AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 9 7900X Review

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 9 7900X Review

Conclusion

Whenever it comes to buying a new processor there is always much to take into consideration. Firstly, probably above all, is what you plan to use it for. If you’re a strict gamer then almost any amount of cores four or higher will be plenty, whereas if you’re someone who loves to create things, whether huge swathes of photo editing, or video editing, or genuine 3D rendering, then no amount of cores are going to be enough. Secondly is price, but if you fall into the first category it’s guaranteed to be affordable, whilst if you fall into the latter then no amount of saving £50 is going to replace the hours you spend looking at a progress bar and wishing you’d saved harder or longer.

Let’s get the price out of the way early then.

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is currently £328.99, compared to the £379.00 of the Intel Core i5-13600K. Both processors are aimed at the gaming crowd and so saving money there is money towards a new graphics card, where any increased spending reaps enormous rewards.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is, at the time of writing, £579.98. £220 cheaper than the Ryzen 9 7950X, and £120 cheaper than the Intel Core i9-13900K. All three of those processors are for those of you who want to maximise your productivity, or just show off in your forum signature.

To compare those, our 4K Blender scene took 11 minutes on the 7900X, 10 minutes when overclocked, 8:39 on the 7950X, 8:21 on the 13900K and 8:14 and 8:01 respectively when they’re overclocked. It might not sound much, but that extra £220 on the flagship AMD Ryzen saves you two minutes sitting around for every 4K frame you render. This is all time that adds up, whether video rendering or 3D rendering. We’re not remotely suggesting that the Ryzen 9 7900X is slow by any means, just that if you’re committed to getting through your workflow as quickly as possible then, barring crippling budgetary considerations, it seems to sit in a no mans land in the Ryzen 7000 series range.

The flipside is, of course, those of you with no interest in anything other than beast mode frame rates in games. Here the Ryzen 5 7600X is an absolute star. Not only does it do all the other stuff around the same performance as the Ryzen 7 5800X from the previous generation, but the performance in gaming is fantastic thanks to the huge clock speed increase AMD have squeezed into their 7000 Series. Unless you absolutely must play Cyberpunk 2077, where the Intel Core i5-13600K has an edge, all our other games showed that the CPU is secondary to the amount of graphical horsepower you can offer. Naturally £330 for a super gaming processor and a decent all-rounder is the kind of bargain you can’t afford to miss.

All in all your use case and budget will be the deciding factors. If you want a good all-rounder that games like a champ, the Ryzen 5 7600X is a star and wins our OC3D Gamers Choice award. However, if you want good gaming and excellent creativity performance then the Ryzen 9 7900X is great and worthy of our OC3D Performance Award, but we would urge you to consider saving a little harder and going for the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X – MSRP £328.99

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 9 7900X Review  

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X – MSRP £579.98.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 9 7900X Review  

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