AMD Ryzen 7 1800X CPU Review

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Hitman, Project CARS & Metro: Last Light

Hitman (2016)

Hitman scales well during our benchmark, obviously responding to clock rate and core count. The Ryzen 7 1800X receives a boost when we disable SMT, but it still lags the field under the influence of a slight overclock to 3.8 GHz.

The FX-8350, which experiences severe frame time variance, highlights how far AMD has come in a few short generations on the performance front.

The Core i7-7700K takes the lead with a fixed 3.8 GHz frequency, but Ryzen closes the gap as resolution increases. The 1800X at its stock clock rate shows up well behind Intel's Core i7-6900K, but to keep things in perspective, you get 87% of Broadwell-E's performance for less than half of its price with Ryzen 7 1800X. Conversely, you can opt for the $350 Core i7-7700K and enjoy more performance than AMD's 1800X in many popular titles. 

The gap narrows even more between Ryzen and Intel's processors as we shift to 2560x1440. The Core i7-6900K and -7700K are still faster, but the utility question surfaces again: if you specifically need an eight-core processor for content creation, you can go with the 1800X and give up some gaming alacrity, or, if high frame rates are top priority, buy the Core i7-7700K knowing it won't be as fast elsewhere.

Project CARS

Intel's Core i7-7700 takes a big lead during our Project CARS testing, followed by the Core i7-6900K. AMD's Ryzen 7 1800X with a fixed 3.8 GHz frequency slides past the SMT-disabled results, suggesting the game works well with AMD's SMT implementation.

Project CARS delivers similar maximum frame rates, even at a higher resolution, which illustrates just how CPU-constrained the game is. The 1800X without SMT and the 1800X under Microsoft's High Performance power profile swap positions on the chart, but are only separated by 0.1 FPS.

The FX-8350 suffers significant performance variation, while Ryzen 7 1800X provides a smoother experience using the High Performance profile. Intel's Core i7-7700K continues to impress with a beastly lead over the other processors, including the -6900K overclocked slightly.

Metro: Last Light Redux

The Ryzen 7 1800X averages 91+ FPS during the benchmark, and only lags the Core i7-7700K by 2.8 FPS.

The FX-8350 falls to the bottom of our chart, and though it trails the rest of the field by a marginal average frame rate, it experiences much more frame time variance.

In all four configurations, the Intel processors are separated by a scant 0.2 FPS during the graphics-intensive workload. The Ryzen 7 1800X offers nearly the same performance as the leading CPUs.

Paul Alcorn
Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.

  • vrumor
    Well, at the very least, it is competition. Competition drives innovation and lower costs. Well done AMD.
    Reply
  • kiniku
    Why did I feel AMD was hiding something? Understandably the "gamer market" is comparatively small. But couldn't AMD have designed a CPU that worked well in gaming/desktops and in data centers? Disappointing.
    (But I have a 5820K. The best Ryzen in the world would not have had me switch anyway.)
    Reply
  • xryanx123
    Bias review as always. Most of your information is obviously screwed up. How do you get 4.0ghz at 1.45v. When that's not even an overclock for the chip (not really at least compared to stock) yet you're already pushing 1.45v? You're tailoring your articles for the uneducated. Duck off toms
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    in the end the best anyone can hope from AMD is that it spooked intel enough to lower its prices
    Reply
  • ssdpro
    In a hurry to compare various site's gaming results, it appears differing sites are finding the same thing: gaming performance is acceptable but below 4c/8t Intel offerings. If you spend your day encoding or multi-thread benching this is a monster bargain.

    With the good and bad, I think we can all agree the good here is competition. There is some now.
    Reply
  • Pompompaihn
    All along AMD was claiming to equal/beat Broadwell-E in comparative tasks at half the price, and from another review that included Broadwell-E, it's done that. I don't recall ANY AMD press saying it was going to beat the 7700K in straight up gaming. So, target set, and hit. That's a win in my book. But now, need to see what they can do with the smaller core count chips and if they can scale frequency to be competitive in the gaming sector.
    Reply
  • Dionisiatis
    Maybe i missed it but i would love to see a perf/dollar ratio comparison. Im sure Ryzen would occupy the top position, and it would also make it clear that AMD achieved extraordinary results in bringing such high performance to the average consumer that cant 700+ dollars for a CPU.
    Reply
  • jackspeed
    @Dionisiatis the 7700K is cheaper then the 1800X so for gamers it currently is the best CPU. now games have yet to optimize for the new AMD architecture, so maybe soon it will be a different story.
    Reply
  • Aspiring techie
    Your "Heating up AMD Ryzen" video on the Power and Temperatures tab is still private. I can't watch it.
    Reply
  • Fails in gaming, and for multitasking stuff i got Xeon 14/28 who is doing all that encoding and other stuff for $300 on eBay.

    In my opinion AMD failed and they really pulled BS by fooling people into pre ordering but it turns out that in gaming sucks..
    Reply