AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 7 7700X review: maximal design

As we mentioned earlier, we've tested with both DDR5-5200 and DDR5-6000 RAM for our Intel 13th-gen, Ryzen 7000 and Intel 12th-gen systems. For DDR4-based systems, including Intel 11th-gen and AMD Ryzen 5000, we're using DDR4-3600. The 6000MT/s results are labelled as such; if a result is unlabelled then it is DDR5-5200 for the DDR5 systems and DDR4-3600 for DDR4. We'll examine the impact of different DDR5 speeds in more detail on page five of this review.

Anyway - in these tests, we'll examine how the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 7 7700X behave in Cyberpunk 2077, as well as two recent releases from series that have featured prominently in our previous CPU benchmarks: Far Cry 6, renowned for its single-core reliance, and Crysis 3 Remastered, a DF staple. We've opted for highly repeatable scenes here from a variety of sources here - an in-game cutscene, a brief open gameplay segment along a fixed route and an in-game benchmark.

Remember that you can mouse over the results in the tables below (as long as you're using a desktop browser rather than a phone) to get dynamically generated performance readouts for all processors we've tested. Meanwhile, clicking the graph swaps you into percentages, making it a bit easier to judge relative performance at a glance.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is our second RT benchmark, showing how RT performance can add even more load to the CPU and cause CPU bottlenecking in some scenarios. This benchmark, taken from a motorcycle run along the busy city streets, also demonstrates the game's reliance on high-speed memory, with big performance advantages evident with DDR5-6000 over DDR5-5200. That's especially prominent with the Ryzen 7000 CPUs, which see an eight to 10 percent frame-rate improvement with the faster RAM - incredible stuff.

Outside of the RAM story, we can see that the normal hierarchy has more or less returned to the Zen 4 lineup as well - 7950X in front, then 7900X and then 7700X. The only curiosity is the 7600X, which outperformed the 7700X in repeated tests. Still, all four models beat their last-gen counterparts, with the 7950X with DDR5-6000 RAM being 45 percent faster than the 5950X with DDR4-3600. In terms of the AMD vs Intel fight, this is another win for Team Blue - but the flagship to flagship advantage is less than five percent here.

Far Cry 6

The single-core reliance from Far Cries past returns in the sixth instalment of the franchise. The 7950X narrowly wins against the 13900K here, with both 13th-gen Intel and Ryzen 7000 offering average frame-rates in the 120fps range across the bulk of the benchmark. There's a clear progression here across generations, tied closely here to the boost in single-core performance.

Crysis 3 Remastered

Crysis 3 Remastered allows us to revisit our favourite scene from early on in the original game's campaign, which oscillates between character closeups and complex distant geometry to load both CPU and GPU. Once again, I think we're starting to edge towards GPU limitations here even with DLSS performance engaged, with the 13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X offering up near-identical results. However, 13th-gen tends to be about 20fps faster than AMD's closest equivalent part.

Now let's move onto one final spot of game testing, testing how well the 7950X and 7700X perform at three different RAM frequencies. Where's the sweet spot for DDR5?

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 7 7700X analysis

• Introduction, test rig and content creation benchmarks
• Gaming benchmarks: Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3
• Gaming benchmarks: Counter-Strike: GO, Metro Exodus EE, Black Ops Cold War
• Gaming benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, Crysis 3 Remastered [this page]
• Gaming benchmarks: Memory bandwidth analysis
• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 7 7700X: the Digital Foundry verdict