Computer Shopper - UK (2019-12)

20 DECEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 382

performance,but the lower-tier Ryzen 7

3700X beats it onvalue.

Of course,the 422-scoringRyzen 93900X

also remains the better choiceforheavy-duty

multitasking, but this isafantasticeffort for

the money. The slightly lower base clock

speed doesn’t turn outto be an issue at all,

and single-core performance reaches highs

hithertounseen from theRyzen range.

Speakingof which, gaming performance

looks good,too. Together with the GTX 1060,

our test rig produced 52fps in Metro: Last

Light Redux, running at 1080p withVery High

settings. That’s 3fpsfaster than with the

Ryzen 93900X, and 2fpsfaster than the

Core i9-9900K. Dirt Showdown, which is

generally more sensitiveto CPU power,also

ran best on the 3700X: with the same 1080p

resolution and Ultra quality engaged, it

averaged 134fps, which is 2fpsfaster than

with theRyzen 93900X and 7fpsfaster

than the Core i9-9900K.

HOTORN OT

This chip also runsalot cooler than theRyzen

93900X, although it’s warmer than theRyzen

72700X. It idles ataparticularly high 39°C at

stock speeds, up from the 28°Cof last year’s

CPU. The loadtemperatureof 72°C represents

asimilar jump,and it peaked–albeit very

briefly –atat oasty 76°C.Fortunately,this is

nowhere near the 91°C peakof the 3900X,

nor the 3700X’sofficial maximum

temperatureof 95°C, so it’s not worth

worrying about much.

Experiencedoverclockers might think

otherwise,but unlike the 3900X, AMD has

leftatl east alittle overclocking potentialfor

the Ryzen 73700X. It’s not much, granted –

we ended up settlingfor4.2GHz witharaised

1.4v VCORE, which you maynoteis2 00MHz

lower than the maximum boost speed.

Nonetheless, this did slightly improve

multithreaded performance: its video and

multitaskingtest scores jumpedto 336 and

413 respectively,resulting inahigher overall

score of 348. Compare and contrast thatto

the Ryzen 93900X, which already comes

clocked about as quickly as it can handle.

Then again,even this modestoverclock

raises temperatureseven further.Idle

temperature crept upto 41°C, while load

temperature roseto 80°C with an 89°C peak.

This is getting awfully closeto the 95°C

maximum, so while it is

technically possibleto

overclock with an air cooler

like our NH-U12S, we’d

strongly recommend a

decent watercooler instead.

This heat also appearsto

adversely affect single-core

performance,sot here is a

trade-offfor enhanced

multitasking power.The

image score result dropped

three pointsto 179,and

while Metro didn’t show

any difference,Dirt

Showdown also ranatiny

bit slower,averaging 131fps.

Youwouldn’t noticea3fps

drop in practice,but it’s

still the oppositeofw hat usually happens

when manually raising clock speeds.

ELECTRICTASTES

On the brightside,the Ryzen 73700X’s TDP

–which denotes maximum power usage–isa

mere 65W.That’s less than the hexa-core

Ryzen 53600X, andby farthe lowest we’ve

seen on any octa-core desktop CPU.You

wouldn’t guess it from the performance and

temperatures, but this thing sips power.

The Ryzen 73700X isn’t just a

quintessentialRyzen chip,then, but it’s very

nearly the completeCPU package in general.

We would have likedabit moreoverclocking

potentialto playwith, but you can still wring a

tad of additional firepower from it. Andeven

if you have no interest in tweaking clock

speeds, the 3700X is brilliantlyfast and

efficient straight outof the box, all while

costing less than the competition.

JamesArcher

SPECIFICATIONS

Windowsoverall

Multitasking

DirtShowdown

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage84f orperformancedetails

SOCKETAM4•CORES (^8) • FREQUENCY(BOOST)3.6GHz
(4.4GHz)•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSNone•WARRANTY
TwoyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCO DE
100-100000071BOX
The Ryzen73700X isn’t
justaquintessential
Ryzenchip,but it’svery
nearly thecomplete CPU
package in general

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134fps