manufactured using 7nm process technology, the maximum frequency is 4400MHz, the multiplier is unlocked.
Compatibility is a socket processor
AMD socket AM4
with TDP 65W. It supports memory
DDR4
dual-channel.
It provides poor benchmark performance at
22.53%
from the leader, which is AMD EPYC 7h22.
Ryzen 7
3700X
or
EPYC
7h22
General information
Information about the type (desktop or laptop) and architecture of the Ryzen 7 3700X, as well as when sales started and cost at that time.
- 0
- 50
- 100
Features
Ryzen 7 3700X quantitative parameters such as number of cores and threads, clock speeds, manufacturing process, cache size and multiplier lock status. They indirectly speak about the performance of the processor, but for an accurate assessment, you need to consider the results of the tests.
| CASH 2nd level | 512K (for nucleus) | 9288 (Core 2 QUAD Q9550)
4 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 9005 | 32 MB | Technological process | 7 nm | of 5 (Apple M1)
9003 9,003,19,19,19,19,19,19,1EL0003
|
