Unboxing and Photography
The Ryzen 7 7700X comes in a compact paperboard box with a new look. A small cutout on the front shows the actual processor inside the package. Note that the Ryzen 7000 Series are not boxed with a cooler.
The Ryzen 7000 series processor package is unlike anything we've seen, with its flower-shaped IHS design. AMD says it didn't go with a rounded-square IHS because it wanted to keep some of the electrical SMD ancillaries outside the IHS, where they're less affected by temperatures. If you flip the chip, you'll see that unlike Intel processors, there's no central "island" where there are no pins and instead some SMDs.
The AM5 socket retention brace only applies pressure along the two side protrusions of the IHS, and when installed, the surface area for contact with the cooler is rounded-square, just like AM4 was.