Out of the four new Ryzen 7000 processors that AMD just launched, the Ryzen 7 7700X is one of the most interesting and most expected. Equipped with eight cores and 16 execution threads, this CPU can reach frequencies as high as 5.4 GHz without any kind of overclocking. Which you can try, by the way, as this processor is unlocked. Built on a 5 nm manufacturing process, the Ryzen 7 7700X should deliver a whole lot of performance while still being energy efficient. But leaving the official specifications and the theoretical value of this processor aside, what do you really get from the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X? Do you want to know how it fares in games and benchmarks? Or how much power it consumes in real life? Read this review to find out:

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Who is it good for?

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is the right choice if you:

• Want a desktop processor with an excellent price-per-performance ratio
• Are a gamer and want a CPU that can run any game at high-quality visuals for years to come
• You have the budget to move on to AMD’s new AM5 platform

Pros and cons

There are a lot of positives about the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X:

• It’s very fast and delivers top-notch single-core performance
• While excellent for productivity tasks, it truly shines in gaming
• Its 8 cores and 16 threads are plenty enough for most types of workloads
• It runs at a high 4.5 GHz base clock and can boost to 5.4 GHz without any overclocking
• It supports PCI Express 5 and very fast DDR5 memory
• Its power consumption is low considering its performance
• The price is better than the one of its predecessor (AMD Ryzen 7 5700X)

There are a few drawbacks too:

• At launch, you can only find premium AM5 motherboards, and they’re quite expensive
• The Ryzen 7 7700X is incompatible with DDR4, and DDR5 memory are still costly

Verdict

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X delivers excellent results in games and benchmarks, offering top-notch performance in all areas. Considering its price and energy efficiency, this processor is one of the best you can get today if you intend to build a well-balanced desktop computer that can run any game without a sweat. It is also very capable in other tasks, including but not limited to creating digital content or working with Office apps. In my opinion, if you’re ready to move on to the AM5 platform and your main purpose is gaming, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is the processor you should get.

Unboxing the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X processor arrives in a relatively small rectangular box. Made of high-quality cardboard and painted in shades of gray with orange accents, the package looks good.

The packaging for AMD Ryzen 7 7700X looks great

Opening the box reveals its contents: the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X processor, a small sticker, and the warranty plus installation documentation.

There's no cooler in the box

Unboxing the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a pleasant experience. The packaging looks great, just as it should for a high-end processor.

Hardware specifications

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is the high-end model from AMD’s new Zen 4 lineup, coming right after the enthusiast-level Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 9 7900X. The Ryzen 7000 processors, including the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, are built on a 5-nanometer manufacturing process and promise a 13% IPC (instructions per clock) improvement and better power efficiency compared to the previous Ryzen 5000 generation of CPUs.

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X desktop processor

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X has a recommended price of 399 USD, offering 8 physical cores and 16 threads, and a boost speed that can reach 5.4 GHz! Running at a base clock of 4.5 GHz, it has an L2 cache of 8 MB and an L3 cache of 32 MB. While the latter is the same as it was on the previous gen Ryzen 7 5700X, the amount of level 2 cache memory doubled, which is great.

There are 8 cores and 16 threads on the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X

The more expensive AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor, that we reviewed recently, can draw a significant amount of power, having a TDP of 170 Watts. But the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X doesn’t have as many cores and threads, so its power consumption is not that high. With a default TDP of 105 Watts, this processor looks like the right choice if what you’re looking for is excellent performance paired with energy efficiency.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Specs shown by CPU-Z

The Ryzen 7 7700X is compatible only with DDR5 memory, just like all the other Zen 4 processors. The default RAM speed is 5200 MT/s (megatransfers per second), but the sweet spot is 6000 MT/s. This can be achieved by using memory DIMMS that support EXPO profiles. EXPO (Extended Profiles for Overclocking) is a new type of memory profile similar to Intel’s XMP but created by AMD, which allows you to easily overclock your RAM.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X works on the AM5 socket

Last but not least, AMD Ryzen 7 7700X supports PCI Express 5.0 and works only on the AM5 socket. The latter means you’ll also need to get a new motherboard for your processor, one based on a 600-series chipset. Starting today, retail stores should list models with X670E, X670, and B650 chipsets. Later this year, B650E motherboards should also surface.

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is one of the fastest desktop processors on the market right now. It features high standard and turbo clock speeds, and comes with 8 cores/16 threads, which, in theory, is the sweet spot for gamers. Let’s see if that is true.

Performance in benchmarks and games

I tested the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X processor on a PC with the following hardware and software:

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero
• CPU cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R RGB
• Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5 Memory (2 x 16 GB, 6000 MT/s)
• Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 6800 (16 GB)
• Storage: Kingston KC3000 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD (2 GB)
• Monitor: ASUS ROG Strix XG32VQ Curved Gaming Monitor (1440p)
• Power Supply Unit: ASUS ROG Thor 850W Platinum
• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro version 21H2, build 22000.978

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X mounted on an X670E motherboard

To see what to expect in real life from the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, I compared its results in benchmarks and games with those I got using the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (Zen 4 architecture, 16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.7 GHz) and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (Zen 3 architecture, 12 cores, 24 threads, up to 4.8 GHz).

The first benchmark I ran was CPU-Z’s Single-thread test. As you can see in the chart below, the Ryzen 7 7700X got a massive score of 771 points, just one point shy of what I got using the Ryzen 9 7950X! Considering that the boost clock is lower on the 7700X, this is very impressive! And compared to the previous gen Ryzen 9 5900X, the performance increase goes over 17%.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: CPU-Z Single Thread benchmark results

In CPU-Z's Multi-Thread benchmark, the Ryzen 7 7700X was no match to either the Ryzen 9 7950X or the Ryzen 9 5900X. I expected this much, considering the significant difference in the number of cores between the processors. However, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, the Ryzen 7 7700X manages an outstanding result of 7973 points.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: CPU-Z Multi Thread benchmark results

Onto the rendering benchmarks, starting with Cinebench R23. Here, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X achieved a score of 19460 points. Not far behind the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, and more than half of what I got with the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, which has two times more cores and threads!

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Cinebench R23 benchmark results

In Blender, the AMD Ryzen 7700X managed 309 points, which is almost exactly half of what I got with the Ryzen 9 7950X, but so is its number of cores/threads. And compared to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, which comes with 12 cores and 24 threads, the octa-core 7700X delivers almost the same performance levels!

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: Blender benchmark results

Next, I moved on to daily activities: browsing the web, which is something everyone does on their computers. To test the processor’s performance in this area, I used the JetStream 2 benchmark in Google Chrome. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X managed an outstanding score of 331 points. That’s more than what I got using the enthusiast-level Ryzen 9 7950X.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X: JetStream 2 benchmark results

In 7-Zip, the popular file archiver, I measured a compression rate of 103 MB/s, which is extremely impressive if you think about the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X which “only” gets to 78 MB/s!

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X benchmark results: 7-Zip Compression

The decompression speed in 7-Zip was also impressive, although less than what I got with the other two processors. Here, the number of cores makes a difference.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X benchmark results: 7-Zip Decompression

Before moving on to testing games, I ran 3DMark’s CPU Profile synthetic gaming benchmark. This one attempts to evaluate the gaming performance of processors when using different numbers of cores. As the best games these days know how to take advantage of multiple cores, I chose to look at the all-threads scores. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X achieved 9168 points, which is an excellent result for an eight-core CPU!

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X benchmark results in 3DMark CPU Profile Max Threads

Next, gaming time! Before showing you the results of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X in games, I need to underline the fact that I ran all of them in 1080p resolution and using the lowest graphics quality settings. I made this choice because I wanted to minimize the possibility of encountering bottlenecks from the graphics card I had, an AMD Radeon RX 6800.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, using the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, I measured a framerate of 302 fps. That’s an amazing result, showing that this CPU is 13% better than the Ryzen 9 5900X. However, with the Ryzen 9 7950X, I saw an 11% increase in frames per second (fps) compared to the Ryzen 7 7700X.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - Gaming in Shadow of the Tomb Raider

In Metro Exodus, one of the most demanding games ever, I measured a framerate of 328 fps. That’s more than I got with the premium-level Ryzen 9 7950X!

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - Gaming in Metro Exodus

In Cyberpunk 2077, all three processors rendered over 180 frames per second, and all three scores were very close, although the previous gen Ryzen 9 5900X was a bit slower. A GPU bottleneck might have surfaced here but either way, these are impressive results from all three CPUs!

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - Gaming in Cyberpunk 2077

Last but not least, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, one of the games with the highest system requirements these days. Unfortunately, there was definitely a GPU bottleneck in this game, as all three processors stopped exactly at 205 frames per second. But that’s still a very high number that shows the Ryzen 7 7700X is an outstanding processor for gaming.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - Gaming in Assassin's Creed Valhalla

In terms of temperatures, the highest number I’ve seen while benchmarking the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X was 97 degrees Celsius (~207 Fahrenheit). It’s quite high, but the processor reaches this temperature only briefly and only in extremely demanding workloads.

Running temperatures for AMD Ryzen 7 7700X

Power efficiency, on the other hand, is quite good: the highest draw I’ve seen was 125 Watts, and that’s not much if you take into account the performance levels delivered by the Ryzen 7 7700X.

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X power consumption

In my opinion, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is one of the processors with the best performance per price ratio that you can get. While it’s a good processor for any kind of workload, it truly shines in gaming.

What is your opinion about the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X?

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X shapes up as one of the best choices you could make if what you’re looking for is excellent performance at a balanced price. Before you leave and close this review, tell me: What’s your opinion about the Ryzen 7 7700X? Are you thinking about buying one for your next gaming rig? Share your perspective in the comments section below.