FRONTPAGE AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and 7700X Review: The Dawn of ZEN 4

[Voodoo Rufus]

Kind of silly having nearly a month long pre-order wait. Guess it's like waiting for a new car to finally hit the dealers now.

I like how AMD hardware was available same day, including EXPO ram.

 

[Kenrou]

Saw a couple videos claiming the underclocked 5800x3D does ~1v without loss of performance at stock (yes, I took it with a lot of salt), can all the new gens do roughly the same or was it a one-off ?

 

[mackerel]

one thing i am still trying to wrap my head around, is why is 512bit instructions done as 256x2. i think they talked bout this on NG, seems in single core test in cinebench it was behind intel. yet when it was in mutli core it smashed it, so how does that = faster in multi core at 256x2. different way to do the same thing, they got what they were after really. they smashed intel pretty well in multi core benchmarks and some about even with intel.

Presuming you're talking about AVX-512, Zen 4 is roughly at parity with Intel client CPUs (per clock) that have AVX-512. However you split the instructions up, the FP execution resource is comparable to AVX2, but AVX-512 still offers a perf boost from other things added with it. Actually AMD has a slight advantage as Intel went all out with FMA units, AMD added some extra FADDs which may help with some workloads.

I'm not up to speed with the latest on Cinebench but it has never been that heavily affected by AVX performance when they added support in R20 - at least not when I tested it in Skylake era. I don't know if R23 is much different.

 

[SF101]

I Ordered a 7600X and a Asrock - X670E Steel Legend from my supplier.
I grabbed [FURY Beast 32GB DDR5 RGB 6000MHz CL36 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 16GB)] Bart will probably say I could have got better mem lol.. but this was available for under 300$ CAD (208USD$)
Grabbed a [Thermaltake Pacific W8 ] because my Current block on my I9-7900X is kinda janky and all the mounting stuff is missing.

I'm hoping with my over the top Water loop (2X 480RX XPSC rad's) i get some mhz headroom from a 6 core CPU.. I mostly bought the 7600X as a placeholder until the 3D CACHE versions come out and then ill re-evaluate and either keep or sell/upgrade to the 3d Cache models.

I mostly game .. And this 7900X and x299 platform is getting a bit long in the tooth .. I recently upgraded to a XFX Speedster Zero WB ekwb GPU got a deal at 1000CAD$ ($733USD) it was hard to pass up since it includes the block and this card boosts near 2700mhz base settings with just rage mode in driver activated pretty sure my cpu/platform is holding it back atm.

First time I have went full AMD. I've been running AMD GPU's for a while now but Always using intel platforms felt it was time for a change up.

 

[Evilsizer]

yea the 7600x is steal for that kind of performance!

 

[SF101]

yea the 7600x is steal for that kind of performance!

well vs my I9-7900x which atm is only doing 4.6ghz in the summer heat.
From what I can see ill have a fair uplift in overall performance and FPS in games for sure.
I have a AW2721D 240hz 1440p monitor .. I Actually have closed that 240hz=fps gap alot with the 6900xt .. I'm hoping this will take me nearly the rest of the way if not there for the games I play.
Maybe its wishful thinking but were enthusiasts after all.

Funny story my supplier misquoted me a price on ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO (338.95) .. I honestly never even looked at the retail just The specs and I was reluctantly taking / ordering that mobo .. he replied to me like.. OMG sry almost had a heart attack ... apparently they are retailing for $949.99(CAD) ... so I had to settle.. these x670e Mobo prices are Absurd btw.

 

[TerranBrackiatt]

X570 extreme board is $800 (ddr4), and the Intel 12th gen Asus extreme board (ddr5) was $1100, so yeah, all the high end boards are going up... :-(

 

[SF101]

Got my 7600X for $412.00 CAD (302.28 USD)
ASROCK-X670E Steel Legend $396.36 CAD (290 USD)
Just a FYI I guess

 

[Woomack]

I grabbed [FURY Beast 32GB DDR5 RGB 6000MHz CL36 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 16GB)] Bart will probably say I could have got better mem lol.. but this was available for under 300$ CAD (208USD$)

I reviewed the Fury Beast 6000 CL36 some weeks ago. It's a pretty good kit, and you can expect it will OC high. It's based on the same Hynix IC as 6400-6600 CL32 kits but is a bit worse binned (or it was my luck). I could make 6800-6933 on my kit, while the best and much more expensive 6400-6600 kits made 7000 (7000 is a motherboard limit so far).



6600 CL30 is possible too. For both, it will need ~1.5V, so it will probably overheat without a direct fan. Up to 1.40-1.45V, it will be fine and will still make 6800+ but at CL34/36.

I have the 7950X as I need something high for reviews. For daily/gaming PC, I would get 7600X. Right now, I'm waiting for motherboards. Hopefully, some review samples as everything I like costs a lot, like way too much to be reasonable.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Some B650 board pictures released (leaks my foot). The MSI Edge ITX or Carbon are catching my eye. Haven't tried their boards yet. Whatever I can get that can go Gen 5 on everything I'll look at.

Sixteen AMD B650E/B650 motherboards for Ryzen 7000 CPUs have been leaked - VideoCardz.com

AMD B650 motherboards are coming According to early sales data, retailers are seeing smaller interest in Ryzen 7/5 7000 models. The X670E and X670 boards are expensive to say the least, and that’s without including the cost of Ryzen 7000 CPU and DDR5 memory upgrade. However, there are new...

videocardz.com

 

[SF101]

I reviewed the Fury Beast 6000 CL36 some weeks ago. It's a pretty good kit, and you can expect it will OC high. It's based on the same Hynix IC as 6400-6600 CL32 kits but is a bit worse binned (or it was my luck). I could make 6800-6933 on my kit, while the best and much more expensive 6400-6600 kits made 7000 (7000 is a motherboard limit so far).

View attachment 359346

6600 CL30 is possible too. For both, it will need ~1.5V, so it will probably overheat without a direct fan. Up to 1.40-1.45V, it will be fine and will still make 6800+ but at CL34/36.

I have the 7950X as I need something high for reviews. For daily/gaming PC, I would get 7600X. Right now, I'm waiting for motherboards. Hopefully, some review samples as everything I like costs a lot, like way too much to be reasonable.

Bart are you seeing 6000 on AMD being a "Sweet Spot" like AMD has been advertising? or is that just a bunch of smoke and higher is still much better in your testing.

Also I hear you on Costing way to much I definitly settled on some things but in a way that I didn't feel I'm Crippling my potential performance too much mostly features, The Jump in motherboard prices seem a bit gouging board to board like 200+$ more going to the Taichi for example. Asus - GB - MSI having 800-1000+$ mobo's being the average higher end board price is really getting out of touch a bit Those prices used to be reserved for the Over the top halo products.

"~1.5V, so it will probably overheat without a direct fan" well what if a fan is directly over your memory .. like jankly style? lol

 

[Woomack]

Bart are you seeing 6000 on AMD being a "Sweet Spot" like AMD has been advertising? or is that just a bunch of smoke and higher is still much better in your testing.

Also I hear you on Costing way to much I definitly settled on some things but in a way that I didn't feel I'm Crippling my potential performance too much mostly features, The Jump in motherboard prices seem a bit gouging board to board like 200+$ more going to the Taichi for example. Asus - GB - MSI having 800-1000+$ mobo's being the average higher end board price is really getting out of touch a bit Those prices used to be reserved for the Over the top halo products.

"~1.5V, so it will probably overheat without a direct fan" well what if a fan is directly over your memory .. like jankly style? lol

So far, I see that BIOS is like a beta, so I expect improvements, and the same is for all motherboard brands. All reviews that I saw had BIOS with beta markings. Gigabyte used by Shawn is "a", so it's even early beta. This is normal for early reviews, and knowing AMD, there will be significant improvements.
DDR5, in general, has lower bandwidth than Intel but also lower latency. This is after the first tests that I've seen around the web, but I still wait for motherboards, and I had no chance to test it myself. Looking at overall performance, I expect the same performance gain from DDR5 clock as on Intel, so 0-1% difference between 6000 and 6800+. In short, 6000 can be a sweet spot just because who cares about 0-1% more FPS when 1080-1440p is the most popular, and with any above-average graphics card, it's like 100FPS+ in almost everything.

In my reviews, I show OC results at 1.50-1.55V with a 6-fan setup push-pull in a larger case or open ITX case with a 120mm fan above the RAM slots. Large cases don't require an additional fan directly on RAM. However, temps would be slightly better with a fan above RAM modules. In many enthusiast-grade cases, when you install fans on top, then they are close to RAM and are pulling the hot air from the CPU and RAM area. This is usually enough unless you keep them at a very low speed.
Current ICs are losing stability at tight timings and 60°C+. It's easier with higher frequency, but above ~6800, RAM also reacts more to temps. DDR5 at standard frequencies (read JEDEC specs) should run stable up to 85°C+ (even close to 100°C). At 6000-6200, I could still run some kits up to 75-80°C without stability issues.

 

[DaveB]

Microcenter website this morning: 32GB G.Skill DDR5-5600 free with Ryzen 7 or 9 7000 series processor. Plus, Motherboards $20 off starting at $240.

So $400+$240=$640 plus tax gets you a Ryzen 7 7700X, ASRock X670E PG Lightning, and 32GB DDR5-5600. Great deal IMO while it lasts. Add more for any other X670 motherboard in stock

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Grrrrr. It's supremely lame that Microcenter doesn't do online deals like this. Closest one is 140 miles away for me.

Just as well. Saves me from spending on parts I don't *need*.

 

[DaveB]

Grrrrr. It's supremely lame that Microcenter doesn't do online deals like this. Closest one is 140 miles away for me.

Just as well. Saves me from spending on parts I don't *need*.

It's half online. You order and pay online, then drive to the store to pick it up.

Yeah, I don't need or want AM5, I just posted this for others who do.

 

[freakdiablo]

Any word on when they're dropping a 7xxxG CPU? My one main gripe with my HTPC right now is fan noise, so anything I can do to drop that is a plus.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

H2 next year I think.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Here we go, some initial B650 pricing: https://www.techpowerup.com/299501/first-b650-motherboard-pricing-detailed-by-b-h

I think I'll be after the cheapest board that gives me Gen5-everything.

 

[SF101]

Are you sure you will get gen-5 anything on a B series?

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

the B650E makes Gen5 connections 'essentially mandatory'. That's the differentiator between B650 and B650E. Guess we will see in the detailed specs of the boards when they get listed.