Conclusion
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 was introduced on January 10th, 2023, with an original introductory MSRP of $329 this new “Non-X” variant from AMD ushered in a new series of 65W processors in the mainstream market. These new 65W CPUs filled in the AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPU line based on the Zen 4 architecture and AM5 platform supporting PCIe 5.0 and DDR5.
The Ryzen 7 7700 has the same core count as the Ryzen 7 7700X, but a lower 65W TDP and thus a lower clock speed. The Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core/16-thread CPU that has a base clock of 3.8GHz and a boost clock of up to 5.3GHz, but only under lightly threaded usage. It has the same cache as the Ryzen 7 7700X. On the plus side, the Ryzen 7 7700 comes with the AMD Wraith Prism air cooler in the box, so you also save money not having to purchase a cooler of your own. Be sure to check current online prices, to see what they are at the current time, they can change over time.
CPU Performance of Ryzen 7 7700 vs Ryzen 7 7700X
In today’s CPU performance comparison review, we put the Ryzen 7 7700 versus the Ryzen 7 7700X to see how they compare. We also enabled PBO on the Ryzen 7 7700 to see if boosting past the 65W TDP can regain some performance closer to the Ryzen 7 7700X.
Starting with synthetic system benchmarks, in PCMark 10 the Ryzen 7 7700 was just 3% slower than the Ryzen 7 7700X. That is a small difference, and this represents lightly threaded, lighter workloads, not something that would maximize all cores at the same time. That is still important because it does replicate more closely what is done in office work. In Geekbench multi-core performance the Ryzen 7 7700 was only 4% slower than the Ryzen 7 7700X, and in single-core performance, it was only 3% slower. 3DMark had one of the widest differences with the multi-core performance of the Ryzen 7 7700 being 7% slower than the Ryzen 7 7700X. In single-core performance, it was only 4% behind.
Moving on to the rendering benchmarks, we see much of the same replicated here. In Cinbench multi-core the Ryzen 7 7700 is only 7% slower, and in single-core it is only 3% behind. In Blender, the Ryzen 7 7700 is at most 7% slower than the 7700X. In HandBrake there is also a difference, there are several minutes difference in encoding time, and it can add up for long render times.
In all of these synthetic benchmarks, enabling PBO greatly helped performance in multi-core performance. We saw performance almost completely match the Ryzen 7 7700X, and if not, it came very close. The great thing is, it did it while still using 20W less power than the Ryzen 7 7700X and lower temps as well.
When it comes to games, there was just simply no difference in gaming performance at 4K and 1440p, even with an RTX 4090. In fact, even at 1080p, there was at most a 2% performance difference, and it was only in a few games. The fact is, while gaming, the Ryzen 7 7700 performs exactly the same as the Ryzen 7 7700X, yet uses less power, and runs cooler.
Final Points
In our testing, we found that the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 performs very closely to the Ryzen 7 7700X even at its worse. Meaning, we only saw at maximum, with all cores being utilized, a deficit of 7% performance under the Ryzen 7 7700X with the 7700. This was in rendering benchmarks, or synthetic benchmarks that push all-core performance. Overall, that isn’t huge.
In fact, the small difference between the 7700 and 770X is a lot lower than the difference between the Ryzen 9 7900 and Ryzen 9 7900X that we previously tested. Those two CPUs had much larger differences between them on all-core usage. However, the Ryzen 7 7700 keeps performance much closer to the Ryzen 7 7700X on multi-threaded applications. In addition, single-thread, or lightly-threaded applications were even closer at just a 3% performance difference.
When it comes to gaming performance our testing showed that there simply wasn’t any difference in gaming performance between the Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 7 7700X. Whether you are gaming at 4K, 1440p, or 4K, even with a fast GeForce RTX 4090 you won’t lose gaming performance saving money with the Ryzen 7 7700. The Ryzen 7 7700X offers no advantage in gaming performance.
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an amazingly efficient CPU. It uses 37% less power than the Ryzen 7 7700X, but only performs at worse, 7% slower. You also get a huge reduction in operating temperatures pegging the CPU on all cores, this means you don’t need expensive cooling solutions. In fact, the Ryzen 7 7700 comes with a cooler in the box that will work well and means no added cost for cooling. Enabling PBO can claw a lot of performance back, making it perform near the 7700X, yet still consuming less power, and still running cooler. There really aren’t a lot of downsides here, so if the Ryzen 7 7700 can be found cheaper, the value could very much be worth it. Be sure to check the latest prices.