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

SPEC2017 Multi-Threaded Results

Although single-threaded performance is important and Zen 4 has a clear advantage here, multi-threaded performance is also very important. Some variables to consider when evaluating multi-threaded performance is that desktop processor designs typically boost a single core higher, with the rest lagging in frequency behind to either stay under the thermal (TJMax) or power (TDP) envelopes. Some manufacturing processes are more efficient by design due to extensive R+D and product management, with Zen 4 looking to be much more in terms of perf per watt over Intel's Alder Lake architecture. 

In the instance of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, it has a clear advantage over its predecessors in that it not only has a higher single core boost (5.7 GHz versus 4.9 GHz), but it also has a higher TDP than the Ryzen 9 5950X (170 W versus 105 W. This increase in TDP not only allows for a higher frequency, but it allows for a higher frequency spread across all of the cores when under full load.

Opening up our look at our SPECint2017 NT results, and we see a similar uplift in performance gains as we did in the single-threaded tests. In tests such as 500.perlbench_r, the Ryzen 9 7950 is 38% ahead of AMD's previous generation Ryzen 9 5950X, which is impressive. In 523_.xalanbmk_r, the Ryzen 9 7950 is 55% ahead of the Ryzen 9 5950X, and over 100% better in performance over the Zen 2-based Ryzen 9 3950X. 

In our SPECfp2017 NT testing, certain workloads such as in 538.imagick_r showed massive increases in performance over previous generations, with a 30% uplift in performance over Zen 3. The difference here between Zen 3 and Zen 2 was marginal (10%), but Zen 4 is a more efficient core architectural design, with many improvements across the board playing a hand here; the switch to DDR5 versus DDR4, more cache per core, higher frequency, higher TDP, etc.

Overall AMD's Zen 4 architectural differences and improvements show that not only does AMD have the crown for single-threaded performance, but it's also ahead in multi-threaded performance too, at least from our SPEC2017 testing. As always when Intel or AMD makes a claim on IPC performance increases, AMD seems to be about right with claims of around 29% in ST performance and even more so in MT performance.