The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is the company’s budget-friendly processor and the entry SKU. This doesn’t mean it’s a slouch, however, as it still houses six physical cores with 12 threads. For gaming and general work, it’s almost perfect.
Should you require additional performance, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a good pick with eight physical cores and a total of 16 threads. It’s a little more pricey, but worth the additional cost if you need the boost in power.
For
- More cores/threads
- More powerful
- DDR5 RAM
- PCIe 5.0
Against
- Higher power consumption
- More expensive
Picking the right AMD Ryzen processor for your PC involves deciding how much you need to spend and how much power is required for the tasks that will be carried out. For gaming and other general usages, you can go all-out with the best processor available, but it’ll be a waste if you don’t make full use of the cores on offer.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is ideally suited for such use. It has enough performance to get you through even the more demanding PC games from recent years. But if you did plan on using some creator software or working with larger files, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is likely to be a better fit.
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | |
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2022 | 2022 |
| Cores | 6 | 8 |
| Threads | 12 | 16 |
| Speed | Up to 5.3GHz | Up to 5.4GHz |
| Cache | 38MB | 40MB |
| GPU | Radeon (2 cores) | Radeon (2 cores) |
| TDP | 105W | 105W |
| Price | $285 | $399 |
Major differences between the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 7700X include the number of physical cores and threads. The former has 6 and 12 whilst the more expensive Ryzen 7 7700X has 8 and 16. This may not seem like much of a bump, but the additional two cores and four threads could make all the difference in saving time.
Then there’s the factory-set boost speed of 5.3GHz and 5.4GHz. The Ryzen 7 7700X also has 2MB more cache to work with. Both processors have the same TDP and integrated GPU, though the 7700X will suck up a little more power. Finally, there’s a substantial difference in price.
Performance
Why you can trust Windows Central
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
What the aforementioned differences between the two processors result in is a boost in performance for the Ryzen 7 7700X. We test processors using a suite of synthetic benchmarks, which may not represent accurate real-world usage but does allow us to use hard numbers to compare performance. The charts below will showcase just how much of an improvement the Ryzen 7 700X is.
Image 1 of 11
Across a wide range of tests, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is simply outright better than its Ryzen 5 7600X. For single-core scoring, it’s not so clear cut, but for applications that can fully utilize multiple cores, the 7700X is the better choice for performance. For value and price, it all depends on how much budget is available.
The best CPU for a custom PC build can become expensive. It’s wise to factor in the potential replacement of the RAM and motherboard if you’re upgrading an older PC to this generation of AMD processors.
The Ryzen 6 7600X is a great budget pick for PC builds that don’t require an insane number of cores ans threads. If all you need is a decent CPU for gaming and other tasks, this is the one to go for.
AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X is built for some serious work loads. It has eight physical cores and double the number of threads, allowing for the OS and all your favorite games and software to utilize the available performance.
