AMD Zen 4 Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X Review: Retaking The High-End

Throughout AMD’s ‘collectively we advance_PCs’ occasion on the finish of August, the corporate unveiled its Ryzen 7000 collection of desktop processors, with 4 SKUs aimed on the mid-range and high-end market segments. After whetting the viewers’s appetites with that announcement, tomorrow AMD will likely be formally releasing their long-awaited next-generation CPUs.

The launch of the Ryzen 7000 collection brings loads to digest, for informal followers and hardcore {hardware} fanatics alike. For his or her latest lineup of chips, AMD has given their desktop CPU platform a top-to-bottom replace, not solely releasing new CPUs, however releasing a wholly new platform, socket AM5 round it. Because of this, for the primary time in a number of generations these chips aren’t drop-in appropriate with current AMD motherboards. However on the similar time it has allowed AMD to ship on a group of platform enhancements, starting from DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 assist to improved energy administration capabilities. AMD has even managed to sneak an entry-level Radeon RDNA2 architecture-based iGPU into the chip.

The Ryzen 9 7950X: 16 Cores, 32 Threads, New 170 W TDP: $699

We’ll begin, as at all times, with the CPUs themselves. AMD’s flagship for this technology is the Ryzen 9 7950X, a 16 Zen 4 core CPU that AMD is seeking to high the charts with for each single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. The Ryzen 9 7950X has a base frequency of 4.5 GHz and a peak turbo clockspeed of 5.7 GHz, which makes it the very best clocked desktop x86 CPU to hit the market but.

However do not assume AMD’s Zen 4 structure is nearly clockspeeds. AMD has additionally improved the IPC of their CPU structure by a median of 13% – primarily counting on the addition of AVX-512 instruction assist and comfortably bigger caches and buffers all through the CPU – which implies that the Ryzen 7000 chips can ship some vital efficiency enhancements in a wide range of single-threaded workloads.

As for multi-threaded workloads, AMD has been in a position to enhance efficiency there as nicely, albeit with a reliance on each structure enhancements and better TDPs to permit for greater sustained clockspeeds. One of many enabling components right here is that the AM5 platform permits for greater chip TDPs – as much as 170W within the case of the 7950X – which is a few 65W greater than the max TDPs on AMD’s quickest 16 core Ryzen 5000 elements. Because of this AMD is in place to ship on the “management” class efficiency that the corporate is after, however not fully without cost.

The Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X

Shifting one down the stack is the Ryzen 9 7900X, which is a 12C/24T and 170W TDP half; it has a better base frequency than the 7950X of 4.7 GHz, however with a barely decrease increase frequency of as much as 5.6 GHz.

Beneath that, AMD has launched one Ryzen 7 half designed for mid-range desktop computing, the Ryzen 7 7700X. That is an 8C/16T SKU, with a lift frequency on a single core of as much as 5.4 GHz, and a base frequency of 4.5 GHz. Notably, not like the Ryzen 9 elements, this half has a extra typical-for-AMD TDP of 105W.

Lastly, additionally aimed on the mid-range market and the most cost effective member of AMD’s new product stack, now we have the Ryzen 5 7600X. Providing 6C/12T with a TDP of 105W, the 7600X is Zen 4 at a extra affordable worth level. The chip runs at a base frequency of 4.7 GHz, with a modest (in comparison with Ryzen 9) increase frequency on a single core of 5.3 GHz.

AMD Ryzen 7000 versus Ryzen 5000
AnandTech	Cores Threads	Base Freq	Turbo Freq	Reminiscence Assist	L3 Cache	TDP	MSRP
Ryzen 9 7950X	16C / 32T	4.5GHz	5.7GHz	DDR5-5200	64 MB	170 W	$699
Ryzen 9 5950X	16C / 32T	3.4 GHz	4.9 GHz	DDR4-3200	64 MB	105 W	$799

Ryzen 9 7900X	12C / 24T	4.7GHz	5.6GHz	DDR5-5200	64 MB	170 W	$549
Ryzen 9 5900X	12C / 24T	3.7 GHz	4.8 GHz	DDR4-3200	64 MB	105 W	$549

Ryzen 7 7700X	8C / 16T	4.5GHz	5.4GHz	DDR5-5200	32 MB	105 W	$399
Ryzen 7 5800X	8C / 16T	3.8 GHz	4.7 GHz	DDR4-3200	32 MB	105 W	$449

Ryzen 5 7600X	6C / 12T	4.7GHz	5.3GHz	DDR5-5200	32 MB	105 W	$299
Ryzen 5 5600X	6C / 12T	3.7 GHz	4.6 GHz	DDR4-3200	32 MB	65 W	$299

Evaluating apples to apples, so to talk, between the brand new Ryzen 7000 collection elements to the previous-generation Ryzen 5000 collection elements, Ryzen 7000 has made some large total enhancements to the chips’ capabilities. The entire Ryzen 7000 chips supply vital will increase in each base and increase frequencies, which bodes nicely for total efficiency. The worst we are able to say is that AMD hasn’t elevated their core counts at any worth level/market phase, so all the efficiency features we’ll see right here in the present day are fully from structure and clockspeeds, fairly than the extra instant MT features of throwing extra silicon on the matter.

AMD’s efficiency features have been made potential partly by the Zen 4 structure’s superior energy effectivity. Whereas the Zen 4 structure is modest refinement of Zen 3, delivering a 13% IPC enchancment, it additionally will get the large benefit of being produced on TSMC’s 5 nm course of node, a full node’s shrink from the TSMC 7nm course of that was used for Ryzen 5000/3000. This effectivity has allowed AMD to spice up clockspeeds with out breaking the ability financial institution, with the 105W TDP 7700X seeing a 700MHz enchancment for no change in TDP. And multi-threaded efficiency isn’t neglected within the chilly, both; by rising their high TDP to 170W, AMD is ready to hold the CPU cores on their 12C and 16C elements at greater sustained turbo clocks, delivering a lot better efficiency there as nicely.

After all one of many key arguments right here is that extra energy requires extra cooling, which could be very a lot true for the Ryzen 7000 collection. Ryzen 7000’s TjMax for its Precision Increase Overdrive know-how stands at 95°C, which implies that the CPU will use all the obtainable thermal headroom proper as much as that time in an effort to maximize efficiency.

Though this may be overridden when manually overclocking, none the much less the top-end Ryzen 7000 chips name for higher cooling than their Ryzen 5000 counterparts. Customers might want to make use of extra premium and aggressive coolers to squeeze each final drop of efficiency from Zen 4, as most of us are wont to do. AMD for his or her half has accounted for all of this with their design decisions and product advertising and marketing, clearly advising Ryzen 9 79×0 homeowners to make use of a liquid cooler with these chips. Nonetheless, this does imply that AMD isn’t bundling their very own CPU coolers with their retail SKUs, as an alternative directing consumers to pretty highly effective third-party coolers.

New AM5 Socket: AM4 Coolers will Assist AM5 Too

AMD has additionally transitioned to a brand new platform for Ryzen 7000, named AM5. Together with AM5 additionally comes a brand new socket, the titular socket AM5, a LGA-1718 socket that’s AMD’s first use of the LGA kind issue for mainstream desktop CPUs. Now what’s fascinating is AMD has specified that the majority AM4 coolers will assist the brand new AM5 socket, which is nice for retaining compatibility with current coolers.

This additionally implies that AM4 is slowly on its method to turning into a factor of the previous. Whereas AMD continues to be (many) months away from changing their full Ryzen 4000/5000 stack with Ryzen 7000 elements, in the present day is the primary day and step one to doing so. None the much less, AM4 does supply some unimaginable offers proper now (e.g. 5800X3D), in addition to assist for cheaper DDR4 reminiscence. This sits in distinction to the AM5 platform, which is fully DDR5-only. Although in relation to reminiscence AMD does have a small benefit over Intel; whereas Intel’s twelfth Gen Core chips solely assist a most (JEDEC) velocity of DDR5-4800, the Ryzen 7000 chips are formally rated for DDR5-5200.

To go together with the brand new AM5 platform and supply motherboards for his or her new CPUs, AMD has unveiled 4(ish) new chipsets. These are the B650 and X670, in addition to their “Excessive” variations, the B650E and X670E. The highest-end X670E collection will characteristic each PCIe 5.0 lanes to the highest PEG slot and assist for PCIe 5.0 NVMe storage units. The common X670 chipset, alternatively, foregoes the necessary PCIe 5.0 speeds for the PEG slot in favor of easier-to-implement PCIe 4.0. In both case, each variations of X670 are meant to supply a plethora of I/O choices, and consistent with the overall tiered construction of AMD’s AM5 chipsets, X670 boards will usually supply higher designs, higher controllers, and higher specs.

The B650 chipsets, in the meantime, are designed to be extra inexpensive, removing a few of the I/O lanes and total I/O flexibility the X670 chipsets get pleasure from. Just like the Excessive X670, the B650E is meant for boards that can supply PCIe 5.0 to the PEG slot and NVMe storage. In any other case, the lowest-tier B650 chipset dials that again to PCIe 4.0 for the PEG slot as nicely.

For this week’s launch, solely the X670/X670E boards will likely be obtainable. Consumers on the lookout for the cheaper B650/B650E boards might want to maintain out till October.

New I/O Die: TSMC 6nm For Ryzen 7000

Final, as has been the case for the final couple of Ryzen desktop generations, for the Ryzen 7000 collection AMD is setting up their CPUs out of chiplets. All Ryzen 7000 desktop chips are constructed from an I/O Die (IOD) in addition to both one or two core advanced dies (CCDs) relying on the SKU. The IOD hosts all the PCIe 5.0 lanes, the DDR5 built-in reminiscence controller (IMC), and new for Ryzen 7000, an built-in GPU primarily based on AMD’s Radeon RDNA2 GPU structure. All issues thought of, the IOD used for the Ryzen 7000 is a fairly vital overhaul in comparison with AMD’s earlier IOD, with AMD implementing a number of new efficiency and power-saving options, in addition to additional slicing down on energy consumption due to TSMC’s 6nm course of.

It’s time to dive deep into all of AMD’s new enhancements and modifications for its Zen 4 microarchitecture. Over the next pages we’ll, be going over the next: