AMD Ryzen 3 vs. Ryzen 5 vs. Ryzen 7 2000-series: Which processor is right for you?

Test setup & Performance

Test setup

The configurations of the test setups we used are listed below. Do note the differences in motherboards and coolers between the Pinnacle Ridge and Raven Ridge processors.
 

Pinnacle Ridge

• Thermaltake Water 3.0 360 Riing RGB Edition
• ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero
• 2 x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X DDR4-3400 (Auto timings: CAS 14-14-14-34)
• ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming
• Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD
• Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

Raven Ridge

• AMD Wraith Prism
• Gigabyte AB350N Gaming WIFI
• 2 x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X DDR4-3400 (Auto timings: CAS 14-14-14-34)
• Samsung 850 Pro SATA SSD
• Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

Test CPUs compared

	AMD Ryzen 3 2200G	AMD Ryzen 5 2400G	AMD Ryzen 5 2600	AMD Ryzen 5 2600X	AMD Ryzen 7 2700	AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Launch SRP	From S$144	From S$237	From S$292	From S$335	From S$448	From S$485
Processor Name	AMD Ryzen 3 2200G	AMD Ryzen 5 2400G	AMD Ryzen 5 2600	AMD Ryzen 5 2600X	AMD Ryzen 7 2700	AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Processor Model	AMD Ryzen 3 2200G	AMD Ryzen 5 2400G	Ryzen 5 2600	Ryzen 5 2600X	AMD Ryzen 7 2700	AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Rated Processor Frequency	3.5GHz	3.6GHz	3.4GHz	3.6GHz	3.2GHz	3.7GHz
Max Processor Frequency	3.7GHz	3.9GHz	3.9GHz	4.2GHz	4.1GHz	4.3GHz
No. of Cores	4	4	6	6	8	8
Base Clock	3.5GHz	3.6GHz	3.4GHz	3.6GHz	3.2GHz	3.7GHz
L1 Cache (data + instruction)	384KB	4x32 KB (data) 4x64 KB (instruction	576KB	576KB	768KB	768KB
L2 Cache	2MB	4x512 KB	3MB	3MB	4MB	4MB
L3 Cache	4MB	4MB	16MB	16MB	16MB	16MB
Memory Controller	Dual-Channel up to DDR4-2933	Dual-Channel up to DDR4-2933	Integrated Dual Channel (up to DDR4-2993)	Integrated Dual Channel (up to DDR4-2993)	Integrated Dual Channel (up to DDR4-2993)	Integrated Dual Channel (up to DDR4-2993)
PCIe Controller	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 3.0
TDP (W)	65W	65W	65	95	65	105
Instruction Set Support	SSE 4.1/4.2, AVX 2.0	SSE 4.1/4.2, AVX 2.0	SSE 4.1/4.2, AVX 2.0	SSE 4.1/4.2, AVX 2.0	SSE 4.1/4.2, AVX 2.0	SSE 4.1/4.2, AVX 2.0
64-bit Processing Technology	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Packaging	Socket AM4	Socket AM4	Socket AM4	Socket AM4	Socket AM4	Socket AM4
Process Technology	14nm+	14nm+	12nm	12nm	12nm	12nm
Processor Codename	Raven Ridge	Raven Ridge	Pinnacle Ridge	Pinnacle Ridge	Pinnacle Ridge	Pinnacle Ridge
Die Size	14nm	14nm	213 mm²	213 mm²	213 mm²	213 mm²
No. of Transistors	—	—	4.8 billion	4.8 billion	4.8 billion	4.8 billion

Here's a list of the benchmarks used:

• SYSmark 2014 SE
• SPECviewperf 13.0
• Cinebench R15
• Handbrake 1.0.7
• 3DMark
• Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Performance results

SYSmark 2014 SE

SYSmark is a general productivity benchmark suite that measures the response times of tasks on a PC using real-world applications like Microsoft Office 2013 and Adobe Photoshop and simulated user input. Task response times are used to generate a performance rating that reflects actual user experience, so the faster a PC responds to application workloads, the higher its score will be. The method of measuring response times can take many forms, such as the time it takes for an application to show a pop-up completion message, or how long it takes a progress dialog to disappear and for a user to regain application control.

The 2014 SE version of SYSmark adds a new Responsiveness usage model, where the system's ability to react quickly to user input affects the overall user experience. This means situations where the system needs to respond smoothly and quickly, such as with application launches, multi-tab web browsing, file copying, and background app installation.

The flagship Ryzen 7 2700X edged ahead here. It had the highest base clock and a total of 8 cores and 16 threads, so this result isn't surprising. A look at the score breakdown shows that the differences are the most stark in media creation and data/financial analysis, where higher core and thread counts help it handle the more heavily threaded workloads. 

In comparison, there were smaller differences in the office productivity workloads, which comprise more basic applications that don't require strong multi-threaded performance and focus more on clock speeds instead. After all, it's telling that the Ryzen 7 2700X was 20 per cent faster than the Ryzen 5 2400G in terms of office productivity but a good 42 per cent ahead for data/financial analysis.

SPECviewperf 13.0

SPECviewperf is used to assess the 3D graphics performance of systems in professional applications. Each individual workload, called a viewset, represents graphics and content from an actual real-world application. SPECviewperf actually runs a total of eight different viewsets, but we’ve picked the four which have the greatest performance variation across CPUs display here.

The new SPECviewperf 13 incorporates new models and raycasting for volume visualization. Select viewsets have also been updated with new models and fresh application traces. 

SPECviewperf 13 doesn't seem to scale well beyond six cores, and the Pinnacle Ridge chips all performed very closely to each other. 

Cinebench R15

Cinebench R15 is a better indicator of multi-threaded performance because of its ability to utilize up to 256 threads to evaluate a processor’s performance in a photorealistic 3D rendering. We ran both single-core and multi-core benchmarks to evaluate single-threaded performance and multi-threaded scalability here.

It's here that a high number of cores and threads really shine, and the Ryzen 7 2700X outstripped even the Ryzen 2700 by a good 16 per cent.

Handbrake 1.0.7

Handbrake is a video transcoder that converts videos into a format for use on PCs and portable electronic devices, and is a good indicator of a processor’s video encoding capabilities. YouTube content creators, Twitch streamers, and other video creators will be most interested in this performance metric. For this benchmark, we used a 1.7GB .mkv file. 

The Raven Ridge APUs don't even come close to challenging the Pinnacle Ridge chips, which isn't surprising given that they're designed for more basic productivity tasks. However, if you're looking to get into streaming or work extensively with video, you'll see an obvious benefit in shelling out for the flagship Ryzen 2700X.  

Temperature and power consumption

To test temperature and power consumption, we ran the AIDA64 Extreme CPU stress test and the energy-02 viewset in SPECviewperf 13.0 respectively, taking note of the peak values the chips achieved. For power consumption, this refers to the total system power draw from the power outlet.

It’s impossible to directly compare temperatures across all the chips given that we used different coolers for the Pinnacle Ridge and Raven Ridge chips, so these figures are better taken as a rough indicator to the temperatures you can expect under load.

Despite its higher 105W TDP, the Ryzen 7 2700X didn't in fact draw more power than the other chips at stock settings.