AMD’s little hothead
27/9/2022
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
The new eight-core AMD Ryzen 7700X proves itself as a strong gaming chip in our test, even leaving Intel’s flagship 12900K in the dust. In the process, however, the CPU can get unexpectedly hot.
AMD has reclaimed the performance crown from Intel with its Ryzen 7000 processors. True, the 7700X can’t beat Intel’s prized Core i7-12700K in every category due to having fewer threads. In 1080p gaming, however, it does lead by 6.5 per cent. It also achieves the same feat in comparison to Intel’s top CPU, the 12900K – but «only» by 2.5 per cent. But for how long is the question? Intel will also be bringing out new CPUs next month.
For the time being, however, this is a pipe dream. The new Ryzen 7 7700X cuts quite the figure in our tests. Unfortunately, the CPU does get quite hot under load.
I’ll get to my actual review of the CPU in a moment. If you’re interested in the lineup and what else is new, you can read about it in the article below.
Our test setup and methods
I used the following components for this review:
All components were provided to me for testing by the manufacturers. I used the same RAM, SSDs, cooling as well as graphics card for the Intel CPU comparison. For my AMD data, I used a RAM kit with 3200 megatransfers per second. I’m aware that the direct predecessor of the 7700X is the 5700X. But since I don’t have one of those for testing, I’ll take the values from a 5800X, another eight-core, 16-thread CPU.
In the BIOS, I activated the correct speeds and timings for the RAM. Otherwise, I left everything at default. I was running BIOS version 0604 and Windows 11 was at version 21H2 (22000.978).
Here’s an overview of the different benchmarks:
- Cinebench R23
- CPU-Z
- 7-zip
- Photoshop
- Premiere
- Blender Benchmark
- PCMark 10
- Fire Strike/Fire Strike Ultra
- Time Spy/Time Spy Extreme
- Games: «Anno 1800», «Forza Horizon 5», «Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla,» «Civilization VI», «Cyberpunk 2077», «Far Cry 6», «Gears of War 5», «Red Dead Redemption 2», «Shadow of the Tomb Raider»
I ran all benchmarks three times and took the best result. For the games, I used the highest possible presets. Otherwise, I left everything at default except for the resolution.
Cinebench R23
Cinebench R23 tests how a CPU performs when rendering 3D models. The benchmark creates scores for single and multi-core performance from these calculations.
In the benchmark, the 7700X achieved a single core score of 2003 and a multi-core score of 20,052. It ran at 5.1 GHz on all eight cores. With this, the Ryzen processor is almost 2.5 per cent better in single core mode than Intel’s 12700K. In multi-core, the 7700X is 12.5 per cent behind Intel’s chip. However, that one has four more threads available for the task.
Power consumption and temperatures
The 7770X reached up to 95 degrees Celsius during Cinebench R23. So far, I haven’t had a Ryzen CPU get this hot during a test without overclocking. The 7700X drew up to 142 watts. But across the ten-minute benchmark loop, Ryzen’s CPU couldn’t maintain and quickly settled at 138 watts. However, Cinebench is an exception. When idle, the temperature stayed around 45 degrees consuming 35 watts of power. This rose to 61 degrees Celsius at 55 watts when watching Netflix, browsing and during office work. This changed as soon as I launched a game. However, it only reached a maximum of 78 degrees Celsius at 115 watts.
AMD does have an alternative for decreasing temperatures under load: Eco Mode. With it, the thermal design power (TDP) can be limited from the specified 105 watts to 65. With this limitation, my 7950X, the 7700X’s older brother, achieved a better result in Cinebench R23 than the previous 5950X. The same should be true for the 7700X and its predecessor. I tried this out in the following article:
CPU-Z
The CPU-Z benchmark tests a CPU’s speed in both the single and multi-core mode and uses this to calculate a total score.
The 7770X outperforms the Intel 12700K by 1.5 per cent in single core. Thus, the new Ryzen CPU is 21 per cent better than its direct predecessor, the 5800X. However, the Intel chip is 14 per cent better in multi-core due to the four additional threads.
7-zip
7-Zip’s built-in benchmark tests a system for compressing and decompressing data. From this, it calculates a score in giga instructions per second (GIPS). I chose the default «dictionary size» of 32 megabytes.
The 7700X is clearly ahead of the 12700K with a 44 per cent better result. Not really surprising, as the latter is already slower than the indirect Ryzen predecessor.
Blender Benchmark
Blender Benchmark renders three scenes in its 3D graphics suite (version 3.3) and calculates three scores using them. I’ve added these up to give end scores for each.
Another extremely tight race between Intel and AMD. The 7700X beat the 12700K by just 0.5 per cent.
Photoshop
Using the Photoshop Benchmark from Puget Systems, I ran different workloads. You can find more detailed information on that here. At the end, the benchmark calculates a score based on the reference workstation.
In Photoshop, the 7700X makes a huge leap forward compared to its indirect predecessor. A score is 38 per cent higher than that of the 5800X. Regarding the competition, it’s a noteworthy 15 per cent on top of that.
Premiere
Using the Premiere Benchmark from Puget Systems, I ran different workloads. You can find more detailed information on that here. At the end, the benchmark calculates a score based on the reference workstation.
Traditionally, Intel CPUs perform better in Premiere because they’re optimised for it. Same goes for Ryzen 7000 processors. However, the 7700X is just barely behind: it only scored three per cent less than the 12700K. Compared to its predecessor, there’s a nine per cent increase.
PCMark 10
The PCMark 10 benchmark tests diverse scenarios such as app loading times, the efficiency of spreadsheet calculations, web browsing and photo and video editing. In other words, it demonstrates how suited a processor is to office work. From that, it calculates a score.
The 7700X scored six per cent higher than Intel. Compared to its indirect predecessor, there’s a 15.5 per cent increase.
Fire Strike, Fire Strike Ultra, Time Spy and Time Spy Ultra
These synthetic game benchmarks provided a first glimpse of in-game performance. I haven’t provided the overall score, which combines GPU and CPU performance. This is because I want to exclude the former from CPU reviews.
Across the four benchmarks, the 7700X scored five per cent higher than the 12700K. Only in Time Spy Extreme did it have to admit defeat. Compared to the previous CPU, it’s even 24 per cent better.
Synthetic benchmarks usually don’t speak the whole truth. How’s the situation in-game?
The games
Since we can’t display image galleries, I won’t list individual game results here. You can download them here. The following graphics show the arithmetic mean of all nine benchmark games. I’m aware that CPU performance is mostly only relevant at 1080p and below. Still, I didn’t test below 1080p. My reasoning: you likely won’t buy a latest generation CPU and then play in 720p.
Across all resolutions, the 7770X delivers more FPS than the competition and its indirect predecessor. As expected, the differences became smaller at higher resolutions. At 1080p it was 6.5 per cent, at 1440p four per cent and at 2160p two per cent when compared to Intel’s 12700K. Compared to its indirect predecessor, the AMD 5800X, that’s 14.5, nine and four per cent.
The 12700K only delivered more FPS than the 7700X in «Civilization VI» and «Forza Horizon 5». However, these differences are minimal and amount to a maximum of 7 FPS. Most games run smoothly with the 7700X. However, I kept experiencing stutters in «Far Cry 6» despite the high average FPS, which indicates that the game isn’t yet optimised.
Verdict: a very good gaming CPU
The 7700X should work especially well as a gaming CPU. Here, it beat its direct competitor, Intel’s 12700K, by up to 6.5 per cent, even smiting the 12900K by 2.5 per cent. In terms of applications, the 7700X is sometimes ahead of the 12700K and sometimes behind, but all in all has slight advantages.
Unfortunately, the 7700X is a bit of a hothead: under full load, it reaches up to 95 degrees with 142 watts of power. Quite mind-blowing when compared to the indirect 5800X predecessor. You’ll need a good cooling system.
At launch, the 7700X costs 29.95 francs per thread – significantly more than the 12700K at 22.45 francs. Not a good look for the processor in terms of price. In addition, AMD exclusively relies on DDR5 RAM. Although this is the future, it’s currently still more expensive than DDR4 RAM. With the 12700K and upcoming Alder Lake processors, you can choose to go with DDR4 or DDR5. Another price advantage for Intel.
Furthermore, we simply don’t know how well Intel’s Raptor Lake processors will perform at this point in time. Since those are coming out soon, I’d wait for reviews on them.
Kevin Hofer
Senior Editor
kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.chFrom big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
