On January 10th, the Ryzen 7000 family will welcome new members, the 65W TDP non-X Ryzen 7000s. We looked at the performance of two representatives, the Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 5, in gaming and applications. As convincing as the X versions despite the limited TDP?
The non-X Ryzen 7000 officially unveiled at CES 2023 will be marketed tomorrow: Ryzen 9 7900, Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 5 7600. Like the Ryzen 7000X launched last year, these new chips benefit from TSMC’s 5nm engraving and Zen 4 CPU architecture, however, their TDP is lowered to 65W, versus 105/120W for the Ryzen 7000X. With what impact on performance? Answer in this test affecting Ryzen 9 7900 and Ryzen 5 7600, made in collaboration with Igor Wallossek.
© Igor’s LAB
First, let’s recall the forces involved and the test conditions. The main characteristics of the Ryzen 7000 processors are shown in the table below. It mixes the Ryzen 7000X, the Non-X Ryzen 7000, and the Ryzen 7000X3D. Keep in mind these will land next month.
Ryzen 7000 lineup and price as of January 9, 2023
| processor | cores / threads | Base/Boost Frequency (Base/Turbo) | Cache L2 + L3 | PDT | Recommended retail price | Current price in dollars | Current price in euros |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D | 16/32 | 4.2/5.7GHz | 16+64+64MB | 120W | – | – | – |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | 16/32 | 4.5/5.7GHz | 16+64MB | 170W | 849 euros / 699 dollar | $567.98 | €651.83 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D | 24.12 | 4.4/5.6GHz | 12+64+64MB | 120W | – | – | – |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900X | 24.12 | 4.7/5.6GHz | 12+64MB | 170W | 669 euros / 549 dollar | $438.98 | €551.87 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900 | 24.12 | 3.7/5.4GHz | 12+64MB | 65W | 429 dollar | – | – |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D | 8/16 | 4.4/5.0GHz | 8+32+64MB | 120W | – | – | – |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | 8/16 | 4.5/5.4GHz | 8+32MB | 105W | 479 euros / 399 dollar | $343.98 | €404.22 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700 | 8/16 | 3.8/5.3GHz | 8+32MB | 65W | $329 | – | – |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | 6/12 | 4.7/5.3GHz | 6+32MB | 105W | 359 euros / 299 dollar | $247.98 | €288.65 |
| AMD Ryzen5 7600 | 6/12 | 3.8/5.1GHz | 6+32MB | 65W | 229 dollar | – | – |
Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 7 7700X in the test: Zen 4 starts the AM5 era calmly
test platforms
In terms of test conditions, the AM5 platform for Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7800X consists of MSI MEG X670E ACE motherboard with 32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Dominator RGB memory DDR5- 6000 The AM4 chips (Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 7 5800X3D) can be found on an MSI MEG X570 Godlike motherboard with 32 GB of Corsair Dominator RAM, but of the DDR4-3200 type. Finally, the Intel LGA1700 platform for Intel Cores (Core i9-13900K, i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, Core i5-13600K) mobilizes an MSI MEG Z690 Ace motherboard and 32GB of Corsair Dominator RGB DDR5-6000 memory.
© Igor’s LAB
The power supply common to all these configurations is the Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1500 watts. The graphics card is the MSI Radeon RX 6950XT Gaming X Trio OC. The cooler is a custom Alphacool Core water cooling system with Alphacool Apex thermal paste. The operating system is the latest version of Windows 11 Pro 2H22.
© Igor’s LAB
performance in games
Let’s start with the main dish for many customers, performance in games. We ran comparisons in HD (1280×720 pixels), Full HD (1920×1080 pixels) and WQHD (2560×1440 pixels). Here is the full list of our range of games: Anno 1800, Far Cry 6, Shadow of The Tomb Raider, Total War Troy, Watch Dogs Legion, Wolfenstein Young Blood and Wolrd War Z.
At 720p, the Ryzen 9 7900 positions itself behind the Ryzen 5 7600X; the Ryzen 5 7600 slips between Core i5-13600K and Core i7-12700K. The differences remain fairly small, around 7 frames per second between the two extremes. On the other hand, even the Ryzen 5 7600 is quite clearly ahead of the previous generation Ryzen 5000X with almost 29 fps ahead of the Ryzen 9 5950X. Once king for 1440p gaming, however, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains unattainable in this definition for non-X-Zen 4 chips.
In Full HD, the Ryzen 9 7900’s larger number of CPU cores has an effect: The Ryzen still sticks to the Core i5-13600K with an average of 245.4 frames per second, but builds a nice distance to the Ryzen 5 7600 from its average of 231.6 IPS. The latter remains ahead of the Ryzen 5000X, with a lead of almost 15 IPS over the Ryzen 9 5950X.
Let’s not end QHD, a definition in which Intel’s Raptor Lake shines. Unsurprisingly, the Ryzen 5 7600 is the worst performer of the next-gen processors, averaging 185.9 IPS. As for the Ryzen 9 7900, outperformed by the Core i5-13600K, it offers an average framerate that’s almost the same as the Ryzen 9 7900X.
Performance benchmarks and professional applications
Now we come to synthetic benchmarks and professional applications. Below you can find the performance of the processors in Cinebench R23, Blender, AutoDesk CAD or Inventor 2021 Pro. We will not comment on every performance as all of these results are very specific. Overall, Ryzen 9 7950X and Core i9-13900K stand out, with different hierarchies depending on the scenario. The Ryzen 9 7900 doesn’t disappoint given its TDP, while the Ryzen 5 7600 logically has more trouble with heavily multi-threaded tasks.
Cinebench R23
Inventor 2021
AutoCAD 2021
Different
energy consumption and efficiency
As you can see, the generational gains are there in terms of sheer performance. But what about the consumption and energy efficiency of these Ryzen?
In games, the Ryzen 9 rarely offer the best watts to frames per second ratio. The Ryzen 9 7900 is no exception to this rule. It performs better than the Ryzen 9 7900X in this area and is one of the good students without being the best in its class. And with good reason: this title now goes to the Ryzen 5 7600, the new champion of power efficiency in games, in all three definitions (720p, 1080p and 1440p). It beats the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 5800X3D, often by very little.
In professional applications, the Ryzen 5 7600 and in particular the Ryzen 7 7900 show excellent returns, especially in terms of its performance for the latter.
Conclusion
Not much to complain about this non-X-Ryzen 7000. Overall performance is in line with what we would expect from Zen 4 chips, throttled to a 65W TDP. For the majority of users, the performance loss compared to the Ryzen 7000X is quite acceptable given the higher energy efficiency.
Of course, these 65W TDP processors are more attractive than their 105/120W TDP counterparts, with official prices a few tens of dollars lower than the Ryzen 7000X. On the evening before the release, AMD has not yet communicated the prices in euros. A reality to remember, however: since Black Friday, the prices of the Ryzen 7000X are much lower than those recommended when it was launched; so much so that in dollars they are close to those recommended for the Ryzen 7000 (see table at the beginning of the article).
So we’re curious to see what the non-X-Ryzen 7000 will trade at. Aside from the cooler economics (the ones included, including the Wraith Prism, should do most uses), the price difference between the two ranges could be small.
Finally, we also wait to see what the competition, Intel, will offer with their non-K Raptor Lake at 65W PBP. Some of these chips will be able to claim higher CPU core counts compared to Ryzen of the same series, a trait that could make them more attractive and enticing to buyers. Also, thanks to 600-series motherboards and DDR4 memory support, the Raptor Lake platform is cheaper overall compared to DDR5 only for the Ryzen 7000s.