With so many great options to available it is difficult to know which CPU is the best. In this Ryzen 3700x vs 2700x comparison I am going to take you through all the pros and cons of each to help you decide which one is best for you and your budget. I will also add a quick reference to some alternative CPUs to provide you with some alternative options.
Quick Answer
For those if you in a hurry, I recommend the Ryzen 3700x if you can stretch your budget to its price. It provides the best performance and will future proof your build for longer.
The Ryzen 2700x is very close in terms of performance and provides better value for money but since it is an older generation model your rig is going to be outdated a lot faster.
The decision depends on whether you care about your rig becoming outdated too soon and whether the extra performance the 3700x provides is worth the extra money.
Ask Yourself These Questions First
Are you aiming to primarily play games that have low hardware demands or do you have higher aspirations? If you play todays FPS titles the added performance of the 3700x could work more effectively for you where as a game like League of Legends or Magic the Gathering Online would only need the power of the 2700x.
Perhaps you play a larger variety of games and also render videos or produce music; in these cases that extra performance boost might be vital.
Another point to consider is that both CPUs are only compatible with motherboards that have the AM4 socket. If you have already bought a motherboard and it only has the Intel LGA 1151 Socket then you will not be able to use the 3700x or the 2700x in your build.
Ryzen 2700x vs 3700x Specifications Compared
Lets take a quick look at the specifications of each CPU so you can see the differences. There are few important ones you should consider.
Ryzen 7 2700x Specifications
• Base Frequency: 3.7 GHz
• Turbo Frequency: 4.3 GHz
• Physical Cores: 8
• Virtual Cores: 16
• L1 Cache: 8 x 64 KB 4-way set associative instruction caches 8 x 32 KB 8-way set associative
• L2 Cache: 8 x 512 KB 8-way set associative
• L3 Cache: 2 x 8 MB 16-way set associative shared
• Maximum Operating Temperature: 85 Degrees C
• Thermal Design Power: 105 Watt
Ryzen 7 3700x Specifications
• Base Frequency: 3.6 GHz
• Turbo Frequency: 4.4 GHz
• Physical Cores: 8
• Virtual Cores: 16
• L1 Cache: 8 x 32 KB 8-way set associative instruction/ 8 x 32 KB 8-way set associative data
• L2 Cache: 8 x 512 KB 8-way set associative unified
• L3 Cache: 32 MB 16-way set associative shared
• Maximum Operating Temperature: 95 Degrees C
• Thermal Design Power: 65 Watt
The Ryzen 2700x was released in April 2018 and is marketed as an afforadble high end CPU for gaming & processing. The Ryzen 7 3700x is the newer version and was released in July 2019. It is similarly marketed towards gamers and highly intensive CPU tasks but provides a few improvements over the earlier 2700x.
The models both have 8 physical cores and 16 virtual, they run at around the same frequency but the 2700x actually runs slightly faster at its base clock speed than the 3700x. It is already impressive enough that a model like the 2700x, a year older than the 3700x, could still keep up as it does.
The 2700x even retains similar cache levels. The two models seem quite even until you hit the thermal design power. Running at 105 Watt the 2700x has an 85 degree heat limit compared to the 95 degree limit of the 3700x so be sure to invest in an effective cooling unit if you aim to overclock the chip.
Due to the higher temperature limit of the 3700x, if you overclock it you can exceed the performance of the 2700x quite considerably. Therefore it is best to pick up a good CPU cooler and overclock to get the absolute best out of this chip.
The spacing between nodes in the CPU is likely the cause of these design limitation on the part of the 2700x and is not an issue with the 3700x as its node spacing is much denser and so boasts around a 15% performance increase on top of the slightly better specs.
Aside from the 10 degree max temperature difference between the two CPUs, the Ryzen 2700x holds its own against the 3700x despite being an older chip.
Addtional Features and Benefits
Both CPUs also share some additional features aside from their performance prowess
First you have the Wraith Prism fan/heatsink with RGB LED that is attached to the CPU to better deal with the temperature limit and heat distribution which is a much-needed feature for the 2700x, due to the aforementioned temperature limit, but is also a welcome edition for the 3700x.
Second, you have unlocked clock multipliers which allow you to adjust clock settings in your bios, a useful feature for anyone aiming to optimize their overclocking.
To add along to that you get the AMD Turbo Core which regulates the resource usage among the cores to ensure proper efficiency, when for example a task requires the maximum load on a single core turbo core will safely ramp up the individual core to a level that your power source can handle.
Another nifty feature is NX bit/XD-bit which is a feature that locks away certain parts of your memory that are not usually in use in which are stored vital program run protocols which, if a virus attempts to access them to piggyback off of, will remain unusable without the right authorization.
Finally we have Powernow! /Cool’n’quiet which keeps your idle cores from running more than they need to and thereby allows the cooling fans to run at lower speeds ensuring a quiet environment.
Recommended Alternative CPUs
Now that we have covered the various complexities of these two models it is only fair to compare them to two other models. For this comparison I have chosen the Ryzen 7 3800x along with Intel’s competing brand CPU the i5 9600K.
The Ryzen 7 3800x Specifications:
- Base Frequency: 3.9 GHz
- Turbo Frequency: 4.5 GHz
- Physical Cores: 8
- Virtual Cores: 16
- L1 Cache: 8 x 32 KB 8-way set associative instruction/ 8 x 32 KB 8-way set associative data
- L2 Cache: 8 x 512 KB 8-way set associative
- L3 Cache: 32 MB 16-way set associative shared
- Maximum Operating Temperature: 95 Degrees C
- Thermal Design Power: 105 Watt
The Intel i5 9600K Specifications:
- Base Frequency: 3.7 GHz
- Turbo Frequency: 4.6 GHz
- Physical Cores: 6
- Virtual Cores: 6
- L1 Cache: 6 x 32 KB 8-way set associative instruction/ 6 x 32 KB 8-way set associative data
- L2 Cache: 6 x 256 KB 4-way set associative caches
- L3 Cache: 9 MB 12-way set associative shared cache
- Maximum Operating Temperature: 64.5 Degrees C
- Thermal Design Power: 95 Watt
So as was discussed earlier the Intel model does lack a bit in certain areas which will no doubt be addressed with future models now that AMD has raised the bar.
To start, you get two less cores than the Ryzen 7 model which isn’t really a big deal if you don’t plan on running a large number of processes simultaneously but is a drawback nonetheless and considering that you miss out on 10 virtual cores the odds do begin to stack up.
You have the same base frequency as the 2700x and get a higher turbo frequency by 0.2 GHz compared to the 3700x. The L1 to L3 caches are also lacking. Lastly, the recommended max operating temperature is between 70-85 degree. the i5 9600k also 95 Watt thermal design power similar to the 3700x.
Overall the performance of the Intel i5 9600K only exceeds the Ryzen 7 2700x and 3700x when it is overclocked. The 3800x only offers a slight improvement on both the 2700x and 3700x and is a sure choice if you are aiming for that little extra performance boost.
Verdict
The performance gap between the 2700x vs 3700x is surprisingly small considering a year of progress and updates separates the two models.
However, the 3700x offers more in terms of performance and overclocking potential so if your budget allows for it the 3700x is the best choice.
The performance increase you get with the 3700x isn’t huge but the primary benefit of purchasing the 3700x comes from it being a newer model, ensuring that it will be future proofed for years to come & its overclocking capabilities. The older 2700x will while still maintaining solid performance will become outdated a lot faster but is still one of the best value CPUs if you are on a budget.
Click here to see latest prices of the 2700x or for the 3700x click here.
Last Price Update on 2024-03-19 / Data taken from the Amazon Product API
