Earlier this week, I put collectively an inventory of what I feel are the best gaming CPUs you should buy at the moment. At the highest finish of the size was Intel’s Core i7-9700K, a £350 / $365 processor that, not less than in my admittedly reasonably restricted, non-water-cooled PC, was simply the quickest CPU for gaming that didn’t value an absolute fortune *cough*Intel Core i9-9900K, I’m you*cough*.
The new Ryzen 7 3700X is AMD‘s answer to this mighty Intel chip – and on paper, it sounds very impressive indeed. Built using a 7nm manufacturing process and AMD’s new Zen 2 CPU structure, this eight-core, sixteen-thread Ryzen 3000 processor additionally helps the super-fast PCIe 4.zero commonplace, which, when mixed with a appropriate motherboard (reminiscent of AMD’s new X570 chipset household), massively will increase the quantity of bandwidth obtainable to your PC elements. But is it sufficient to wrench away the Core i7-9700Ok’s finest gaming CPU crown? Here’s wot I feel.
On a pricing stage, not less than, the Ryzen 7 3700X appears to be like fairly compelling. Priced at $329 (UK pricing TBC), it’s a contact cheaper than its Intel rival and comes with one in every of AMD’s fairly respectable Wraith Prism coolers within the field. Straight off the bat, then, it’s fairly good worth in comparison with the cooler-less Core i7-9700Ok.
It additionally has an an identical base clock pace of three.6GHz (albeit a decrease max clock pace of 4.4GHz in comparison with the 9700Ok’s 4.9GHz), and has a decrease TDP (or thermal design level) of simply 65W. The Intel chip, then again, is available in with a 95W TDP, making it extra power-hungry than the 3700X.
That will little question be fairly necessary to a few of you on the market, however for me, my fundamental concern is the uncooked efficiency you get on the finish of all of it – the stuff you may see and respect in-game. And while you have a look at the Ryzen 7 3700X by that form of lens, its tried coup finally ends up falling a teensy bit flat. Or not less than it does while you pair it with my additionally admittedly reasonably gradual sticks of RAM – however extra on that in a minute.
First, I need to say a fast phrase about CPU gaming benchmarks. As I’ve stated in all of the gaming CPU critiques I’ve finished just lately, getting an correct image of a CPU’s gaming chops remains to be fairly darn exhausting. As our buddies at Digital Foundry have explained in the past, loads of PC benchmarks both don’t take a look at your CPU correctly, or just aren’t very correct within the first place. Fortunately, a handful of gaming benchmarks have gotten so much higher at this just lately, with the likes of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and extra all offering an in-depth have a look at your CPU’s efficiency in addition to what your graphics card’s doing.
That stated, there are additionally a number of different elements that may affect gaming efficiency, reminiscent of your graphics card, the kind of RAM you’ve obtained, and even what sort of storage you’ve put in the game on. As a end result, getting a very correct image of a CPU’s gaming efficiency is difficult, however I’ve finished one of the best I can with the gear obtainable to me.
About that tried coup, then. First off, I examined the Ryzen 7 3700X with the identical 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LED RAM I used to benchmark the Core i7-9700Ok to get a like-for-like comparability in opposition to all of my different CPU outcomes – the outcomes of that are under. As you may see, it’s not a very good displaying from the Ryzen 7 3700X, both at 1080p or 1440p. At 1080p, the Ryzen 7 3700X is not less than 10fps slower than the Core i7-9700Ok in every part besides Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, with the gulf widening to an enormous 20fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At 1440p, the hole is admittedly so much smaller, however you’re nonetheless a lift of round 5fps on the Core i7-9700Ok, if no more.
Admittedly, while you’re speaking speeds of 100fps and above, a distinction of 5fps right here or 10fps there may be hardly going to revolutionise your gaming expertise – and doubly so for those who’ve solely obtained a normal 60Hz gaming monitor. In that sense, then, the Ryzen 7 3700X remains to be fairly nice worth, even when it’s paired with slow-ass RAM like mine.
And the factor is, the Ryzen 7 3700X can attain (and in some instances even surpass) these Core i7-9700Ok speeds for those who give it some quicker RAM to play with. For instance, AMD additionally despatched me 16GB of G.Skill Trident Royal Z RAM, which has an XMP profile clocked all the best way as much as 3600MHz. Tested at that pace, the Ryzen 7 3700X jumped 20fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, clocking a mean of 131fps (and 108fps at 1440p). It additionally obtained a 15fps enhance in Total War: Warhammer II (ending with a mean of 121fps at 1080p and 97fps at 1440p), and a 10fps leap in Forza Horizon 4 (coming in at a mean of 149fps at 1080p and 127fps at 1440p).
Only Assassin’s Creed Odyssey remained stubbornly at a mean of 78fps (rising to 70fps at 1440p), which as you’ll see from the graph above, brings it just about in keeping with the Core i7-9700Ok – or not less than it does when the Core i7-9700Ok’s nonetheless lumbered with two sticks of 2133MHz RAM. Unfortunately, I needed to ship my Core i7-9700Ok pattern again to the place it got here from earlier than I might take a look at it with G.Skill’s tremendous duper RAM sticks to see if it might give it the same enhance, so I can’t say for certain how they actually evaluate on this respect.
Another drawback with saying, ‘Oh, it’s fantastic so long as you give it superior RAM’ is that superior RAM additionally prices much more than my slowmo sticks. Those G.Skill Trident sticks, for instance, value £214 / $190 at time of writing, which is nearly 100 quid greater than my £120 Corsair sticks. Admittedly, my specific Corsair mannequin doesn’t appear to be on sale any extra within the US, which makes it a bit tough to do an correct worth comparability. However, for these shopping for within the UK, when you consider one other £100-odd in your RAM, you’re just about paying precisely the identical quantity because the Core i7-9700Ok plus a cooler, which reasonably negates any earlier financial savings you might need made.
There is one different factor which may nonetheless sway it for the Ryzen 7 3700X, although, and that’s it’s actually reasonably nippy basic desktop efficiency. As you may see from my the Cinebench R20 outcomes under (additionally measured with my slow-ass Corsair RAM), the Ryzen 7 3700X is streets forward of the Core i7-9700Ok relating to multicore efficiency, making it a significantly better multitasker for issues like picture and video enhancing. What’s extra, its single core efficiency is simply forward of it as effectively – though, once more, a distinction of simply 15 factors (or 1%) is hardly one thing you’re actually going to note or respect in on a regular basis use.
But as I’ve stated in my different gaming CPU critiques, I’m not actually that bothered about how good a CPU is for inventive functions and the like. My PC is for gaming and nothing else, and my prime precedence is discovering one thing that may give me one of the best gaming efficiency, not the quickest rendering speeds for packages I don’t personal or will ever use. By all means go along with AMD for those who do use your PC for stuff aside from gaming, however as we are able to see from the graphs above, all these additional threads and tremendous quick multicore efficiency actually doesn’t assist all a lot relating to racing around the British countryside, main armies of orcs into battle, or smashing up pots and murdering historical civilizations.
Don’t get me mistaken – the Ryzen 7 3700X has come a lot nearer to matching the Core i7-9700Ok than its 2nd Gen predecessor, the Ryzen 7 2700X, ever did with the Core i7-8700K. Indeed, for those who’re the kind of one that both can’t be arsed discovering an extra cooler otherwise you’re not that bothered about having absolutely the bestest finest gaming efficiency, then the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X remains to be a terrific various to its Intel rival, particularly when its PCIe 4.zero assist additionally means you’ll have the ability to benefit from issues like quicker SSDs additional down the road. Indeed, if I have been constructing a brand new PC at the moment, I’d undoubtedly be tempted to plonk a Ryzen 7 3700X in there. Plus, as I discussed above, are you actually going to note one other 10fps-odd with out assistance from a body charge counter?
However, for those who’re reasonably be protected within the information that you just are getting absolutely the bestest finest gaming efficiency and don’t actually care about anything, then I feel the Core i7-9700Ok remains to be (nearly) the best gaming CPU to beat on this specific worth vary. Yes, you’ve obtained to issue within the extra value of a cooler, however for those who’ve obtained the price range and wish the very best variety of frames you may probably get, then the Core i7-9700Ok stays a troublesome act to beat.
