Conclusion

Final Words 

And here we are; perhaps, 300 bucks for a six-core processor is a little steep. This one might be worth it though. Out of all four Ryzen 7000 processors released this one remains relatively energy friendly with decent enough thermals and is a good gaming processor. Even multi-threaded the performance shines but not as good as the 12600K from Intel. Like before, multi-threaded speed is excellent (for a six-core processor), and single-threaded performance is exceptionally decent.

Another point to consider is the high total cost of ownership due to the requirement of upgrading to a new platform and DDR5 memory. You should also remember that Intel has not yet released Raptor Lake (at the time of writing this article). We hit sub-90 degrees C under massive load with a fairly typical LCS (admittedly, not the greatest performing one). AMD describes the Ryzen 5 7600 as having a boost of (up to) 5.3 GHz; however if you can cool the device better, you may achieve a peak boost of 5.40GHz like we did (Tjmax = 95°C). With our (modest) 280mm LCS, we got 5.450 MHz. Overall, the Ryzen 5 7600X generates a lot of heat for a processor with six cores, but it is at an acceptable enough level. AMD claims that high temperatures are not an issue because they are by design, although I say ... it doesn't feel right.

Price and value

Gaming performance

The new architecture and high clock rates help AMD get back in the saddle compared to Intels' 12th Gen products, but Intel is about to release 13th Gen products. Although (compared to 12th Gen Alder Lake) both have some wins and losses. It's now so close that individual wins per brand and processor segmentation (mainstream, high-end, and enthusiast) are accurate. So that means that this processor, on average, can feed frames as fast as Intel's equivalent with a mighty graphics card. Realistically though at six or eight cores, your gaming experience will be great; we feel that eight cores are the norm these days for a properly nice gaming PC and overall PC desktop. In the end, this little six-core minx offered plenty of performance even to feed a GeForce RTX 3090. 

DDR5 Memory

The elephant in the room for Ryzen Series 7000 is the cost of ownership. While DDR5 memory will get cheaper next year, you'll likely pay a price premium right now. AMD indicates that 6000 MHz is a sweet spot, but please do read our scaling article for memory, as 5200 MHz isn't performing poorly either. The kit we received contained 2x 16GB G.Skill memory rated 6000:CL30. With this frequency and latency, the sweet spot will not be the price, with the ~300 USD you'll need to spend for this 32 GB kit. EXPO memory; it ran great; we tested the TridentZ5 NEO kit on an MSI, ASRock and ASUS motherboard. Once we had the latest BIOS up and running, would POST fast enough. The first time you startup the PC the BIOS will do memory training; this can take a few minutes. Once you move the BIOS to EXPO mode (the optimal SPD timings) and restart, it'll train again. Once trained you're looking at POST times of less than 30 seconds, which is still too much IMHO.  Stability-wise, we had no issues, but since AMD provided these kits, they've been extensively tested for compatibility. This isn't any criticism by the way; for both Intel and AMD, with the start of a new architecture, it's racing against the clock to get memory kits compatible at a firmware level. 

Note on BIOS POST

Actually, let me make a paragraph out of this information. The first time you'll start up your system it'll trains memory. Once you set your XMP/EXPO profile, it'll do that again. This process can take 2-3 minutes. Once your memory is trained POST and thus boot times will ramp up as fast as expected at say 15 to 20 seconds max. So don't worry about the rumors. 

Energy efficiency and heat

The Ryzen 5 7600X is a processor rated at 105 Watts; the thing is, much like Intel's PL2 states, AMD now applies a PPT of 142 W, so that means your processor can utilize that wattage. The specs aren't so shabby as the processor can utilize 1.475 Volts dynamically. All these factors produce all that heat we've been talking about. I want to add that much heat seems to originate from the memory controllers. The new IO chip also has fast PCI lanes and an IGP to deal with. With LCS you can keep this processor in the ~85 Degrees C domain under full load though; that's okay enough.

I like to add the following from the AMD reviewers guide:

It’s important to note TJMax is the max safe operating temperature – not the absolute max temperature. In the Ryzen 7000 Series, the processor is designed to run at TJMax 24/7 without risk of damage or deterioration. At 95 degrees it is not running hot, rather It will intentionally go to this temperature as much as possible under load because the power management system knows that this is the ideal way to squeeze the most performance out of the chip without damaging it.

Overclocking

As with all processors, you still have a bit of leech to overlock. With proper liquid cooling (an LCS kit with enough capacity), selecting all cores towards your maximum multiplier is the easiest way to overclock. With these temps at hand, we advise the voltage regulated by the motherboard (auto voltage). For Ryzen 5 7600X all-core max seems to be in the ~5300 MHz area with LCS, again that's all cores. This yielded a CB20 score almost equal to the processor in default clocked configuration, ergo we'll pass on overclocking.

Conclusion

This is Ryzen 7000 processor number three that we test, and the six-core part makes sense from a gamer's point of view on a tighter budget. It'll offer plenty of performance with even the most high-end graphics cards. The thermals and energy levels on this one aren't bad either, so that's all satisfactory. However, placing a 7600X on an X670(E) motherboard would be stretching it. We say; wait on B650 with more affordable prices. On the performance side, AMD does well; however, we observe a scarce IPC improvement of just 3%, which may be combined with clock frequency reaching out to ~ 5.45 GHz on some cores. That IPC made AMD pull open all available registers, the trade-in being thermal- and energy efficiency. In addition to the new AM5 platforms, PCIe Gen 5 is now within reach, but there is currently no purpose for it because no graphics card even requires PCIe Gen 5. We were also hoping that AMD would have seeded some samples of Gen5-ready NVMe SSDs; however, there are currently not seeded. Just so you know, we're not super certain that PCIe Gen 5 SSD will make a massive difference in real-world performance and user experience either; yeah, sustained speeds will reach +10GB/s, but you'll get the very same 4K read/write performance because the most significant thing going on is bandwidth.

Seen from a generic point of view, a ZEN4 processor, simply put, makes everything faster. I'll be the devil's advocate here, though; if you're a gamer and looking at energy efficiency and cool temps and platform cost of ownership, the more interesting proc to get is the 5800X3D. It'll save you the cost of ownership for the total platform (mobo/ddr4), and you'll steer away from any possible heat issues. As a generic platform, however, the new motherboards are loaded with their latest features running from USB 3.2 2x2, 2.5 G LAN, and WIFI6E. That, combined with PCIe Gen 5.0, might make all the difference for you. If you do not plan to game on your new Ryzen 7000 PC, then you'll like that the Series 7000 now comes with a fully-fetched IGP; whatever you do, it'll get the job done (as long as it's not gaming).

In conclusion, we are impressed by the new level of performance that AMD brings to the table, Zen 4 is a step upward in performance, but the overall cost of ownership (of the platform) for consumers might just be too steep. Probably good to know is that we had no stability issues or issues whatsoever, which is lovely for a new platform. AMD is asking $300 for the Ryzen 5 7600X, making it the most affordable Zen 4 option available; do realize that the 5600X is currently available for $219. Older Zen 3 CPUs provide slightly lower gaming and application performance than the 7600X, but their price/performance ratio is better, and yeah, the platform cost of the Zen 3 is quite low. In October AMD will release the B650 chipset motherboards, which are expected to start at $150-$175; that's where more value will kick in as X670(E) is just too expensive. Of course, With Socket AM5 AMD provides an upgrade route, whereas AM4 has seen its last series of processors. AMD promises AM5 socket compatibility until at least 2025. So perhaps start with this cheaper processor, and upgrade to a new generation in a year or two. If you're going for it, a suitable liquid cooler is advised for the Ryzen 5 7600X. 

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