AMD Ryzen 5 7600X review

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X sits towards the lower end of the Zen 4 family tree, but this processor offers more gaming performance than you might think. In fact, it has all the power your gaming PC will likely need for the foreseeable future, but I have some doubts about it that prevent us from outright recommending this processor to anyone.

The competition between AMD and Intel for the best gaming CPU crown has intensified in recent years, with both chipmakers finally giving builders compelling options for their next CPU upgrade. As such, the Ryzen 5 7600X has a lot to prove against blue team offerings and its own predecessors.

Fortunately, it has a lot to offer in the performance department as well as the cutting-edge features offered by the AM5 platform. Most people buying a Ryzen 5 7600X will be happy with their purchase (as they should be), but it’s worth remembering that there are other Ryzen 700 series processors that may be better suited to your budget. or your needs.

Features and Specifications

Featuring six cores built on the all-new Zen 4 architecture, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X specifications contain several improvements over the previous generation equivalent. Neither the number of cores nor the number of threads have increased, but the performance of each has certainly increased.

For starters, the Ryzen 5 7600X has a higher base clock and maximum boost clock compared to its predecessor, the 5600X. Despite the chip’s official specs capping out at 5.30 GHz, it will often increase slightly above that in single-threaded workloads like gaming, with my sample consistently hitting around 5.45 GHz.

You can pick up the boost behaviors and clock speeds since the Ryzen 5 7600X is unlocked for overclocking, but that’s not something we’d necessarily consider a selling point because the performance gains will generally be minimal. With that in mind, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 sans X might be the better buy, but we’ll have to get it tested before we can say for sure.

One thing that stings with the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is the lack of an included cooling solution. This may be partly explained by this chip’s comparatively higher 105W TDP, but be prepared to grab the better CPU cooler if you fancy this model for your next CPU upgrade.

Luckily, those looking to save some cash will be pleased to hear that many AM4 cooling solutions are compatible with the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and its siblings. Don’t expect to take your motherboard or DDR4 RAM with you, as the new AM5 socket only supports DDR5.

While it’s unfortunate that the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X costs a bit more once you add in the cost of its supporting components, there are some advantages to coming to a new platform. Key among them is support for DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0, the latter giving the red team the edge over Intel in supporting the best SSD models (at least for now) .

The value of these features isn’t particularly high right now, but it’s a safe bet that their usefulness in terms of gaming performance will only increase in the years to come. Just keep in mind that these standards are still in their infancy and naturally paying to join.

Landmarks

Our AMD Ryzen 5 7600X benchmarks primarily focus on gaming performance. However, we’ve also included synthetic benchmarks that should help illustrate the processor’s capabilities and constraints for creative and production workloads.

Here are the specifications of our test system:

• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro (22621.1105)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
• Cooler: Corsair H100i Pro
• Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming X670E-Plus
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6000MHz
• Graphics processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
• SSD: SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB
• Power supply: Corsair HX1200i

Performance

Pairing the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X with the Radeon RX 7900 XT feels like a mismatch, with the GPU price being three times the CPU cost. Either way, the Zen 4 chip more than proves itself against a blinding barrage of triple-digit frame rates.

The thing is, it’s actually very difficult to introduce CPU bottlenecks in many modern games, even at 1080p. It’s hard to believe, but even when our test rig produces a frankly absurd average frame rate of 337 fps in F1 22, we’re still mainly related to the GPU.

Looking at the minimum frames in the two resolutions we tested, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X didn’t cave under the strain and created a stuttering experience. This should theoretically work in the chip’s favor over its more expensive brethren, as I can’t imagine they offer much improvement here. However, I will wait until I have had the opportunity to test the other processors before drawing any definitive conclusions.

As you may have heard, the AMD Ryzen 7000 series performs quite well, and the 7600X is no exception. I have regularly seen temperatures in the range of 80-96°C, especially in multi-core workloads like Cinebench, despite slamming a 240mm radiator on the thing.

This is not a defect but rather a deliberate decision on the part of AMD. In a nutshell, the red team has configured its latest processors to increase as high as possible, the temperature be damned, until your cooling gives. Suffice it to say, you’ll need a powerful cooler to squeeze as much performance out of the 7600X as possible, and even then you’ll have to get used to this CPU running a little more toasty than you might be expecting. used to.

Verdict

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is an energetic processor that’s more than capable of taming the blistering frame rates produced by the best graphics cards. Realistically, though, it’s more likely to appeal to those looking to build a budget or mid-range system, and it will shine there as well.

In the end, it’s not the performance but the price that brings the processor down a notch or two. At $299 USD / £299 GBP, the lack of a free cooler and wider AM5 platform costs ultimately make the jump to the Ryzen 5 7600X more expensive than its individual price would suggest. Still, there’s a lot to like here, even if the non-Model X is potentially a smarter buy.