Zen 4 Efficiency at 65 Watts

In Q3 of last year, AMD released the first CPUs based on the highly anticipated Zen 4 architecture. Not only has the Ryzen 7000 part raised the bar for performance compared to his previous Ryzen 5000 series, but it has spawned AMD’s latest platform, his AM5. The most important advantages of the Zen 4 and AM5 platforms include PCIe 5.0, DDR5 memory support and access to the latest and greatest available in the controller set.

Competition at the high end of the x86 processor market is a metaphorical shootout with heavy weapons, but AMD has struggled to give users on a tight budget something to bite into. The 4 is clearly a powerful and highly efficient architecture, but with the added cost of DDR5, finding all the components that fit AM5’s tighter budget constraints won’t be as easy as it was with its predecessor, AM4.

AMD launches three new processors designed to give users on a budget value for money while offering favorable performance for those looking for Zen 4 hardware, without a big financial outlay The AMD Ryzen 9 7900, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 5 7600 processors all feature the Zen 4 microarchitecture and feature a TDP of just 65W, making them a much more affordable entry to look for. It is viable for all kinds of users, including enthusiasts who – Aim for AM5 platform.

Of particular interest is AMD’s new entry-level offering for the Ryzen 7000 series. The Ryzen 5 7600 offers 6 cores/12 threads for entry-level builders looking to build a system with all the features of the AM5 and Ryzen 7000 families. , but at a much more affordable price. Take a look at all three of AMD’s new Ryzen 7000 65W TDP processors, see how they compare to the competition, and find out what AMD’s low-power, low-cost non-X variants are worth to consumers See if you can provide it. Also to see if AMD’s 65W TDP implementation can shine a light on TSMC’s 5nm node process with performance efficiency per watt that AMD claims to be the best on the market. I am aiming.

Since AMD unveiled its Zen 4 cores last year, it has published several column inches about its microarchitecture, Ryzen 7000 processors and AM5 platform. Below is a list of in-depth coverage of Raphael (Zen 4) and his Ryzen 7000.

Ryzen 9 7900, Ryzen 7 7700, Ryzen 5 7600 with 65W TDP starting at $229

Focusing on its latest 65W based Ryzen 7000 series processors, AMD is looking to offer better value across the series along with various price cuts across its X-class Zen 4 chips. The new Ryzen 7000 non-X-series chips are available in multiple configurations and price points. Part of that is the decision to go back to bundling a proper cooler for even more value, showing better power efficiency than previous-generation processors.

AMD’s top X-series SKUs have high power consumption and high heat pressure on the IHS, requiring proper cooling, but the new 65W models are designed with efficiency and performance per watt in mind. . All of this aims to make it a (more) viable option for all types of system builders. Considering the lower TDP compared to the X-series SKUs, AMD has lowered their expectations for clock speeds on these new SKUs. Boost clocks are still fairly high, reflecting the ability of the silicon to run on lighter workloads. However, the official base frequency clock speed has been significantly reduced to control the chip’s power usage in more heavily multithreaded scenarios.

Starting with AMD’s top 65 W SKUs, the Ryzen 9 7900 has 12 Zen 4 cores with a max boost clock speed of up to 5.4 GHz. Additionally, it shares the same 64 MB L3 cache as the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 9 7900X, but has a TDP over 100 Watts lower than the flagship model. The Ryzen 9 7900 is designed for content creators, gamers and enthusiasts looking for more affordable options.

Comparing the Ryzen 9 7900 and Ryzen 9 7900X head-to-head, the 65 W variant has a base clock speed of 3.6 GHz, a drop of around 23% compared to its X-series siblings. Boost clock speeds, on the other hand, are much more similar, with the Ryzen 9 7900 having a boost frequency of 5.4 GHz, making it more of a favorite flavor for enthusiasts.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 core/24 thread processor in CPU-Z

The 61% drop in TDP between the Ryzen 9 7900 (65 W) and Ryzen 9 7900X (170 W) may raise some questions regarding raw performance throughput. Indeed, the 7900 will perform poorly under multi-threaded heavy workloads. It still takes a lot of power to light up 12 Zen 4 cores at 5 GHz and above. But the good side of this? A lower TDP is more viable on space-constrained systems. Not only this, but it also means easier cooling and less budget needed to buy high-end coolers that can be spent on faster DDR5 memory, storage or discrete graphics.

Moving the stack to the Ryzen 7 series, the Ryzen 7 7700 would have the same core and thread counts as the existing Ryzen 7 7700X, but would hit 100 MHz with boosted clock speeds. On the other hand, it has a fundamental frequency of 3.6 GHz, which constitutes a raw frequency drop of 900 MHz. Other features include 40 MB total cache, 32 MB L3 cache, and 8 MB L2 cache.

All in all, the Ryzen 7 7700 has a TDP drop of 40W over the 105 TDP of its X-series counterpart, which is significantly less than the drop of the 7900 part. So Zen 4 hardware isn’t asked to give up much performance headroom here.

Slide from AMD’s Ryzen 7000 65W Slide Deck: Performance Per Watt Matters

The last SKU in AMD’s Ryzen 7000 65W range is the Ryzen 5 7600. The Ryzen 5 7600 is the entry-level model of AMD’s latest high-performance AM5 platform, featuring 6 cores and a maximum boost clock speed of 5.1 GHz. It shares many characteristics of the Ryzen 5 7600X, including 32MB of L3 cache and 6MB of L2 cache. That’s 1 MB per core, which is Zen 4’s advantage over Zen 3’s 512 KB per core L2 cache. Another advantage is the price. The Ryzen 5 7600 is very attractive, with an entry-level price of $229 down from the 7600X’s $299 MSRP (and $269 street price). This would give users looking to opt for Zen 4 and TSMC 5nm processors an even more affordable option to consider their choice.

Like the rest of the Ryzen 7000 family, all three of the new 65W SKUs also include an integrated GPU consisting of two RDNA2 based CUs to provide base level integrated graphics. increase. It’s good enough for simple desktop needs, but don’t confuse it with having the same level of graphics power as his APU in the Ryzen series.

Finally, a reminder to all that TDP is not AMD’s or Intel’s maximum power consumption numbers, nor is the definition of TDP the same between the two, as has been the case with some current processor generations. Worth getting. For AMD, the metric to watch is Package Power Tracking (PPT). This is the power level that the CPU socket allows for the CPU. On the AM5 platform AMD defines his PPT as 1.35 times the TDP. So for today’s 65W Ryzen processors, this means a socket power limit of 88W.

Test bed and setup

According to our processor testing policy, we have a premium category motherboard that is suitable for the socket and we have the system with the right amount of memory running at the maximum frequency supported by the manufacturer. This is also typically done with JEDEC sub-timing if possible. Some users are not enthusiastic about this policy and the maximum supported frequency may be relatively low, or faster memory may be available at a similar price, or JEDEC speeds may outweigh performance. Note that I said it could be outrageous.

These comments make sense, but at the end of the day, very few users apply memory profiles (XMP or anything else) because they require interaction with the BIOS. Most users will rely on JEDEC supported speeds. This includes home users and industries looking to cut costs by a cent or two or stay within the margins set by manufacturers. If possible, expand testing to include faster memory modules at the same time as the review or at a later date.

Current CPU test suite

AMD Ryzen 9 7900, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 5 7600 testing uses the following test systems:

The updated CPU suite for 2023 includes a variety of benchmarks, tests, and workloads designed to show the performance differences between different processors and architectures. These include UL’s latest Procyon suite, CineBench R23, Dwarf Fortress, Blender 3.3, and C – Includes Ray 1.1.

In the meantime, we’ve also carried over some older (but still relevant and enlightening) benchmarks from the CPU 2021 suite. This includes benchmarks such as Dwarf Fortress, Factorio and Dr. Ian Cutres’ his 3DPMv2 benchmark.

We’ve also updated our game pool for 2023 and beyond, including the latest F1 2022 racing game, the CPU-heavy RTS Total War: Warhammer 3, and the popular Hitman 3.