AMD finally released the 7000 series Processor in September this year and they made quite a lot of noise in the tech world. AMD had been making some bold claims about their new processor series that it will change the market, as they will break the world of benchmarks and take the top spots to rule it.
AMD released 4 processors on the launch date
- Ryzen 9 7950X;
- Ryzen 9 7900X;
- Ryzen 7 7700X; and
- Ryzen 5 7600X.
Brief overview of Ryzen processors
The First Gen Ryzen Processors were launched in 2017 and AMD has continued improving the technology with newer generations. They are multi-Core processors that are based on the Zen Architecture and capable of a high level of multi-threaded performance.
Multiple models of Ryzen processors are released every generation with a high core count and clock speeds which can be overclocked for more performance. The Ryzen processors are targeted toward PC builders who are on a budget and would like to make a PC build that offers great performance to value.
Ryzen 5000 processors
The Ryzen 5000 series processors were launched in October 2020. They were succeeding in the Ryzen 3000 series processors at the time. At the time they were able to clean-sweep the competition and were ruling the Processor benchmarks. With lower TDP and high core count, they were the perfect balance between performance and power. The Ryzen 5000 series consists of the following products:·
- Ryzen 9 5950X;
- Ryzen 9 5900X;
- Ryzen 7 5800X;
- Ryzen 7 5700X; and
- Ryzen 5 5600X.
Architecture
The Ryzen 5000 processors were based on the Zen 3 Architecture which was based on the 7Nm die process.
Performance
It was quite efficient and helped the processor dish out a lot of performance as AMD ruled the world of benchmarks with these processors for a while.
Power consumption
The Ryzen 5000 series is AMD’s most efficient processor series as the mid-range processors only have a TDP of 65 W and the higher-end processors have a TDP of 105W which is phenomenal as the processors come with a lot of power under the hood.
Advantages
1. Price-to-performance ratio
The Ryzen 5000 series offer a great price to performance value as they are just the previous generation of the Ryzen processors and very much capable of keeping up with games and content creation apps that require multi-core processors to run.
2. Compatibility with existing motherboards
The Ryzen 5000 series is developed on the AM4 socket which means that it is compatible with all the motherboards which have the chipset which supports the AM4 socket, such as the b450, b550, and X570, etc.
Limitations
Let’s discuss some limitations of the Ryzen 5000 series processors so far:
Lacks hardware-level ray tracing support
Currently, the only limitation of the Ryzen 5000 series is that it doesn’t come with built-in iGPUs which will result in an additional budget being spent on a discrete GPU for display. Moreover, if you want ray tracing support then the processor is more or less useless there as it doesn’t even contain an integrated GPU let alone a ray tracing capable GPU.
Ryzen 7000 processors
Architecture
The Ryzen 7000 series are based on the Zen 4 core architecture making them the world’s first processor lineup based on TSMC 5 nm process. Constructing a processor on a smaller die means more transistors can be placed on it. The bigger the number of transistors, the better the CPU is at executing instructions, making the CPU faster and more efficient.
The newer 7000 series processors are based on the 5 nm process and to support newer features such as the PCIe gen 5 and DDR5 AMD has designed the processors to run on a new socket, AM5 whereas the previous gen of processors is compatible with AM5. This has been made possible because of the LGA architecture which has a higher pin density and subsequently accesses more features.
Performance
The instructions per cycle depend on the number of transistors present on the CPU since these processors contain more transistors than their predecessor the 5000 series, the IPC gain is at 13% of the 7000 series processors. The 7000 series processors are capable of processing information 13% faster than the previous 5000 series processors.
Power consumption
The newer 7000 series come with a big performance upgrade but comes at the cost of more power consumption. This has resulted in an increased TDP as well. The TDP of 7950X has almost doubled as it has a rated TDP of 170W and in extreme cases, it has been recorded to draw 230W of power. That is more than double the TDP of 5950X which was only 105W.
Make sure you have the PSU which can provide this much juice to the processor to avoid any sort of thermal throttling and decreased performance.
Advantages
The newer 7000 series processors now support DDR5 6000 MHz RAM. This is why AMD had to release a newer socket the AM5 which is compatible with the DDR5 memory. Memory sticks have been optimized for running with the 7000 series processor and they come with the EXPO memory profile which is the same as Intel’s XMP memory profile but branded by AMD. This will also result in increased costs for the processors.
The Smaller Die helps improve the IPC (Instructions per Cycle) as well which translates to more real-world performance in games, 3D modeling, video editing, video rendering, etc.
The Improved Boost clocks help the processor reach clock speeds past the 5.5 GHz mark with ease.
1. Significant performance improvements
AMD has made bold claims about the raw performance increase of the 7000 series over its predecessor 5000 series.
A 31% increase in score in Cinebench R23 was observed when the 7950X was pitted against the 5950X and a 25% increase was seen in Geekbench 5 in real-world scenarios. Initially, AMD had promised a performance difference of 29% and since it performed better in benchmarks AMD delivered on its promise, in fact, AMD over-delivered, which isn’t usually the case in these types of situations.
AMD has also improved on the previous 5000 series processors in every way, with the 7000 series. The 5000 series had 512 KB of L2 cache, while the 7000 series comes with 1 MB of L2 cache, which results in improved performance.
More cache memory is needed to keep the processor cores running smoothly. Since both series have an identical core structure. The increased cache memory helps increase the performance of the newer 7000 series.
2. Hardware-level ray tracing support
Before the 7000 series, processors without the G suffix at the end of their name needed discrete GPUs to give display on the PC. But with the 7000 series due to the smaller die size all processors come with an RDNA 2-powered iGPU which is capable of hardware-level ray tracing. This means that getting a discrete GPU has become a choice rather than a necessity like before. This also indicates the fact that there will be no release of the G variant processor under the 7000 series.
Limitations
1. Higher price compared to Ryzen 5000
Compared to its previous generation, the Ryzen 7000 series processors come at a higher price point which kind of makes the Ryzen 5000 series a better price-to-performance series with CPUs capable of dishing out decent performance per dollar. Still, the higher price point can be justified as they are significantly faster than their previous-gen counterparts.
2. Requires newer motherboards with a compatible socket
To compete with Intel which is offering PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory. AMD has had to switch the socket of the newer 7000 series to make them compatible with these technologies for faster CPU performance. This means that if you are upgrading from a Ryzen 5000 or older CPU you will need to spend additional money to get the newer motherboards which come with the newer compatible socket which is the AM5 socket which is compatible with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technologies.
Conclusion
A. Recap of key differences
Ryzen 7000 series
- Latest Generation
- Newer Architecture
- Faster Performance
- Compatible with newer technologies such as DDR5, PCIe 5.0
- Higher TDP
- Not compatible with older motherboards.
- Newer AM5 socket
- Expensive
Ryzen 5000 series
- Slightly Older Generation
- Previous Gen Architecture
- Not Compatible with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0
- Less TDP more efficient
- Compatible with older motherboards
- AM5 socket
- Better Price to Performance value
Recommendation for different use cases
If you are looking to buy a new PC for gaming or content creation then you should opt for the Ryzen 7000 series as they support the latest DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technologies which are more future-proof. However, if you are looking for a PC upgrade then you should go for the Ryzen 5000 series processors as they offer a great price to performance value and they are no performance slouch either.
Keep in mind though that since the 7000 series processors are the newer generation they are more expensive, have a larger TDP, and also tend to run hotter. But, in return, they also offer a lot more performance than the previous 5000 series, so make sure you have the cooling setup, a larger PSU and the cash to splash to make a PC that will fulfill all your PC needs whether you are gaming or doing content creation it won’t let you down.
Let us know what you think about the newer 7000 series and the older 5000 series in the comment section below! We would love to hear from you!
