Small but significant upgrades
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
AMD’s secondgeneration Ryzen processors are an iterative upgrade, but they do a good job shoring up the key weaknesses of the rstgeneration chips. The Ryzen 7 2700X sits at the top of the new mainstream, boasting 8-cores/16-threads and a 4.3GHz boost clock (up from 4.0GHz on the Ryzen 7 1800X.
It uses GlobalFoundries’ 12nm LP process, which can o er 10 to 15 percent better transistor performance than preceding nodes. This allows AMD to extend the clock speed range and reduce the current required at all frequencies, resulting in higher overall clock speeds. One of the key weaknesses of the rst generation Ryzen processors was its relatively weak performance in games at 1080p, so higher overall clock speeds definitely help alleviate that.
The other big feature is Precision Boost 2, an improved frequency-boosting algorithm that lets each core run at the highest possible frequency. It no longer distinguishes between dual-core and all-core boost frequencies.
Instead, it’s more opportunistic, relying on
Dynamic Voltage Frequency
Scaling (DVFS) technology and using data on CPU temperature, current, and load to determine boost speeds.
Overall, the frequency curve is smoother, and there’s no longer a steep drop-o when moving from a dual-core boost to an all-core boost.
Zen+ also features design optimizations to speed up access to cache and memory, which can help boost performance in latency-sensitive tasks. In addition, the Ryzen 7 2700X also supports DDR4-2933 memory now, up from DDR4-2667 before.
All told, AMD has done a commendable job with its second-generation Ryzen to close the gap in IPC performance, as evinced by single-threaded Cinebench scores. Intel’s Core i7-8700K is around 12 percent faster than the Ryzen 7 2700X, but the 2700X is further ahead in multi-threaded performance, with a whopping 24 percent advantage.
Furthermore, the Ryzen 7 2700X is a big step up from the 2700, especially since the latter’s low 3.2GHz base clock hurts it in certain workloads that are sensitive to clock speeds. The 2700X is also just $40 more expensive, so it makes plenty of sense to just pony up for it. It comes bundled the Wraith Prism cooler as well, an impressive specimen of a stock cooler that boasts RGB lighting and fairly robust cooling capabilities.
A capable all-rounder to handle just about everything from gaming to video encoding and streaming.