AMD Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600 Review

1. Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing
2. The CPUs and Coolers
3. Test Setup
4. Out of the Box Performance: CINEBENCH, wPrime, and AIDA64
5. Out of the Box Performance: Handbrake & MoreI
6. Synthetic Gaming Performance: UNIGINE and 3DMark
7. Gaming Performance: Resident Evil, Tomb Raider & More
8. Overclocking and Power Consumption
9. What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

If you are looking to save a few dollars, like to tinker, and need cores then the Ryzen 5 2600 and Ryzen 7 2700 are excellent options for you.

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Today we take a look at two of AMD's more recent 2000-series of Ryzen processors. Using the new 12nm LP process, we see boosts in clock frequency and a reduction in cache and DRAM latencies. Together these improvements should definitely kick things up a notch, and since all the SKUs can overclock, the 2700 and 2600 are great value options compared to their 2700X and 2600X big brothers.

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Specifications

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Today we will look at two new CPUs, the 2700X and 2600X, but AMD is also releasing the 2700 and 2600 processors for roughly $30 less than the "X" counterparts. The first CPU, the Ryzen 7 2700 comes with 20MB of cache, 8 cores and 16 threads, and a 3.2GHz base with a 4.1Ghz boost. That's a boost 200MHz lower than the 27000X and a base 500MHz lower. The 2700 comes with the Wraith Spire cooler, but it has an RGB LED ring around the fan.

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The Ryzen 5 2600 comes with 19MB of cache, 6 cores and 16 threads, and a 3.9GHz boost with a 3.4GHz base. That's a boost 300MHz lower than the 2600X and a base 200MHz lower. The CPU comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler.

Pricing

The Ryzen 7 2700 costs $294, and the Ryzen 5 2600 costs $189.

The CPUs and Coolers

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The boxes are exactly the same as first generation Ryzen and the 2xxxX series processors.

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We also find the same high-end packaging that separates the CPU and cooler sections.

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The cooler for the 8-core CPU is taller than that of the 2600, and it has an RGB LED ring.

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The cooler that comes with the 2700 has a copper core. Both coolers require you to remove the included brackets that come with AM4 motherboards.

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CPU packaging is the same as pretty much every single Ryzen 3, 5, or 7 processor.

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The tops of the CPUs are very similar to what we have seen before, and the CPUs use solder between the die and the heat spreader.

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We find those lovely gold pins on both CPUs' undersides.

Test Setup

We used multiple motherboards in our testing, the ASRock X470 Taichi Ultimate and the X470 Taichi, but we used the G.Skill Sniper 3400MHz kit designed for the AM4 Ryzen CPUs, and we were pleased with the memory.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600
• Motherboard: X470 Taichi Ultimate and the X470 Taichi
• Cooler: AMD Wraith Spire and Stealth
• Memory: G.Skill Sniper 3400MHz (8GBx2)
• Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Storage - Boot Drive: Kingston KC1000 NVMe 480GB M.2 / Read our review
• Storage - USB Drive: Corsair Voyager GS 64GB - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Case: Corsair Obsidian 900D - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 - Buy from Amazon
• Monitor: ASUS PA328 ProArt 32" 4K - Buy from Amazon
• Keyboard: Corsair K70 LUX - Buy from Amazon
• Mouse: Corsair M65 PRO RGB - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Headset: Corsair VOID RGB Wireless - Buy from Amazon / Read our review

Out of the Box Performance: CINEBENCH, wPrime, and AIDA64

CINEBENCH R15

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wPrime

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AIDA64 FP and IOPS

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AIDA64 Memory Bandiwdth

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AIDA64 Memory Latency

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CINEBENCH multi-threaded of the 2700 is about 100 points higher than that of the 8700, but that of the 2600 is many points higher than the 1600X. The wPrime results show that the 2600 is a clear replacement for the 1600X, but that the 2700 is a bit faster than the 8700. The AIDA64 tests show us what we figured with AMD doing well IOPS and Intel doing well with FLOPs. Memory bandwidth results don't show us anything out of the ordinary, but latency results show improvements compared to the first generation of Ryzen processors.

Out of the Box Performance: Handbrake & MoreI

Out of the Box Performance: Handbrake, SuperPI, and ScienceMark

HandBrake UHD Video Transcoder (x264)

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HandBrake HD Video Transcoder (x264)

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ScienceMark

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SuperPI Mod 1.5

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In HandBrake, we see the 2600 and 2700 score a bit lower than we expected in transcoding, but that's partially due to the lower clock speeds of the two processors. We see solid results in Science Mark, so the processors should do well with many legacy programs. Single threaded performance isn't stellar, but that's also due to frequency.

Synthetic Gaming Performance: UNIGINE and 3DMark

3DMark Fire Strike

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3DMark CloudGate

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UNIGINE 4.0 720P

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UNIGINE 4.0 1080P

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In 3DMark Fire Strike we find the results in line with what we expected. In Cloud Gate, we see results better than we expected. In UNIGINE we find that the 2600 beats out the 1600X easily, both at 1080P and 720P. The 2700 lags behind the 2700X and that is to be expected.

Gaming Performance: Resident Evil, Tomb Raider & More

Out of the Box Gaming Performance: Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, GTA:V, Ashes of Singularity

Resident Evil 6 Benchmark

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GTA: V

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Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Ashes of the Singularity

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In Resident Evil, Intel still has the clear lead across the board, but the 2600X beats out both the 2700 and 2600. We see the same thing happen in GTA:V, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and even Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. It turns out that games like frequency and per core performance, who knew? Joking aside, the good news here is that performance wasn't significantly worse, and you can overclock both CPUs up to the levels of the "X" counterparts.

Overclocking and Power Consumption

Page 10[Overclocking and Power Consumption]

CPU Overclocking

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Here we see the same trend we saw with the 1600 and 1700 CPUs; overclocking them up towards 4GHz is easy and straightforward to achieve. While they have obviously knocked down the stock and boost frequency, these CPUs have XFR, so they should all be capable of 3.8-4.0GHz overclockers at reasonable voltages. Although, you are going to want a better cooler for the higher fixed voltage.

Power Consumption

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Ah, here we have some more reasonable TDPs. Since power is measured at the 8-pin power input, and we can chalk 10W or so to TDP and the rest to boosts, we find that these CPUs abide closer to their TDPs than their "X" series counterparts.

What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts

Page 11[What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts]

This is where you can fast forward to the final section of the review, and get a quick recap and points on the Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600.

What's Hot

$30 Cheaper than "X" Series: You are basically saving $30 on each SKU compared to the "X" counterpart, and for many that will make sense if you need to shave $30 off your build and want the cores. You can easily get to the level of their "X" counterpart through overclocking, and that's a good thing for tinkers.

Overclocking : Both of the CPUs are fully unlocked and capable of being overclocked close to the levels of their "X" predecessors. AMD kept the solder TIM as well, so you will be able to cool them efficiently.

Cores and Threads: You get 6-cores and 8-cores in the same price range where Intel's offerings only offer 6-cores and many times without HyperThreading. AMD is still the core leader.

Included Cooler: Many of Intel's "K-SKUs" that Intel provides don't come with stock coolers, and these CPUs do. The coolers are decent for a mild overclock as well. The RGB LED ring around the Wraith Spire is a nice touch for the Ryzen 7 2700.

What's Not

Base and Boost Frequency: It's obvious what is holding back these two CPUs; operating frequency isn't that high. Perhaps this is to separate the "X" SKUs and provide some incentive to go in that direction, but you can always overclock the CPUs.

Final Thoughts

While we were super excited and impressed by the 2600X and 2700X, we found the 2600 and 2700 slightly less impressive, but still excellent values. For $30 more you are just paying AMD for a slight frequency boost, something you can do for free. While most might say that not everyone overclocks, with Ryzen it's pretty significant, so you get that increased Infinity Fabric speed.

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While people are in their UEFIs setting XMP to enabled, we highly recommend turning your CPU core frequency up to around 38x on all cores and see what happens. If you are afraid of going into the UEFI, then just use AMD's Ryzen Master software, which provides easy to use controls and can be used within Windows 10. If you are looking for a CPU with excellent price-to-performance value, and you like to tinker, then give the Ryzen 5 2600 and Ryzen 7 2700 a look.