All three of the launch AMD Ryzen 7 parts are very close in performance. We previously posted the AMD Ryzen 7 1700X benchmarks based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS which uses an older kernel. Today we have linux benchmarks of the AMD Ryzen 7 1700, and this is the chip you should buy. We did want to point to our guide on installing Linux kernel 4.10.1 for Ubuntu and the one for Ryzen and CentOS which is realistically the kernel you need to be using. Even if you need to use Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04 LTS versions, if you are using Rzyen using older kernels will likely cause crashing. The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 is an extremely interesting part. It has the same 8 cores/ 16 threads as the higher-end CPUs. It can be overclocked with little effort. It also has a much lower TDP at 65W.

Test Configuration

For our Ubuntu 14.04 with kernel 4.10.1 benchmarks we standardized on a very simple platform. Note, we are going to include the Ryzen 7 1700X with kernel 4.10.1 and this platform in our results.

Unfortunately, AMD did not highlight Linux benchmarks for the Ryzen launch and was not keen to have the new chips tested with Linux. Here are the side-by-side Ryzen 7 1700 and Ryzen 7 1700X platforms in the process of being setup.

Why the AMD Ryzen 7 1700 is the Zen you should buy

The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 is priced significantly lower than the 1700X ($329 v. $399) but the price difference does not stop there. The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 retail packaging also includes the AMD Wraith Spire Cooler with its RGB LED ring.

When you consider that getting into a similar sized Noctua cooler such as the Noctua NH-L9x65 SE-AM4 costs $45-49, the delta is $329 to $450. That $120 can be re-distributed to more RAM or an additional SSD.

AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Linux Benchmarks

For our testing we are using Linux-Bench scripts which help us see cross platform “least common denominator” results. We are using gcc due to its ubiquity as a default compiler. One can see details of each benchmark here. We are likely going to update the Linux-Bench in the near future with a few new tests as well as an even simpler to use/ faster revision, but for now, we are using the legacy version that now has over 100,000 test runs under its belt.

The item to remember here is that any benchmark we are publishing has had at least 10,000 profiling runs on a multitude of different architectures to ensure we get consistent results before we add it to our repertoire. Normally we go one step further and heat soak every machine at 100% load for 24 hours. On multi-node systems we even use a “sandwich” and controlled temperature and humidity to ensure systems are as close to real-world temperatures as possible. Due to the desktop nature of Ryzen chips, we are going to present our linux kernel 4.10.1 based results all with 24-hour heat soak but with no adjoining systems.

If you want to compare the below to your system, or see additional data points, you can check a sample result out here.

Python Linux 4.4.2 Kernel Compile Benchmark

This is one of the most requested benchmarks for STH over the past few years. The task was simple, we have a standard configuration file, the Linux 4.4.2 kernel from kernel.org, and make with every thread in the system. We are expressing results in terms of complies per hour to make the results easier to read.

We wanted to point out that there are a few differences between our Ryzen 7 1700X results we published on launch day and the additional result here. Namely, we are using a different kernel that has many of the necessary patches required to make everything run smoothly. The performance deltas using the newer kernel were quite noticeable, or about 9% on the Ryzen 1700X. When we compared the 1700 and 1700X the 1700X is faster, by a small margin.

You can see in a very real world workload that the Ryzen 7 1700 is very close to the Ryzen 7 1700X in terms of performance. For folks building systems to offload build cycles from Macbook Pros and other laptops, the Ryzen setup is a price/ performance game changer.

c-ray 1.1 Performance

We have been using c-ray for our performance testing for years now. It is a ray tracing benchmark that is extremely popular to show differences in processors under multi-threaded workloads.

As someone who tests systems on a regular basis, this is a chart I love. AMD has been pushing Cinebench R15 that is testing a similar type of computation. The Ryzen 7 1700 is fast, as fast as a dual E5-2670 V1 system circa 5 years ago that would have set you back $4000+ versus $1000 today. The Ryzen 7 1700 is marginally slower than the 1700X but it is sub 10% slower. By far the result that was eye-catching is the difference between the Ryzen 7 1700X on kernel 4.4.0 and 4.10.1. The numbers were the same. We had two platforms spitting numbers out and run after run they were exactly the same. We even tried this on our Dockerized version (yes Ryzen runs Docker) without and saw the same consistent performance between the two platforms.

7-zip Compression Performance

7-zip is a widely used compression/ decompression program that works cross platform. We started using the program during our early days with Windows testing. It is now part of Linux-Bench.

Here we see that the Ryzen 7 1700 is again very close to the Ryzen 7 1700X. That is a widespread phenomenon we have today due to models being differentiated solely by 100-200MHz increments.

NAMD Performance

NAMD is a molecular modeling benchmark developed by the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. More information on the benchmark can be found here.

An emerging pattern of high clock speed and high core count helps propel the Ryzen 7 1700 to a solid showing once again.

Sysbench CPU test

Sysbench is another one of those widely used Linux benchmarks. We specifically are using the CPU test, not the OLTP test that we use for some storage testing.

This is a result that is a bit surprising but we consistently are seeing the Ryzen chips perform very well.

OpenSSL Performance

OpenSSL is widely used to secure communications between servers. This is an important protocol in many server stacks. We first look at our sign tests:

And the verify results:

Here you can see solid performance from the Ryzen 7 1700. Overall, these are excellent results. We doubt that any vendor is optimizing specifically for rsa4096 so for now, this is excellent.

UnixBench Dhrystone 2 and Whetstone Benchmarks

One of our longest running tests is the venerable UnixBench 5.1.3 Dhrystone 2 and Whetstone results. They are certainly aging, however, we constantly get requests for them, and many angry notes when we leave them out. For example on our AMD Ryzen 7 1700X review where UnixBench was crashing due to the kernel version we were using we left the results out and received many e-mails asking about them. UnixBench is widely used so it is a good comparison point.

Here are the whetstone results:

Intel performs relatively well here. Again, we did not have Linux kernel 4.4 results because UnixBench had about a 66% chance of crashing the system with Ryzen. Using a proper kernel version, we can see that the Ryzen 7 1700 is about on par with an Intel Xeon E5-2630 V3 in terms of performance. That is a generation old Xeon E5 but is around the same price as the AMD Ryzen 7 1700 and also is an 8 core/ 16 thread part.

Final Words

If you are looking to get AMD Ryzen, this is the chip we are going to recommend for most folks. Price wise, the AMD Ryzen 1700 with 8-10GB more RAM is likely a better option than the AMD Ryzen 7 1700X, especially as the ecosystem matures. Likewise, if you are a developer that wants to work on Ryzen, it is hard to spend $200+ more on a Ryzen 7 1800X when you get the functionality and still very good performance in the AMD Ryzen 7 1700. On the TDP front, we have been running a few workloads on the various chips now that we have consistent platforms. One example, Monero mining which we have a Dockerized image for, the difference is around 4-6W rather than 30W. Expect more on this in future pieces. Still, the included cooler at $329 and 8 cores/ 16 threads at a price point Intel has no answer for (in the E3/ Core i7 lines) makes the Ryzen 7 1700 a clear winner.