Review of AMD Ryzen 7 3700X processor. Zen 2 still rocks

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X in detail

Even after the release of the Ryzen 7 5700G, the Ryzen 7 3700X is currently the cheapest octa-core processor. It still doesn’t have a proper successor. The Ryzen 5 5800X is significantly pricier, but it is fully stocked in stores. This last-gen model could thus be considered up-to-date and should not be omitted in comparisons with other processors. It also beats the Rocket Lake Core i7 not only in efficiency but also occasionally in performance.

AMD already has a few Ryzen 7 5000 processors, but none of them comes as an improved replacement for the Ryzen 7 3700X. The latest R7 5700G is an APU, which is not very suitable for use in setups with a graphics card, and the R7 5800X is significantly more expensive. Although more powerful, the price-performance ratio will probably still be worse compared to the older R7 3700X (by how much will you see when we add this processor to the tests).

And then there’s the Ryzen 7 5700, but it’s for the OEM market only. AMD still avoids the Ryzen 7 5700X. This is probably mainly so that the company does not reduce sales of the 5800X model, on which it still has higher margins. And when they are sold as well, it probably doesn’t make much sense to deal with something cheaper with limited production capacity, which would reduce sales of a more aggressively clocked model.

AMD seems to have very well mapped market behavior in this regard. In the first Ryzen generation, there were up to three octa-core Ryzen 7 processors (1700, 1700X and 1800X), then in the Ryzen 2000 only two (2700 and 2700X), then again two (3700X and 3800X) and now there’s “no need” for more than one (5800X). So whether we will see the successor to the R7 3700X is quite unclear and maybe it is not even being prepared at all. Rather than waiting for something that may not even come in the end, let’s (Tomáš already tested this processor once before) test the Ryzen 7 3700X once again with the current processor testing methodology.

It is a processor built on the Zen 2 architecture, but already with 7nm TSMC cores. The I/O chiplet is 12 nm, but that’s also the case in the Ryzen 5000 (Zen 3, Vermeer), compared to which the Ryzen 3000 (Zen 2, Matisse) have lower IPC, but also a significantly lower price. It is the lower price that probably makes a big difference. This processor is also cheaper compared to the competing Core i7-11700K(F) and you won’t even buy the Core i7 10700K(F) from the Comet Lake family for a lower price.

The retail price of the Ryzen 7 3700X is 329 dollars/euros, but you can usually buy it for 270–280 euros, even in reputable stores. Come and take a look at the tests to see how good of an offer it is from today’s point of view. But before that, you can look at a table overview of specifications, where the 3700X is compared to the 11700KF, to which this older Ryzen 7 is closest of the current processors, in terms of price and specs (Ci7-11700KF also does not have an active graphics core).

• Contents
• AMD Ryzen 7 3700X in detail
• Methodology: performance tests
• Methodology: how we measure power draw
• Methodology: temperature and clock speed tests
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
• Borderlands 3
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Cyberpunk 2077
• DOOM Eternal
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• Overall gaming performance
• Gaming performance per euro
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Graphic effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Broadcasting (OBS and Xsplit)
• Photos 1/2: Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom
• Photos 2/2: Affinity Photo, Topaz Labs AI apps, ZPS X, ..
• (De)compression
• (De)cryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• Processor power draw trend
• Average processor power draw
• Performance per watt
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• Conclusion