AMD Ryzen 7 Vs i7

If you’re looking to upgrade your gaming PC, a new CPU can make all the difference. As the component responsible for reading program instructions and controlling the subsequent actions, your computer processing unit needs to be of good quality.

The top two names in the CPU game are AMD and Intel, and they’ve been battling against each other for years to gain the advantage of the market’s majority favor.

We expected a lot from the Ryzen 7 series, introduced as a high-end unit for the enthusiastic gamer, especially as AMD has built themselves a reputation for producing fantastic CPUs. But how does it compare to Intel Core i7, and which family of CPUs holds the key to unlocking even better performance from your games?

This article takes a look at features such as architecture, clock speeds, cores and threads, and multitasking ability to determine which series has more to offer and where you should look for your next CPU upgrade.

Intel Core i7-9700K

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AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

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We touch on multitasking in more detail later, but before we discuss cores and threads it’s important to know what this means in terms of CPU improvements. Essentially, the more cores your CPU contains the more programs you can run at once.

The Simultaneous Multi-threading technology used by AMD means that the Ryzen 7 CPUs have double the number of threads to cores, which are 8 and 16 respectively across the series.

Intel has a similar concept in their hyper-threading CPUs, where multi-threading technology is used to enhance the performance quality to a standard of more cores than are actually contained by the CPU. However, the Core i7 series is still the less powerful of the two with only 8 cores and 8 threads at their center.

If you want the best, the Ryzen 9 has more cores and threads at 12 and 16 respectively, but AMD’s Ryzen 7 CPUs offer huge improvements over the earlier models like Ryzen 3, which has a mere core count of 4 with the same number of threads.

AMD’s Ryzen 7 CPUs clearly outperform the comparative i7 series from Intel, so this first round goes to them, but while the number of cores undoubtedly influences performance, gamers will benefit more from a faster single-core clock speed.

Don’t count the Intel Core i7 out just yet, because where it beats the Ryzen 7 is in its higher frequencies capability. It outperforms the AMD CPUs even at maximum boosted speeds, which is good to know if you’re wondering what difference overclocking will make.

Ryzen 7 comes clocked at 3.6GHz/3.9GHz which is actually higher than the base clock speed of the Ryzen 9 CPUs, so there isn’t much differentiation between the generations in terms of frame rates. It can also be boosted up to 4.4GHz/4.5GHz through overclocking. Avid gamers will notice the difference when overclocked, however, as the Ryzen 9 delivers a faster boost clock speed of 4.6GHz/4.7GHz.

Comparably, the Intel i7 actually has better specs than both the Ryzen 7 and 9 families with a base clock speed of 3.8GHz and the ability to reach up to 5.1GHz using Intel’s Turbo Boost technology. This undoubtedly helps with game frame rates, but does it compensate for the lower number of threads and reduced horsepower?

GPU-dependent games might not see all that much difference, but games such as Far Cry 5 and Ashes of the Singularity prove why higher frequency CPUs come out on top when it comes to gaming. Intel Core i7 outperformed Ryzen 7 here and therefore wins round two.

Could architecture be the tiebreaker between these CPUs?

The latest generation of Ryzen 7 uses Zen3 architecture which offers a huge step up from previous CPUs in terms of clock speeds as we’ve already seen, as well as increased cache size. The AM2 chipset also means it’s compatible with past, present, and even future motherboards.

The 10th generation of Intel Core i7 CPUs uses Ice Lake architecture which, just like Ryzen 7, is a vast improvement on earlier generations which used Nehalem 45nm microarchitecture instead. Ryzen 7 still wins out with a bigger cache memory capacity, however.

L1 Cache – 512KB
L2 Cache – 4MB
L3 Cache – 32MB

L1 Cache – 64KB
L2 Cache – 256KB
L3 Cache – 4MB to 24MB shared

By increasing the cache memory size, Ryzen 7 stores more of the most frequently used commands so they can be loaded faster, although both CPU families are capable of running the majority of high-end games without issue.

As we mentioned earlier, multitasking is linked to the number of threads your CPU contains. The higher the number of threads, the better the CPU will be able to handle multitasking. It might not be the highest priority for gamers, but it will be if you often have additional programs running in the background.

AMD has long been the better choice for multitasking, and for the gamers who love to simultaneously stream their favorite Twitch videos during a gaming session, Ryzen 7 can comfortably handle running multiple programs in the background.

That’s not to say that Intel Core i7 doesn’t do a good job, but the fewer number of threads can’t compete with the Ryzen 7 series, which boasts double the amount and therefore double the multitasking capabilities.

Intel Core i7-9700K

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AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

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The improvements that have been made since the Ryzen 5 CPUs meant that the Ryzen 7 series had a pretty good run of holding the top spot in computer processing units. Until AMD released their Ryzen 3000 CPUs, that is.

Intel has also been creeping up the rankings with their Core i7 CPUs, a series that delivers decent multitasking and improved gaming performance. They might not be quite as powerful as the absolute monster CPUs found in the i9 family, but at a more affordable price, they still have a lot to offer the enthusiastic gamer.

As the more expensive choice of the two families we looked at, you’d expect the Core i7 to thrash the Ryzen 7 series in every round. As you can see, this is not the case. These two families are pretty evenly matched, but the AMD Ryzen 7 series of CPUs takes the advantage with a higher thread count, increased cache memory, and improved multitasking.

For the more serious gamers, if you want a CPU that offers an additional step up in speed and performance, you’d be looking at purchasing one of the models from the Ryzen 9 series which costs more than the entry-level prices of the Ryzen 7 series.

With all that being said, it really does depend on what you’re looking to get out of your CPU, and you can ultimately find a great CPU for your gaming PC in either collection.