Review: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X

Will we be getting an R5 3600 review ? Thanks

 

Back in the day, on CRT's, 60Hz was just about liveable, but hurt the eyes.
75/85Hz was usually the sweet spot, as monitors just didn't go that fast.
you get a much more fluid experience above 60Hz.

If I were you, i'd go and look at a demo in a store, and see faster refresh gaming for yourself. I have been on 60Hz since i stopped using my 19" CRT (1280*960)

 

Didn't read the whole thread tbh, just the review.

I feel mildly discriminated... j/k

Looks like I'll be able to move off Intel again. Only in some games (1440p) the 9900K shows true advantages beyond the margin of error. And as long as I'm using a Gsync screen I'll probably never notice those missing fps anyway. So much for the good in performance, well done AMD.

Not even half as many security issues... yet? Still, in my book, I'd like to avoid Intel for this alone. They should just step up their "security" game since it's labled as one of their pillars of their products... which is a procreating joke if you were suffering from security issues and until today, only very slowly microcode updates for my 5930K have arrived, months after disclosure and not even through windows update. So much for "we fancy security"... yeah right. AMD.

That said, the CPU cost (3900) and the mainboard along is no longer cheaper than my last Intel rig I bought, and that was the expensive "enthusiast" platform even. With quad channel memory support and other shenennigans on top which I actually used... not so much this time around with PCIe 4.0 (which makes absolutely no sense for me personally). And I so not fancy that "semi passive" active mainboard cooling... that just shouldn't happen anymore these days, will have to read mainboard reviews (which are done on open test benches usually and not inside cases... sigh). So actually, due to the mainboards... I'm not sold on Ryzen 3k yet. Will have to do further reading.

Tech wise, well done AMD. Until Intel jumps onto 7nm or 10nm or whatever they want to call it, a smaller node, AMD's just fine.

 

The value is more cores more cache and higher performance in multithreaded applications for a lower cost compared to intel. X570 price is going down when all the boards will be released, pretty sure. I agree the 9900K is still better in gaming, and that probably the overall cost is going to be pretty much around the same for the entire platform compared to AMD, but if you're not interested only in gaming, or mostly in gaming, AMD solutions seem to be better overall products, besides the great value you can see especially when you look at the 12core SKU, where AMD offers one for less than 500€, while intel has around double the price for that, while i don't expect it to perform just as good as the intel their performance are probably not that distant, and the 9920X can be found for around 1200-1300€ at least in my country that is. And please don't repeat that you don't believe so many people would need so many cores, because they actually come in handy in different workloads, and many here use their PC mostly to work.

You won't see any major difference, surely not even close to when you went from 60 to 120.

 

Our retail shops here suck not sure if any places where I can demo lol!

I am waiting for the new LG nano IPS or whatever it is to get released and see some reviews...would love a new IPS high refresh monitor but the QC stories scare me haha and as I stated previously my current Dell 27" despite it being over 6 years old is still going strong!

Also just managed to snag a 3700X here in Australia for a few dollars cheaper than US retail price so I'm pretty stoked!

 

Good for the example! It reminds us that in AMD you can buy an old motherboard at a very good price from a years ago and put a 2019 Ryzen Zen 2 that will give you practically same performance as a 2019 motherboard.

In fact this is what I did this week: I bought a B450 2018 cheap motherboard and a 3700X 2019 Zen 2 CPU.

Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade the CPU to some 2020 or 2021 CPU without replacing the motherboard, if I ever need more CPU performance with my current rig.

It would be nice to see Intel doing the same, I mean, releasing chipsets that can be re-used with future generation CPUs

 

In fact Intel represents so much value that... they're forced to lower their prices?

I actively try to avoid inserting myself into these kind of arguments but I couldn't stop myself from pointing this one out. Assuming you're even remotely interested in criticism it's worth keeping a consistent narrative when making your arguments, unless you change your mind of course. For a bystander this kind of messaging just parses as someone picking lines of the top of their head to support a particular, predetermined, conclusion without any thought given to said lines inherently conflicting nature.

No, you don't have to justify yourself to me (or anyone here). I'm just saying that, assuming it's not intentional, maybe you should step back and think about your stance a bit more before hitting that 'reply' button?

Food for thought.

 

Intel’s only “value” is it’s gaming performance. That’s it. Outside of that AMD wins. And it’s not like AMD CPU’s suck at gaming. A 3600 can match my 8700K at proper stock (OC to 5.0Ghz is a different story). I can’t justify Intel at this point. Though I look forward to the CPU raise heating up.

 

After all was said and done the reigning champ, to me and without a single doubt, is the 3600.

More core and threads to those requiring them but for gaming the difference between the 3600(X) and its bigger siblings seems neglible and whatever can be obtained from going with higher models generally equates a 50% to 150% increased price tag.

From a gaming perspective I find the premium on the 3700 and particularly 3800 just too steep.

This launch is a throwback to Gen 1 and I've learned my lesson as a 1700X owner

 

Next gen will be probably 5ghz or maybe new treadripper.

 

@Hilbert Hagedoorn

Are we going to get a R5 3600/X review this week?

 

To what price? When? Tomorrow? in 2 weeks? In two months?
What if there is not that discount? Will you pay difference between actual and promised price to people who did wait your specified time? (So they can have given chip at suspected price.)

There is always some evolution to performance or price. Question is when. Honestly. Sometimes it makes sense to wait, but not this time around. Quite contrary to your intentions, ignoring product you need that is well priced will hurt you in long run.
Telling others to ignore those good products will do the same. Want good price? Support those who create competitive products at competitive prices. Do not support hegemony that intentionally slows down evolution of technology and prices as much as they can.

 

Who buys motherboard for 350+ $ has all the right to see value in what he wants.
There are nice MB for non overclockers that are less than 100$ on the b450 side of things, pairable with a 3600 cpu.

If you want to spend all that money for a MB, at that point 200 or 300 more for any cpu advantage is fine.

When a mid range AMD on a mid range motherboard for around 300/400$ won't be able to hit 60fps in a game, nor will be the 1000$ AMD or Intel CPU + MB combo.

So if we are talking about gaming, this is what we should look at.

 

Even with a possible price drop the 9900K is still going to be expensive as hell. Here in Portugal it costs 500€! Unless they drop it to below 400€ is still very expensive. The same with the 9700K that starts at 400€!... Intel´s best CPUs are simply too expensive.

 

Just bought a 3700x to pair it with my current b450 board. Seems it will take at least a week to get here. Hopefully BIOS improvements are sorted out before that.

@Hilbert Hagedoorn I noticed that you used AGESA 1.0.0.2 on the review. Seems anandtech used that as well, and then realized that there's a new 1.0.0.3A BIOS already available and they're posting new benchmark results with measurable improvements.

Are you planning on revisiting these benches as well? Totally understand if you have a lot on your hands right now - many launches these past few days, but it would be pretty interesting to see a comparison between these BIOS

 

And where is Intel's CPU fan?

 

Well one things for sure.... the fan isn't in the box........

 

To be fair it is included on non-K SKU’s.

 

The inability of Zen 2 to surpass the 9900K in most gaming tests means that Intel will have very little reason to drop prices. They've managed to retain the gaming and clock speed crown so they can charge whatever they want - if you want top FPS, you gotta pay top dollars I think those Intel fans who expect a price drop in the near future will be severely disappointed.

The pricing of Ryzen 3000 and X570 also puts into doubt any meaningful price drops by Intel. At $499, the 3900X isn't exactly cheap (it's the same price that AMD originally charged for the 1800X, except you can't just buy a lower SKU and overclock this time), and although the lower SKUs are significantly cheaper, the additional expense of X570 nullifies it. Of course consumers can always pair a 3000 chip with a X470/B450 or earlier board, but I'd imagine a lot of customers would want the latest and greatest platform, especially those building an entirely new system. Although I myself plan to use my existing X470 board, the e-peen factor of X570 and PCIe 4.0 is strong (chipset fans aside).

The real threat is the 3600/X, which is expected to be the new top-seller, and Intel might need to make some adjustments there. For high-end gaming though, they probably don't need to do much. Of course all this could change if Zen 2 starts gobbling up market share in a major way.

 

In that case you should prepare for some unsettling news relatively soon, because when Ryzen 3k series-optimized compilers hit the developer street in a couple of months you are going to see some drastically different game results than what you currently believe to be the case. Right now, there are 0 games with engines optimized for R 3k--R 3k is materially different than R 1, don't forget--so different that x570 mboards don't support R 1 CPUs--while game engines and benchmarks are as optimized for Intel architectures as they will ever be.

I thought this very in-depth look was worth viewing--the guy makes some excellent points, imo. Quite detailed.

I highly recommended reading more than one review, as others I've read come to the opposite conclusions with much different test results--In Hot Hardware's review, for instance, all he does is make the ~$1.9k x9980XE look like a terrible buy... But it's funny how people see what they want to see, as we all do, I suppose--but objectively, right now, AMD cpus are eating up 7 of the top ten CPU sales slots on Amazon US.