AMD Ryzen 5/7/9 7000 65W Tested: Low Power, High Performance
AMD Ryzen 5/7/9 65W Processors: Gaming, Power And The Verdict
For our next series of tests, we moved on to some graphics and game-related metrics with 3DMark, specifically the physics benchmark that's part of the Time Spy test, along with a handful of actual games. For the 3DMark Physics test, we simply create a custom 3DMark run consisting solely of the physics test, which is multi-threaded and CPU dependent, and report the results...
Can you guess where the Ryzen 5 7600, Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 9 7900 finished here? If you said just behind their higher-end, higher-power counterparts, you'd be correct! This time around though, even the Ryzen 7 7700 is able to outrun the Ryzen 9 5950X, which is amazing considering it's got half the cores.
As all of these systems were tested using the exact same GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, as evidenced by the relatively flat graphics score. The overall score, however, also factors in the CPU Physics test, so that tapers off once we get below around the 8-core mark. There's really not much separating the top-end chips, but the Ryzen 5 7600 lands towards the bottom of the stack.
In the "low" resolution 1080p game tests, we once again see the new 65W Ryzen processors performing well and hanging with the higher-powered chips across the board. There's a few percentage points separating the processors here and there, but ultimately they all perform well in these games.
Testing at a more taxing 4K resolution, the GeForce RTX 3080 becomes the limiting performance factor and almost every CPU on the bench puts up similar results. The 65W Zen 4 CPUs do very well here, but ultimately the differences between these chips in these games at a 4K resolution is academic.
These new 65W Ryzen processors are exceptionally power friendly relative to the competition, given their overall performance. Idle power is out of whack because of our test platform. We, unfortunately, don't have a lower-end socket-AM5 board to test in, and the X670 Extreme chipset consumes a relative ton of power, due to the dual-chip nature of the setup. Looking at peak power, all three of the new processors finished near the top of the chart, which is to say they consumed less power than any of the higher-end chips -- sometimes by a wide margin. if you're looking to build a high-performance rig, but want to keep power (end hence thermals) at a minimum, these new Ryzen processors should have your attention.
All three of these new processors consumed a similar amount of peak power, and all three include the Wraith Prism cooler. We tested the chips with said Wraith Prism (set to its low-speed fan option) and can report that temperatures should be a non-issue in any properly ventilated chassis. After 10-minute loops of Cinebench, temps for all of the processors peaked in the mid-to-high 70°C range, with only two other case fans (excluding the GPU and PSU fans). The included cooler is more than capable of keeping temperatures in check with these processors.
UL 3DMark CPU Physics Benchmark
Can you guess where the Ryzen 5 7600, Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 9 7900 finished here? If you said just behind their higher-end, higher-power counterparts, you'd be correct! This time around though, even the Ryzen 7 7700 is able to outrun the Ryzen 9 5950X, which is amazing considering it's got half the cores.
High And Low Resolution Gaming & Graphics Benchmarks
We also ran some mid and high-resolution game and graphics tests on our test rigs with 3DMark, F1 2021, Metro Exodus, Middle-earth: Shadow Of War and Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. We used 3DMark's default Time Spy preset, and the games were run in two different configurations -- either 1080p with Medium/High details, or 4K with High/Extreme details. The lower resolution tests are more CPU bound to somewhat isolate processor performance, while the higher resolution tests are more GPU bound.
As all of these systems were tested using the exact same GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, as evidenced by the relatively flat graphics score. The overall score, however, also factors in the CPU Physics test, so that tapers off once we get below around the 8-core mark. There's really not much separating the top-end chips, but the Ryzen 5 7600 lands towards the bottom of the stack.
Testing at a more taxing 4K resolution, the GeForce RTX 3080 becomes the limiting performance factor and almost every CPU on the bench puts up similar results. The 65W Zen 4 CPUs do very well here, but ultimately the differences between these chips in these games at a 4K resolution is academic.
AMD 65W Ryzen 5/7/9 7000 Total System Power Consumption
Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we also monitored how much power our systems rig were consuming with a power meter. Our goal was to give you an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling at the Windows desktop and while under taxing CPU workloads across one or all cores.
Keep in mind, this is total system power consumption being measured at the outlet and not the the individual power being drawn by the CPUs alone; our GeForce RTX 3080 and other system components are factored into these numbers.
These new 65W Ryzen processors are exceptionally power friendly relative to the competition, given their overall performance. Idle power is out of whack because of our test platform. We, unfortunately, don't have a lower-end socket-AM5 board to test in, and the X670 Extreme chipset consumes a relative ton of power, due to the dual-chip nature of the setup. Looking at peak power, all three of the new processors finished near the top of the chart, which is to say they consumed less power than any of the higher-end chips -- sometimes by a wide margin. if you're looking to build a high-performance rig, but want to keep power (end hence thermals) at a minimum, these new Ryzen processors should have your attention.
All three of these new processors consumed a similar amount of peak power, and all three include the Wraith Prism cooler. We tested the chips with said Wraith Prism (set to its low-speed fan option) and can report that temperatures should be a non-issue in any properly ventilated chassis. After 10-minute loops of Cinebench, temps for all of the processors peaked in the mid-to-high 70°C range, with only two other case fans (excluding the GPU and PSU fans). The included cooler is more than capable of keeping temperatures in check with these processors.
AMD Ryzen 5 7600, Ryzen 7 7700, And Ryzen 9 7900 - The Verdict
All three of these new 65 watt Ryzen processors performed well relative to their intended competition. Throughout our tests, despite consuming significantly less peak power than their counterparts, the 6-core Ryzen 7 7600, 8-core Ryzen 7 7700, and 12-core Ryzen 9 7900 finished just behind their higher-power, X-branded siblings, and clearly outran previous-gen processors.
We tested these chips in an enthusiast-class X670 Extreme motherboard, which resulted in relatively high idle power, but the chipset also affects our peak power measurements. Even so, peak power was among the lowest of all the processors we tested here. Pair these new 65W Ryzen processors with a mainstream B650 motherboard and power consumption – and the cost of entry – would be even lower. Keep in mind, these processor require DDR5, so even with a mainstream motherboard there will be some additional cost involved relative to other platforms, but DDR5 pricing continues to drop and shouldn’t be a barrier for most.
We tested these chips in an enthusiast-class X670 Extreme motherboard, which resulted in relatively high idle power, but the chipset also affects our peak power measurements. Even so, peak power was among the lowest of all the processors we tested here. Pair these new 65W Ryzen processors with a mainstream B650 motherboard and power consumption – and the cost of entry – would be even lower. Keep in mind, these processor require DDR5, so even with a mainstream motherboard there will be some additional cost involved relative to other platforms, but DDR5 pricing continues to drop and shouldn’t be a barrier for most.
In addition to offering lower TDPs, the Ryzen 7 7600, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 9 7900 are also priced lower than existing Ryzen 7000 series processors, at $229, $329, and $429, respectively. Considering their strong performance, and the fact that both the Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 9 7900 both outran the previous-gen flagship Ryzen 9 5950X on occasion, there’s a lot of bang for the buck here.
All told, we really dig these 65 watt Ryzen 7000 series processors. Performance, power and pricing are all solid. If you’re in the market for modern, full-featured system with this generation and don’t want to break the bank, these processors are definite contenders and should be on your short list.
All told, we really dig these 65 watt Ryzen 7000 series processors. Performance, power and pricing are all solid. If you’re in the market for modern, full-featured system with this generation and don’t want to break the bank, these processors are definite contenders and should be on your short list.
