AMD Zen 4 Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X Review: Retaking The High-End
by Ryan Smith & Gavin Bonshor on September 26, 2022 9:00 AM ESTCPU Benchmark Performance: Power, Web, And Science
Our previous set of ‘office’ benchmarks has often been a mix of science and synthetics, so this time we wanted to keep our office section purely on real-world performance. We've also incorporated our power and science testing into this section too.
In this version of our test suite, all the science-focused tests that aren’t ‘simulation’ work are now in our science section. Where possible these benchmarks have been optimized with the latest in vector instructions.
We are using DDR5 memory on the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X, as well as Intel's 12th Gen (Alder Lake) processors at the following settings:
- DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
- DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen
All other CPUs such as Ryzen 5000 and 3000 were tested at the relevant JEDEC settings as per the processor's individual memory support with DDR4.
Power
The nature of reporting processor power consumption has become, in part, a dystopian nightmare. Historically the peak power consumption of a processor, as purchased, is given by its Thermal Design Power (TDP, or PL1). For many markets, such as embedded processors, that value of TDP still signifies the peak power consumption. For the processors we test at AnandTech, either desktop, notebook, or enterprise, this is not always the case.
Modern high-performance processors implement a feature called Turbo. This allows, usually for a limited time, a processor to go beyond its rated frequency. Exactly how far the processor goes depends on a few factors, such as the Turbo Power Limit (PL2), whether the peak frequency is hard coded, the thermals, and the power delivery. Turbo can sometimes be very aggressive, allowing power values 2.5x above the rated TDP.
AMD and Intel have different definitions for TDP but are broadly speaking, applied the same. The difference comes from turbo modes, turbo limits, turbo budgets, and how the processors manage that power balance. These topics are 10000-12000 word articles in their own right, and we’ve got a few articles worth reading on the topic.
- Why Intel Processors Draw More Power Than Expected: TDP and Turbo Explained
- Talking TDP, Turbo and Overclocking: An Interview with Intel Fellow Guy Therien
- Reaching for Turbo: Aligning Perception with AMD’s Frequency Metrics
- Intel’s TDP Shenanigans Hurts Everyone
Looking at the results of our Peak Power test, the Ryzen 9 7950X topped out at 221.8 W, which is around 30% higher than the TDP of 170 W it comes with. As stated by AMD, the Power Package Tracking or PPT limit for AM5 motherboards when used with 170W TDP Ryzen 7000 SKUs will be 230 W. Still, while it draws more power than its generational predecessors such as Zen 3 and Zen 2, the Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 series benefits from higher core clock speeds, a higher single core boost frequency, as well as other implementations around TSMC's 5 nm manufacturing process.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is more aimed at the mid-range, and as such has a lower overall power draw, with the peak power figures in our testing reaching 134.3 W. This is around the same levels of power draw as the Ryzen 9 3950 X, the Ryzen 9 5900X, and the Ryzen 7 5800X. Per AMD's specifications, the Ryzen 5 7600X has a TDP of 105 W, with around a 27 % variance in peak power compared to TDP.
From our testing, so far, it seems that Ryzen 7000 when combined with a premium X670E motherboard allows for up to 30% in terms of extra power allowances for higher single-core boost and overall faster all-core frequencies.
Web
In our web tests, the overall improvements in IPC, frequency, clock speeds, and the switch to DDR5 all play a part in performance here. Both the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 7 7600X top our charts in regards to web testing, although performance isn't as apparent as it should be in other areas.
Science
For our 3DPM v2.1 testing, we added in the Intel Core i9-11900K (Rocket Lake) to show performance across AVX workloads. Although Intel officially fused off the AVX2/512 extensions on Alder Lake which did cause a little controversy and gave the impression that AVX-512 on consumer platforms was dead. AMD clearly believes the opposite, as it has implemented it so that AVX-512 runs two cycles over a 256-bit wide instruction. The performance of the Ryzen 9 7950X here is phenomenal, although the Core i9-11900K which did indeed feature AVX instruction sets in the silicon, is still better than the Ryzen 5 7600X with AVX workloads.
Focusing on our more science-based tests, both the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X perform well against the competition. In our 3DPMv2.1 test in non-AVX, the Ryzen 9 7950X provided a jump of 35% in performance against the previous generation Ryzen 9 5950X processor.
Interestingly, in our yCruncher 0.78 test, the Ryzen 9 7950X and the Core i9-12900K trade blows consistently, although the Ryzen 5 7600X performs well for its price point.
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Tomatotech - Friday, September 30, 2022 - link
Nice idea but you’re swimming against the flow of history. The trend is always to more tightly integrate various components into smaller and smaller packages. Apple have moved to onboard RAM in the same package as the CPU which has bought significant bandwidth advantages and seems to have boosted iGPU to the level of low-end dGPUs.The main takeaway from your metaphor of the 650w dGPU with a 55w mainboard and 100-200w CPU is that high-end dGPUs are now effectively separate computers in their own right - especially as a decent one can be well over 50% of the cost of the whole PC - and are being constrained by having to fit into the PC in terms of physical space, power supply capacity, and cooling capacity.
It’s a shrinking market on both the low end and high end for home use of dGPU, given these innovations and constraints and I don’t know where it’s going to go from here.
Since I got optic fibre, I’ve started renting cloud based high-end dGPU and it has been amazing albeit the software interface has been frustrating at times. With symmetric gigabit service and 1-3ms ping, it’s like having it under my desk. I worked out that for unlimited hours and given the cost of electricity, it would take 10 years for my cloud rental costs to match the cost of buying and running a home high end dGPU.
Not everyone has optic fibre of course but globally it’s rolling out year by year so the trend is clear again. Reply
Castillan - Wednesday, September 28, 2022 - link
"clang version 10.0.0
clang version 7.0.1 (ssh://git@github.com/flang-compiler/flang-driver.git
24bd54da5c41af04838bbe7b68f830840d47fc03)
-Ofast -fomit-frame-pointer
-march=x86-64
-mtune=core-avx2
-mfma -mavx -mavx2
"
...and then later the article says:
"The performance increase can be explained by a number of variables, including the switch from DDR4 to DDR5 memory, a large increase in clock speed, as well as the inclusion of the AVX-512 instruction set, albeit using two 256-bit pumps."
The problem here being that those arguments to Clang will NOT enable AVX-512. Only AVX2 will be enabled. I verified this on an AVX512 system.
To enable AVX512, at least at the most basic level, you'll want to use "-mavx512f ". There's also a whole stack of other AVX512 capabilities, which are enabled with "-mavx512dq -mavx512bw -mavx512vbmi -mavx512vbmi2 -mavx512vl" but some may not be supported. It won't hurt to include those on the command line though, until you try to compile something that makes use of those specific features, and then you'll see a failure if the platform doesn't support those extensions. Reply
Ryan Smith - Friday, September 30, 2022 - link
Correct. AVX-512 is not in play here. That is an error in analysis on our part. Thanks! Replypman6 - Thursday, September 29, 2022 - link
intel supports 8k60 AV1 decode.Does ryzen 7000 support 8k60 ?? Reply
GeoffreyA - Monday, October 3, 2022 - link
The Radeon Technology Group is getting 16K ready. Replyyhselp - Thursday, September 29, 2022 - link
I'd love to see you investigate memory scaling on the Zen 4 core. ReplyMyrandex - Thursday, September 29, 2022 - link
The table on page four mentions "Quad Channel (128-bit bus)" for memory support. Does that mean we could have a 4 memory slot solution, with one memory module per channel, with four channel support? This way to drastically increase memory bandwidth all while maintaining those fast DDR5 frequencies? ReplyRyan Smith - Friday, September 30, 2022 - link
No. That configuration would be no different than a 2 DIMM setup in terms of bandwidth or capacity. Slotted memory is all configured DIMMs; as in Dual Inline Memory Module. ReplyGeoffreyA - Friday, September 30, 2022 - link
All in all, excellent work, AMD, on the 7950X. Undoubtedly shocking performance. Even that dubious AVX-512 benchmark where Intel used to win, Zen 4 has taken command of it. However, lower your prices, AMD, and don't be so greedy. Little by little, you are becoming Intel. Don't be evil.Thanks, Ryan and Gavin, for the review and all the hard work. Much appreciated. Have a great week. Reply
Footman36 - Friday, September 30, 2022 - link
Yawn. I really don't see what the big fuss is about. I currently run 5600X and was interested to see how the 7600X compared and while it does look like a true uplift in performance over the 5600X, I would have to factor in cost of new motherboard and DDR5 ram! On top of that, the comparison is not exactly apples to apples in the testing. 7600X has a turbo speed of 5.3, 5600X 4.6. 7600X runs with 5200 DDR5 and 5600X 3200 DDR4, 7600X has TDP 105W, 5600X 65W. If you take a look at the final page where the 7950X is tested in ECO mode which effectively supplies 65W instead of 105W you lose 18% performance. If we try to do apples to apples and use eco mode with 7600X, to get apples to apples with 65W of 5600W, then lower boost to 4.6ghz then the performance of the 2 cpu's looks very similar. Perhaps not the way I should be analyzing the results, but just my observation.... Reply