AMD Ryzen 9 7950X & Ryzen 7 7700X ‘Zen 4’ Review

1. Ryzen 7000 - Introducing Zen 4 and AM52. A Closer Look - AMD's Zen 4 Architecture3. A Closer Look - The AM5 Platform4. Testing Methodology5. Operating Clocks6. CPU Tests: Blender & Cinebench7. CPU Tests: Handbrake & 7-Zip8. Memory Tests: Memory Bandwidth and Latency9. Synthetic Gaming: 3DMark10. Gaming 1080p: ACV, BL3, F1 202111. Gaming 1080p: FC6, Hitman 3, SotTR, WDL12. Gaming 1080p - Relative Performance Summary13. Gaming 1440p - ACV, BL3, F1 2021, FC614. Gaming 1440p - Hitman 3, SotTR, WDL15. Gaming 1440p - Relative Performance Summary16. Technical: Power Draw17. Technical: Temperatures18. Overclocking19. Perf. Per Watt and £20. Zen 4 vs Zen 3 - Clock-for-Clock Comparison21. RDNA 2 Integrated GPU22. Closing Thoughts23. View All Pages

Far Cry 6 continues its historical favouring of the Intel architecture, though AMD’s new Zen 4 processors go some considerable way in closing the gap. The Core i9-12900K is out in front by a notable margin, but the differences between Ryzen 7000 and the Core i7-12700K are less pronounced.

Interesting in this one is that Far Cry 6 clearly prefers AMD’s new Zen 4 architecture as opposed to a sizable slab of L3 cache, as on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This is the first game thus far where we have seen the new 7950X and 7700X comfortably outperform AMD’s best Ryzen 5000 gaming chip.

Despite not working properly on our AM4 test system, we still include some data for Hitman 3. Both Intel 12^th Gen chips are strong here – particularly the 12900K with a 1% low FPS number in triple-digit FPS territory. The Ryzen 7 7700X delivers strong performance in isolation – everybody will be happy with 184 FPS average! But its 1% low values are notably behind the Core i7-12700K competitor.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider plays very well on Zen 4, with only AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D outgunning the new Ryzen 7 7950X via a healthy 1% low improvement. The Ryzen 7 7700X drops back in 1% low FPS numbers compared to its 16-core sibling, but the average frame is still very healthy and positions it well ahead of the Ryzen 9 5900X and Core i7-12700K contenders.

Watch Dogs Legion is very tight at the top, but Intel’s 12^th Gen chips do come out best in our chart. The two Ryzen 7000 processors roughly match the 5800X3D in this game, though, so that’s a positive result for the newcomers.

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