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

by Tarinder Sandhu on 7 July 2019, 14:00

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaebiw

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Conclusion

...If Ryzen 9 3900X is impressive for the performance junkie, the Ryzen 7 3700X is even better for the mainstream user.

AMD impressed the technology world when it debuted the Zen CPU architecture a couple of years ago. Immediately competitive in multi-threaded applications and reasonable at gaming, executives were bombastic about future Zen designs improving upon the muscular original in every way.

Two years later, Zen 2, manufactured on a leading-edge 7nm process, hits the consumer market in the form of the Ryzen 3000-series chips. There is indeed a generous IPC lift between generations, enough for AMD to become truly competitive in gaming, whilst the benefits of a smaller, efficient process enables Ryzen to shoehorn more cores than ever before.

Our testing shows Zen 2 fulfills AMD's promise of ever-improving performance in every facet that matters, all the while keeping to the established AM4 form factor.

Laying down siege on Intel's finest mainstream processor, Core i9-9900K, is the similarly-priced Ryzen 9 3900X. AMD's monster, carrying 12 cores and 24 threads, hammers Intel's best in multi-threaded applications, where the gulf in performance is arresting and decisive. Zen 2's improved IPC manifests itself with much-improved FHD gaming performance, which whilst not quite as sharp as Intel's, is more than decent. Run alongside a powerful GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE card, the Ryzen 9 3900X becomes a very competent gaming chip into the mix, especially at higher resolutions. And all this power is wrapped inside a package that actually consumes less power than the Intel equivalent.

If Ryzen 9 3900X is impressive for the performance junkie, the Ryzen 7 3700X is even better for the mainstream user. Priced at £300 or so, this 65W chip comfortably bests last year's Ryzen 7 2700X in every benchmark that matters. Actually, it's relatively close to that dearer Core i9-9900K in most tests, all the while consuming vastly lower power.

Potent multi-threaded performance is allied to handsome gaming credentials and fortified by an energy-efficient design. It's a processor that, at its current price, has no obvious weaknesses. Every so often a chip comes along that verges on being a no-brainer buy. Ryzen 7 3700X is that processor for this generation. Building a £1,000-£1,500 PC which is excellent in all areas? Start off with the Ryzen 7 3700X and build around it.

Bottom line: AMD's Ryzen 3000-series CPUs impress through a heady combination of excellent performance, restrained power consumption, decent pricing, and solid motherboard support. An improvement over their predecessors in every meaningful way.

The Good
 
The Bad
Improved IPC
Massive multi-core performance
Continues AM4 support
Blurs the lines between gaming and HEDT
Very good on power
Wide choice of X570 boards
 
Don't overclock fantastically



AMD Ryzen 7 3700X



AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

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The AMD Ryzen 3000-series processors are available to buy at Scan Computers.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



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HEXUS Forums :: 58 Comments

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I've been waiting to buy a 3700X, and all I can find is a 3600. :juggle: I guess I'll just figure out which X570 board to buy in the meantime.
Page 7, 3rd graph says FHD when it should be UHD ;)

The actual chips do look great. Bang4watt is crazy. Almost makes me excited for the 7nm on the mobile CPUs.
3800X seemed the most interesting chip to me, and just my luck nowhere is reviewing it!
Tunnah
3800X seemed the most interesting chip to me, and just my luck nowhere is reviewing it!

It wasn't supplied as review material by AMD, but we're trying our best to get our hands on one asap.
Tarinder
It wasn't supplied as review material by AMD, but we're trying our best to get our hands on one asap.

Oh ya I know mate don't worry, seems everywhere is doing these 2 first and rest are coming later. Not like I'll have the money for a while yet anyway ha. But thanks for the head's up.