AMD Ryzen 9 7900 & Ryzen 7 7700 Review

1. 65W AMD Ryzen 70002. A Closer Look - AMD's Zen 4 Architecture3. A Closer Look - The AM5 Platform4. Testing Methodology5. Overclocking6. Technical: Power Consumption and Temperatures7. CPU Tests: Blender & Cinebench8. CPU Tests: Handbrake & 7-Zip9. Memory Tests: Memory Bandwidth and Latency10. Synthetic Gaming: 3DMark11. Gaming: 1080p Gaming Performance12. Performance Per Watt13. Closing Thoughts14. View All Pages

AMD’s 65W-rated Ryzen 7000 series processors are positive additions to the CPU market.

The reality is that Intel’s 13^th Gen competitors have been extremely tough for AMD to deal with over the past few months. Particularly with the current Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X price points – excluding Black Friday deals, of course. These new chips and the more competitive price points that they will sit at can create headaches for Intel. Plus, many buyers will see value in a free CPU cooler than saves perhaps £30 or so from the initial system purchase cost.

Looking at platform, that is still an issue for AMD consumers.

If you want a new Ryzen 7000 series non-X processor, you’re still going to have to pay hefty prices for an AM5 motherboard and DDR5 memory. We’re still holding out hope that AM5 motherboard affordability will improve. And that will be a particularly welcomed point given the introduction of these new, cheaper processors.

If AMD decides upon UK price points for the Ryzen 9 7900 and Ryzen 7 7700 that undercut the Core i7-13700K and Core i5-13600K, respectively, I think they will be onto a winner. Lower cost, power efficient Zen 4 processors that ship with a heatsink capable of handling their 88W stock load are good products to see.

Factor in the ease of pushing up very close to X-rated processor performance levels at a few clicks and without cost, and it is easy to see why these new chips could become fan favourites – just like so many of the non-X AMD processors have throughout the Ryzen years.

Overall, I like the Ryzen 9 7900, but I feel that £439.99 for the chip is slightly steep. That is roughly equal to Core i7-13700K pricing, but Intel has the faster product stock versus stock. So, unless you strongly value the lower power operation, better thermals, and included cooler, the Ryzen 9 7900 seems a little expensive for its given performance level. With that said, AMD's new Ryzen 9 does give the Core i7-13700K a stellar run for its money when operating Precision Boost Overdrive or leveraging AMD’s superb out-of-the-box power efficiency.

I think the Ryzen 7 7700 has a tougher battle simply because the Core i5-13600K is such an awesome processor and is priced so competitively. At around £340 in the UK, you’re going to have to put emphasis on the lower power operation and AM5 features for this chip to make most sense. Intel’s Core i5-13600K is still quicker and is currently around £320-£340, but it does command more power and Intel’s platform does have some feature downsides versus AM5.

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Pros:

• Outstanding power efficiency.
• High performance for a tolerable power level.
• Easy to tame thermals.
• Strong multi-threaded performance.
• Overclocking capable.

Cons:

• Intel price competitors are strong contenders.
• AM5 platform for these chips is still expensive.

KitGuru says: It is good to see some new, more affordable options for the AM5 platform, particularly with the overclocking freedom that can likely make them X-rated processors on the cheap.

Ryzen 9 7900:

Ryzen 7 7700:

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