Review: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600 (12nm)

Conclusion

AMD's move to second-generation Ryzen chips has brought more performance and keener pricing to the mainstream CPU market, and that can only be considered a good thing. It's worth repeating that you cannot buy a bad processor these days, so the only choice is which one to go for.

The non-X chips are basically the same processors as the higher-performing X line but rein in frequency and voltage in order to hit a 65W TDP. The upshot of such an approach is multi-threaded performance drops by close to 15 per cent and 10 per cent for the Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600, respectively, but they still remain very capable mainstream chips.

If performance is more important than energy efficiency, a couple of minutes spent in an overclocking program will yield solid results, generally matching the X parts, so how do we sum it all up? Which are the better chips to buy considering there really is not much in it from a financial view?

The answer is that, in our mind, it's worth going for these 65W models if using a smaller-form-factor PC with limited airflow. That, or if you really want to run a quiet PC that still has decent performance. As enthusiasts, we'd naturally gravitate towards the X-designated parts for guaranteed performance, but the non-Xs remain solid choices, even if the value argument isn't as strong as first-generation models.

AMD Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600

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2nd Gen AMD Ryzen processors are available to puchase from Scan Computers.

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