The AMD Zen and Ryzen 7 Review: A Deep Dive on 1800X, 1700X and 1700
by Ian Cutress on March 2, 2017 9:00 AM ESTAMD Stock Coolers: Wraith v2
When AMD launched the Wraith cooler last year, bundled with the premium FX CPUs and highest performing APUs, it was a refreshing take on the eternal concept that the stock cooler isn’t worth the effort of using if you want any sustained performance. The Wraith, and the 125W/95W silent versions of the Wraith, were built like third party coolers, with a copper base/core, heatpipes, and a good fan. In our roundup of stock coolers, it was clear the Wraith held the top spot, easily matching $30 coolers in the market, except now it was being given away with the CPUs/APUs that needed that amount of cooling.
That was essentially a trial run for the Ryzen set of Wraith coolers. For the Ryzen 7 launch, AMD will have three models in play.
These are iterative designs on the original, with minor tweaks and aesthetic changes, but the concept is still the same – a 65W near silent design (Stealth), a 95W near silent design (Spire), and a 95W/125W premium model (Max). The 125W models come with an RGB light (which can be disabled), however AMD has stated that the premium model is currently destined for OEM and SI designs only. The other two will be bundled with the CPUs or potentially be available at retail. We have asked that we get the set in for review, to add to our Wraith numbers.
Memory Support
With every generation of CPUs, each one comes with a ‘maximum supported memory frequency’. This is typically given as a number, with the number aligning with the industry standard JEDEC sub-timings. Technically most processors will go above and beyond the memory frequency as the integrated memory controller supports a lot more; but the manufacturer only officially guarantees up to the maximum supported frequency on qualified memory kits.
The frequency, for consumer chips, is usually given as a single number no matter how many memory slots are populated. In reality when more memory modules are in play, it puts more strain on the memory controller so there is a higher potential for errors. This is why qualification is important – if the vendor has a guaranteed speed, any configuration for a qualified kit should work at that speed.
In the server market, a CPU manufacturer might list support a little differently – a supported frequency depending on how many memory modules are in play, and what type of modules. This arguably makes it very confusing when applied at a consumer level, but on a server level it is expected that OEMs can handle the varying degree of support.
For Ryzen, AMD is taking the latter approach. What we have is DDR4-2666 for the simplest configuration – one module per channel of single rank UDIMMs. This moves through to DDR4-1866 for the most strenuous configuration at two modules per channel with dual-rank UDIMMs. For our testing, we were running the memory at DDR4-2400, for lack of a fixed option, however we will have memory scaling numbers in due course. At present, ECC is not supported ECC is supported.
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BurntMyBacon - Friday, March 3, 2017 - link
@ShieTar: "Well, the point of low-resolution testing is, that at normal resolutions you will always be GPU-restricted."If this statement is accepted as true, then by deduction, for people playing at normal (or high) resolutions, gaming is not a differentiator and therefore unimportant to the CPU selection process. If gaming is your only criteria for CPU selection, then that means you can get the cheapest CPU possible until you are not GPU restricted.
@ShieTar: "The most interesting question will be how Ryzen performs on those few modern games which manage to be CPU-restricted even in relevant resolutions, e.g. Battlefield 1 Multiplayer."
I agree here fully. Show CPU heavy titles to tease out the difference between CPUs. Artificially low resolutions are academic at best. That said, according to Steam Surveys, just over half of their respondents are playing at resolutions less than 1080P. Over a third are playing at 1366x768 or less. Though, I suspect the overlap between people playing at these resolutions and people using high end processors is pretty small.
Average frame rate is fairly uninteresting in most games for high end CPUs, due to being GPU bound or using unrealistic settings. Some, more interesting, metrics are min frame rate, frame time distribution (or simply graph it), frame time consistency, and similar. These metrics do more to show how different CPUs will change the experience for the player in a configuration the player is more likely to use.
Lord-Bryan - Thursday, March 2, 2017 - link
Who buys a 500 dollar cpu to play games at 720p res. All that talk is just BS.JMB1897 - Friday, March 3, 2017 - link
That test is not done for real world testing reasons. At that low resolution, you're not GPU bound, you're CPU bound. That's why the test exists.Now advance a few years into the future when you still have your $500 Ryzen 7 CPU and a brand new GPU - you may suddenly become CPU bound even at QHD or 4k, whereas a 7700k might not quite be CPU bound just yet.
MAC001010 - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link
Or a few years in the future (when you get your new GPU) you find that games have become more demanding but better multi-threaded, in which case your Ryzen 7 CPU works fine and the 7700k has become a bottleneck despite its high single-threaded performance.This illustrates the inherent difficulty of comparing high freq. CPUs to high core count CPUs in regards to future potential performance.
cmdrdredd - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link
"Or a few years in the future (when you get your new GPU) you find that games have become more demanding but better multi-threaded, in which case your Ryzen 7 CPU works fine and the 7700k has become a bottleneck despite its high single-threaded performance."Maybe, the overclocking scenario is also important. Most gamers will overclock to get a bit of a boost. I have yet to replace my 4.5Ghz 3570k even though new CPUs offer more raw performance, the need hasn't been there yet.
One other interesting thing is how Microsoft's PlayReady 3.0 will be supported for 4k HDR video content protection. So far I know Kaby Lake supports it, but haven't heard about any of AMD's offerings unless I missed it somewhere.
Cooe - Sunday, February 28, 2021 - link
Lol, except here in reality the EXACT OPPOSITE thing happened. A 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 1600 still holds up GREAT in modern titles/game engines thanks to the massive advantage in extra CPU threads. A 4c/4t i5-7600K otoh? Nowadays it performs absolutely freaking TERRIBLY!!!basha - Thursday, March 2, 2017 - link
all the reviews i read are using NVidia 1080 gfx card. my understanding is AMD graphics has better implementation of DX12 with ability to use multiple cores. I would like to see benchmarks with something like RX480 crosfire with 1700x. this would be in the similar budget as i7 7700 + GTX 1080.Notmyusualid - Friday, March 3, 2017 - link
http://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/2822-amd-ryze...cmdrdredd - Saturday, March 4, 2017 - link
Overclocking will be interesting. I don't use my PC for much besides gaming and lately it hasn't been a lot of that either due to lack of compelling titles. However, I would still be interested in seeing what it can offer here too for whenever I finally break down and decide I need to replace my 3570k @ 4.5Ghz.Midwayman - Thursday, March 2, 2017 - link
Here's hoping the 1600x hits the same gaming benches as the 1800x when OC'd. $500 for the 1800x is fine, Its just not the best value for gaming. Just like the i5's having been better value gaming systems in the past.