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 ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance.
While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC-supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
The Current CPU Test Suite
For our AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X testing, we are using the following test system:
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series System (DDR5) | |
CPU | Ryzen 9 7950X ($699) 16 Cores, 32 Threads 170 W TDP Ryzen 5 7600X ($299) 6 Cores, 12 Threads 105 W TDP |
Motherboard | GIGABYTE X670E Aorus Master (BIOS 813b) |
Memory | G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 2x16 GB DDR5-5200 CL44 |
Cooling | EK-AIO Elite 360 D-RGB 360 mm AIO |
Storage | Crucial MX300 1TB |
Power Supply | Corsair HX850 |
GPUs | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, Driver 496.49 |
Operating Systems | Windows 11 21H1 |
As we are in a transitional period between our current CPU 2021 suite and data, and optimizing our CPU 2023 suite with different data comparisons required, we have included a varied selection of benchmarks for this review. This ranges from our traditional un-updatable Google Octane 2.0 web test, through a variety of rendering benchmarks such as CineBench R23 and Blender, to encoding, and all the way to our more scientific-related tests.
With our processor reviews, especially on a new generational product such as AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X, we also include SPEC2017 data to account for any increases (or decreases) to generational single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. It should be noted that due to the terms of the SPEC license because our benchmark results are not vetted directly by the SPEC consortium, we have to label them as ‘estimated’. The benchmark is still run and we get results out, but those results have to have the ‘estimated’ label.
Moving Foward to Our CPU 2023 Suite: What to Expect
Looking ahead to our updated CPU 2023 suite, we've updated some of our existing benchmarks to the latest and current versions (as of Sept 22) such as Blender 3.3. In terms of benchmarks from our CPU 2021 suite, we've included benchmarks such as Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, and Dr. Ian Cutress's 3DPMv2 and Crysis CPU benchmarks.
We've also added some completely new benchmarks and workloads to our suite, including an update to Blender (v3.3), C-Ray 1.1 rendering, as well as more scientific-based workloads such as SciMark 2.0 and Primesieve 1.9.0. We have also decided to add UL's latest Procyon suite which measures overall system performance when doing tasks such as office-based tasks, as well as video, and photo editing.
As it stands, we have also updated our pool of games going forward into 2023 and beyond, including the latest F1 2022 racing game, the CPU-intensive Total War Warhammer 3 real-time strategy, and the popular Hitman 3 assassin-based title.
Our aim is to provide varying levels of data points across a variety of different workloads, instruction sets, and tasks. Going forward, we will keep our CPU 2023 suite updated as frequently as possible, and when we have a consistent and suitable number of data points, it will feature on our Bench database as we continue testing new and older CPUs for varying data points.
Some of these new benchmarks will make an appearance in this review, while others won't. Our aim is to assess and subjugate our way through whatever CPUs we have on hand to add vital data points. However, some parts of our CPU 2023 suite are still under testing and it should make a full debut in our next CPU review.
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linuxgeex - Monday, September 26, 2022 - link
All Microsoft customers are QA testers, lol. That's always how it's been. ReplyKangal - Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - link
Isn't that what goes for Linux?The only difference is that you don't pay money, you just pay in time, effort, frustration, and your soul.
Reply
Hifihedgehog - Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - link
Exactly. And you compile your own kernel for 24 hours hoping it will finish successfully. Replyat_clucks - Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - link
Not if you use the latest Ryzen 9 7950X. You may still pray it's successful at the end but God will answer a lot faster :). Replyelforeign - Monday, September 26, 2022 - link
Ah yes, the capitalistic adage of less is more. I'm sorry you guys have to deal with this, as with anyone in the workforce, where the powers that be sit on their ass with their cushy millions and say workers can do less with more and pile on with disregard.On a further note, I have been coming to Anandtech since the mid 00's. While I can understand the expectation surrounding good grammar and flawless articles, some issues are bound to come up now and then. The vitriol you guys receive for some simple grammar or syntax mistake is crazy. Reply
rarson - Wednesday, September 28, 2022 - link
"Ah yes, the capitalistic adage of less is more."This is not a thing. Reply
herozeros - Monday, September 26, 2022 - link
Kind reply, thanks. Hope your week lets you catch up.No more copy editors?! I guess my blonde is all now truly grey . . . sigh Reply
Threska - Monday, September 26, 2022 - link
Outsourced to AI. Replyemn13 - Monday, September 26, 2022 - link
I for one thoroughly enjoyed your article, and appreciate the technical content - a few editing nits don't detract from that.And hey, if I were to whine about embarrassing editing mistakes, rather than focusing on a long article written in limited time due to AMD's schedule, I'd poke fun at the 100 000 000 000 $ company's press slides touting their EXPO tech's openness in the form of public "doucments". 😀 Reply
linuxgeex - Monday, September 26, 2022 - link
So long as you're open to community feedback to correct hasty errors, there's no need for copy editors, and you can push your articles faster, which we'll all appreciate. Saying thanks is much more productive than making excuses. It shows that you appreciate your community. Reply