AMD Ryzen 7 2700X VS Ryzen 7 3700X: Which one is better

Architectural Differences

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X is among the flagship processors in the mainstream series and unlike the first generation Ryzen processors, there were only two processors in the 2nd generation which had eight cores; namely, AMD Ryzen 7 2700 and AMD Ryzen 7 2700X.

First of all, the biggest difference between the Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 7 3700X is that 2700X is based on the 12nm process while the 3700X is based on the TSMC 7nm process.

This leads to much better efficiency in the Ryzen 7 3700X and it has a lot lower TDP of 65 watts, compared to the high TDP of 105 Watts. The results in overclocked processors are going to be different though and are likely to be around twice the stated TDP, especially the 3700X consumes even more than twice, at around 150 watts.

This still makes 3700X cooler than Ryzen 7 2700X, which goes above 200 watts sometimes. The maximum temperatures of the processors are also different, with 3700X having a 95-degree max temperature while the 2700X has 85-degree max temperature.

Now, coming to the clock rates of the processors, the stock clock of the Ryzen 7 2700X is rated at 3.7 GHz while the stock clock of the Ryzen 7 3700X is rated at 3.6 GHz.

The boost clocks of the processors are different and 3700X leads the 2700X by 0.1 GHz. The 3700X is rated at 4.4 GHz while the 2700X is rated at 4.3 GHz. These frequencies are just for a single core and not for all cores, although you could probably overclock the processors to achieve these clocks on all cores.

Speaking of overclocking, AMD Ryzen processors are unlocked by default, and even the Non-X variants of the processors are unlocked, unlike the Intel processors where the unlocked processors are different from the locked processors, specified through the suffix ‘K’ or ‘X’.

A big change in the third generation Ryzen processors is that the cache sizes of the processors are greatly modified and overall, the L1 cache size is reduced and the L3 cache size is increased.

Ryzen 7 2700X has an L1 cache of 768 KB while the 3700X has an L1 cache of 512 KB. The L2 caches of both processors are the same, at 4 MB. The L3 cache of 3700X is much bigger than the 2700X and is in fact, twice the size, with 2700X having an L3 cache of 16 MB while 3700X having an L3 cache of 32 MB.

A difference between the controller of the processors is that Ryzen 7 2700X supports only PCI-E 3.0 while the 3700X supports PCI-E 4.0 as well, provided that you use a compatible motherboard with the processor.

The advantage of the PCI-E 4.0 is great for next-generation devices such as PCI-E NVME SSDs, the latest generation graphics cards, etc.

Now, coming to the memory support, both the processors are from the mainstream Ryzen family and support Dual-Channel memory while the HEDT Ryzen processors support Quad-Channel memory. Other than the memory channel, the default memory frequency of 2700X is 2933 MHz and that of the 3700X is 3200 MHz. 

Both the processors come with the same cooler, i.e. AMD Wraith Prism RGB cooler, which is a pretty good cooling solution and is much better than the AMD Wraith Spire cooler. The lower-end Ryzen 7 2700 (non-X), on the other hand, does not come with AMD Wraith Prism cooler and uses Wraith Spire cooler.

Price Difference

Now, we come to the price of the processors. First of all, AMD Ryzen 7 2700X was released way before the 3700X and the price of the processor has dropped a lot. Ryzen 7 2700X had an MSRP of $329 which is the same as the MSRP of Ryzen 7 3700X. In fact, the price of the Ryzen 7 1700 was the same as well, although the X-variant and the 1800X were much pricier. 

Now, to stabilize the sales, the price of Ryzen 7 2700X has dropped a lot and now this processor is sold as low as $165 (on 50% sale) while the Ryzen 7 3700X has gone as low as $275.

Surely, the $110 difference between the two processors is a big thing and unless you really want to get the latest processor and latest technologies associated with the Ryzen 7 3700X, we will recommend that you buy Ryzen 7 2700X. 

However, this sale on Ryzen 7 2700X might not last a long time and it is priced north of $225 mark, then we will recommend that you buy Ryzen 7 3700X instead because the price difference does not justify the sacrifices.

Motherboard Compatibility

A great thing about the AMD platform is that the motherboards do not lose their value in one or two generations, unlike Intel, where motherboards do not support more than two generations of processors normally.

With the release of first-generation Ryzen processors, we saw that the motherboards A320, B350, and X370 came forward. When the second-generation Ryzen processors were released, these motherboards did support these processors with BIOS updates.

With the third generation of the Ryzen processors, however, some of the manufacturers did not provide support in their motherboards while some of them provided Beta BIOS to support them.

Therefore, if you own one of these motherboards, then make sure that the manufacturer supports the third-generation Ryzen processors, or else it will not be compatible.

However, if you own a newer motherboard; namely, B450, X470, or X570, then it will be better to consider buying Ryzen 7 3700X because there will not be any limitations from the motherboard and you will be able to squeeze maximum performance out of your processor.

As for the motherboard choice is concerned, there is not a lot of price difference between X570 and X470 motherboards, so you should prefer buying X570 instead, but if you don’t want to do extreme overclocking and are not going to use multiple graphics card, then perhaps it would be a better choice to buy B450 motherboards.

Productivity Performance

The performance of both the Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 7 3700X varies greatly in different applications but we are going to give you a rough idea of the differences.

First of all, the core performance of the Ryzen 7 3700X is around 15% better than the 2700X and the main reason for this gain is IPC improvement due to cache optimizing and other changes, resulting in faster single-core performance.

A great thing about 3700X is that it now supports high-frequency RAM kits, upwards of 4400 MHz, greatly affecting the performance in memory-dependant applications while Ryzen 7 2700X struggles to go beyond 3600 MHz.

Overall, the difference in the performance should be noticeable to those working with a large amount of data.

Gaming Performance

Now, coming to an important aspect of both processors, that is gaming. One of the biggest improvements in the third-generation Ryzen processors is that Ryzen 7 3700X has greatly improved its single-core performance and to such a point that it can now compete against the high-end Intel processors like Intel Core i7-9700K and Core i9-9900K.

Since games are highly dependant on the single-core performance, the performance difference between two processors is noticeably significant and if you are a gamer then you should consider buying Ryzen 7 3700X. 

An important thing to note here is that Ryzen processors are greatly dependant on the memory performance and if you are not using high-frequency RAM kits with tight timings, you are likely to get reduced performance, up to 15-20 percent lower.

This matters so much that you can surpass the performance of Ryzen 7 3700X with Ryzen 7 2700X if you use high-frequency RAM kits with 2700X and low-frequency RAM kits along with default timings with 3700X. Therefore, it is important to use high-performance RAM kits if you are going to set up a gaming rig.

As for the performance of processors in current-generation games, you are going to get more than 120 Avg. FPS in almost all games, which is a great thing if you own a high-refresh-rate monitor such as a 144-Hz monitor.

However, if you are enthusiastic about esports gaming and own a 240-Hz monitor, then it will be a better decision to go with Ryzen 7 3700X because 2700X will have a hard time going past 150 Avg. FPS in many games.

Overclocking Support

The X-variants of AMD Ryzen-series processors come with higher clock speeds than the non-X-variants and provide better overclocking speeds as well. Overclocking the Ryzen processors is not so difficult anymore and you can either use the PBO for overclocking, which manages the clocks speeds automatically, depending on temperature or you can manually overclock the processors.

Ryzen 7 2700X comes with 3.7 GHz of base clock speed and Ryzen 7 3700X comes with 3.6 GHz of base clock speed while the Boost clocks are rated at 4.3 GHz and 4.4 GHz respectively. It is to be noted that this boost clock is valid only for a single core and on stock clocks, the processors run around 4 GHz on all cores.

In fact, you cannot surpass this specified boost clock (single-core boost clock) on all cores most of the time with overclocking, which makes the overclocking gain very little, coming from 4.0 GHz to 4.3 or 4.4 GHz.

However, the memory overclocking aspects of the two processors are very different. First of all, if you use the X570 motherboards, it is possible to go as high as 5000 MHz when using the Ryzen 7 3700X, and going around 4400 MHz is pretty much the norm in the enthusiasts.

With Ryzen 7 2700X, on the other hand, you are most likely to be limited to 4000 MHz or even less if you are using older motherboards. It is to be noted that the prices of high-frequency RAM kits are much higher than regular memory sticks around 3000-3600 MHz and if you are unable to afford the 3700X and are going with faster memory and 2700X, it would be better to go with 3000-MHz memory along with 3700X instead.

Our Choice

We have seen various aspects of AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 7 3700X in this article and only you can choose which one of these processors will be suitable for you. In general, there is not a lot of difference in productive application performance apart from memory-dependant ones. For gaming, Ryzen 7 3700X does a far better job than Ryzen 7 2700X and you should consider buying 3700X. Also, if you want to take advantage of the latest technologies such as PCI-E 4.0, etc., then you should consider the 3700X. If you are low on budget and yet want to achieve at least 80% of the performance of 3700X, Ryzen 7 2700X will be a great choice, especially considering the advantage that it often goes on big sales, up to 50%. We think this information will allow you to choose the suitable processor for your needs and you won’t have to look elsewhere for any guide.