t’s official: Ryzen 7000 has arrived. In late
August, AMD took the wraps off its
upcoming Zen 4 processors, giving us
the details on price, availability, launch
processors, and much more during its live
stream from Austin, Texas. In late September,
they launched. We’ve got the full technical
rundown for you in our recap of AMD’s Ryzen
7000 launch event (fave.co/3BPNoVb), but if
you’re looking for the highlights, here are the
top five takeaways.

The first Ryzen 7000 processors hit shelves on
September 27. The initial lineup of AMD’s first
5nm chips almost mimics that of its
predecessor, Ryzen 5000, but with some
interesting deviations.
The Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X,
Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X sport the
same number of cores and threads as their

last-gen counterparts, but their TDP ratings
have risen across the board. The top two
CPUs now sit at 170W compared to 105W for
the 5950X and 5900X. Meanwhile, the
7700X and 7600X come in at 105W versus
65W for the 5700X and 5600X, respectively.
More juice means heavier-hitting chips,
though. The flagship Ryzen 9 7950X boasts a
whopping 800MHz uplift in boost clock
speed compared to the 5950X, with a max of
5.7GHz. You’ll see higher base and boost
clock speeds across the board, with the
7600X also crossing the 5GHz boost clock
threshold (and thus boldly going where
5600X had never gone before).
These performance increases come with
a price increase for one chip—the $399
7700X costs $100 more than the 5700X.
However, the 7900X and 7600X match
their predecessors, while the flagship
7950X actually undercuts the 5950X’s
launch price by $100 (!). As with previous