AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
This standard Zen 4 chip is no gap filler
On paper, AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X seems ordinary, but it offers a generational leap in performance.
AT FIRST GLANCE, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is the safest option of AMD’s new Zen 4 lineup. It’s an 8-core CPU with 16 threads, coming in at just under $400 and, specs-wise, nothing out of the ordinary. Compared with the other chips in the lineup, such as the Ryzen 9 7950X, which has the highest thread count of any chip out there and is cheaper and speedier than its predecessor, and the Ryzen 5 7600X, which is the highest-clocked mainstream CPU around at just under $299, the Ryzen 7 7700X begins to look like it may be a bit of a gap filler.