The latest AMD Ryzen 7000 (65W) chips offer cheaper, and more power-efficient performance compared to the more powerful Ryzen 7000 X versions. At the highest end, the Ryzen 9 7900 performance is just 10% less compared to the 7900X while being around US$120 cheaper. It also comes with a cooler. That's pretty good value. However, you will still need a new AMD 5 motherboard, and DDR5 RAM, which will add to the cost.
Quick specs
- 5nm process, AM5 Socket
- 7600 (6 core, 12 threads), 3.8GHz (base) 5.1GHz (boost), 65W TDP
- 7700 (8 core, 16 threads) 3.66GHz (base), 5.3GHz (boost), 65W TDP
- 7900 (12 core, 24 threads), 3.66GHz (base) 5.4GHz (boost), 65W TDP
I tested all three chips this time around — unlike my previous review where I only tested the 7600X and the 7900X. I used an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card, and tried to keep GPU performance minimal to rule out GPU bottlenecks. However, do note that these new chips use faster DDR5 memory, which will affect results somewhat. Regardless, performance was solid, though not as fast as the Intel 13th-gen chips (and even our older Aftershock 12th-gen benchmark machine). In Cinebench, the 7600 scored 13,672, the 7700 at 18,681, with the 7900 at 25,107. The Intel 12th-gen was 16,086, and the 13th-gen scores were way higher.
For Handbrake video-encoding tests, our timings were 7m 10s (7600), 4m 37s (7700), and 3m 29s (7900). Interestingly, the AMD Ryzen 7900 is comparable to the Intel 13th-gen Core i9-13900K's timing of 3m 20s. The 7600, however, seems to fare poorly here. That's because it's being thermal capped (95 degrees Celsius) by the included, low-profile Wraith Stealth cooler. I recommend upgrading to a better cooler if possible. On the other hand, the 7700 and 7900 come with the Wraith Prism, which offers better cooling. The 7700 runs hotter, hitting 90 degrees, due to only using one Core Complex Die (CCD). On the other hand, the 7900 averages 80 degrees as it has two CCDs.
These chips do run more efficiently, compared to the power-hungry AMD 7000 X series and Intel's 13th-gen CPUs. While they are rated at 65W, these AMD chips can draw up to 90W of power. Gaming-wise, performance is almost on a par with the Ryzen 7000 X chips, but slower by one or two percent. If you feel your games are sluggish — it's probably not the CPU, get a new GPU. Overall, the Ryzen 7000 processors feel like a good compromise between power efficiency and performance.
The AMD Ryzen 7000 (65W) processors retail at S$375 (7600), S$545 (7700), and S$705 (7900). Get the 7900 if you can afford it, otherwise, the 7600 is a good buy, but do get a better cooler than the bundled Wraith Stealth. They are available from Shopee, Lazada, or Amazon (cheapest, but imported from US).
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