AMD Ryzen 7 1700X review – computing power and high performance at an affordable price

It was in this year that AMD released its latest CPUs part of the Zen architecture – Ryzen. The models immediately stood out because of some drastic changes in comparison to their predecessors – 14nm manufacturing process, SoC and many other key improvements needed for a more successful competition with Intel’s high-end chips.

Despite all these changes, AMD has managed to preserve a very important aspect of its products – relatively low price. The CPU we shall have a closer look at in the present review was released on the market in March 2017 and it’s called AMD Ryzen 7 1700X.

If you happen to show interested in AMD Ryzen 7 1700X, you could check its current price and availability here: http://amzn.to/2tMSwYF

Contents


Retail package

Apart from AMD Ryzen 7 1700X, the package offers a manual, as well as an AMD sticker, which can be placed on your case. In a similar fashion to high-end Intel CPUs, Ryzen 7 1700X does not offer a box cooler.

Design and construction

As it was mentioned above, the latest generation of Ryzen processors by AMD is something brand new. The octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 1700X is manufactured through a 14nm technological process and supports the new AM4 socket by the American company. The SoC (System-on-a-chip) model features 4MB of L2 cache memory and 16MB L3, positioning the chip right next to the hexacore Intel Core i7-6900К with a total of 22MB cache memory. Additionally, the new AMD platform even offers the option of using DDR4 RAM and the maximum number of channels supported is two, while the frequency varies between 1866MHz and 2667MHz.

Apart from the change in the manufacturing process, AMD has featured a new technology called simultaneous multi-threading (SMT). It is quite similar to Intel’s HyperThreading – it emulates a virtual core for each real one. This means that Ryzen 7 1700X has 8 physical and 16 logical cores. The processor has a base frequency of 3.4 GHz and Boost frequency of up to 3.8 GHz. Another technology that was revealed along with the Ryzen architecture is XFR (eXtended Frequency Range). It allows the processor to increase its Boost frequency with another 100MHz but there is one requirement – a sufficiently low chip temperature.

AMD Ryzen 7 1700X offers options for additional overclocking but for this purpose you need to have a high-end motherboard as well as a quality cooling system. In the present review we decided to put together a budget configuration and for it we used a be quiet! Pure Rock – the model proved absolutely sufficient for maintaining normal temperatures as well as for additional overclocking. The processor has a TDP of 95 W and the only significant difference between Ryzen 7 1700X and 1800X is the frequency – the second chip is faster with 200MHz.

CPU’s specs sheet

ManufacturerAMD
ModelR7 1700X
Base frequency3.4GHz
Boost frequency3.8GHz
SocketAM4
MicroarchitectureZen
Number of cores8 physical and 16 logical
Cache memory4MB L2 and 16MB L3
Manufacturing process14nm
Consumption95 W

Supported technologies

  • AMD Ryzen Master Utility
  • AMD SenseMI Technology
  • AES
  • AVX
  • SFMA3
  • Virtualization
  • XFR (Extended Frequency Range)
  • The “Zen” Core Architecture
  • SMEP
  • Precision Boost
  • Extended Frequency Range
  • AES / Advanced Encryption Standard instructions
  • AVX / Advanced Vector Extensions
  • AVX2 / Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0

Configuration’s specs sheet


CPUAMD Ryzen 7 1700X (8-core/ 16-thread, 3.40 – 3.80 GHz, 16MB cache)
MotherboardASRock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4
RAMCrucial 16GB (2x 8192 MB) – DDR4, 2133 Mhz
GPUGigabyte Radeon RX 480 Gaming (8GB GDDR5)
Casebe quiet! Silent Base 800
StorageADATA SSD SU800 256GB
PSURaidmax Cobra Power RX1200AE-B
OSWindows 10 64-bit
Video driversCrimson ReLive Edition 17.6.2


Processor tests

CPU tests are where the new AMD Ryzen chips shine and the next following lines confirm this. In the end of this section, you will find a table in which we have compared the results displayed in the standard testing software (NovaBench, Fritz и Cinebench 11.5 and R15) by the following chips – Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, Intel Core i7-770K and Intel Core i7-6800K.

Cinebench 11 and R15

Novabench

Fritz

CPU-Z

Comparative table

TestIntel Core i7-7700KIntel Core i7-6800KAMD Ryzen 7 1700XAMD Ryzen 7 1800X
Cinebench 1110.8311.01 (+2%)17.11 (+58%)17.44 (+61%)
Cinebench R159781010 (+3%)1550 (+59%)1543 (+58%)
NovaBench10551049 (-1%)1318 (+25%)1299 (+23%)
Fritz1788913770 (-30%)22129 (+23%)20121 (+13%)

Overclocking results

We already shared with you that the cooler used in these tests is a budget one. The particular model we employed for the cooling of Ryzen 7 1700X, is be quiet! Pure Rock – it can be purchased for only $30. Despite its low price, it did very well in our temperature tests and was more than enough for our overclocking checks. Additionally, the maximum stable frequency we managed to reach was 3.8 GHz – for even better overclocking results we recommend you use an air cooler of the “tower” type or water cooling. In the table below you can have a look at some comparative results of Ryzen 7 1700X’s base frequency and at 3800 MHz.

Cinebench 11 and R15

Novabench

Fritz

CPU-Z

TestAMD Ryzen 7 [email protected]AMD Ryzen 7 [email protected]Difference
Cinebench 1117.1118.59+8.65%
Cinebench R1515501680+8.4%
Fritz2212923796+7.5%
Novabench13181354+2.7%

Graphics tests

In a fashion similar to Intel’s top notch processors, AMD Ryzen 7 1700X does not feature an integrated GPU – this means that it is more than a good idea to buy a discrete graphics card. In our case we used the affordable option by the “red” company – AMD Radeon RX 480 with 8GB of available VRAM. After the processor performed more than decently in our synthetic tests, it is time to see how it will fare in the familiar benchmarks – Unigine Heaven 3.0/4.0, 3DMark TimeSpy and FireStrike.

Unigine Heaven 3.0 and 4.0

3DMark TimeSpy

3DMark Firestrike


Gaming tests

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS153 fps96 fps50 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS155 fps108 fps54 fps

f1-2015-game

F1 2015Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Max (Check settings)
Average FPS179 fps159 fps124 fps

Temperatures

After the architectural changes and lowered energy consumptions in the new Ryzen chips, we expected better results in our temperature tests even with our be quiet! Pure Rock cooler. The model did show that it can cope with 8-core AMD CPUs without any problems.

The cooler managed to keep Ryzen 7 1700X around 40 degrees Celsius in idle mode which is normal, considering the fact that this is a budget cooler, and the processor is more than powerful. We remained pleasantly surprised by the final results in this section. After nearly an hour and a half of 100% stress test, the max temperature we measured was 66.5 degrees Celsius – it is namely this result that made us increase the frequency even more by overclocking.

Verdict

The new AMD Ryzen architecture brought the California company back in the game when it comes to high-end processors. A more pleasant news is that the most powerful chips from the Ryzen lineup (Ryzen 7 1700, 1700X and 1800X) are much cheaper than their Intel counterparts. Our Ryzen 7 1700X chip achieved pretty decent results in the synthetic tests, surpassing the Intel Core i7-770K и дори екстремния Intel Core i7-6800K and even the extreme Intel Core i7-6800K without breaking a sweat. This is thanks to the new XFR and simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) technologies which squeeze the maximum out of the model.

And so the octa-core chip did well in our standard frequency temperature tests too and if you desire to increase its performance by overclocking, we recommend you take a better air or even water cooling for maximum performance – do bear in mind that the cooler needs to support the new AM4 socket. Like we already said above, the only difference between Ryzen 7 1700X and 1800X is in terms of their frequency. It is namely this peculiarity that can be “removed” after overclocking, reaching results quite close to those of the Ryzen flagship at its base frequency. If you happen to have a high-end motherboard (chipset X370/B350), you could easily increase the frequency of your processor.

Unfortunately, in Full HD gaming titles Ryzen 7 1700X seems to be lacking something. We really hope that AMD will have a solution for this “issue”, be it in a firmware or software update. Another unpleasant news is that the max number of supported RAM channels is two for now, and in trying to reach 3000 MHz, you will need to spend some time in BIOS.

If you happen to show interested in AMD Ryzen 7 1700X, you could check its current price and availability here: http://amzn.to/2tMSwYF

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