Intel’s aggressive Alder Lake chips have upset AMD’s dominance with its Ryzen processors, notably within the lower cost ranges, however the brand new $199 six-core 12-thread Ryzen 5 5600 and $159 Ryzen 5 5500 are designed to plug key gaps within the firm’s portfolio. These new chips come as a part of AMD’s broader launch of seven new Ryzen 5000 fashions that intention to shore up the corporate’s rankings in CPU benchmarks and retake its place on the Greatest CPUs for gaming record.
AMD’s Ryzen 5000 chips totally eclipsed Intel’s efficiency lead in desktop PCs after they launched again in 2020, however the firm has lengthy uncared for to launch any sub-$250 chips with the potent Zen 3 structure. That is stored the bar for entry unattainably excessive for worth seekers.
AMD’s new chips are lengthy overdue, arriving a 12 months and a half after the primary wave of Ryzen 5000 chips, however they’re badly wanted. Intel’s Alder Lake launch caught AMD uncharacteristically flat-footed, wresting away AMD’s efficiency lead. Intel’s aggressive pricing additionally introduced superior worth in each value vary whereas exploiting AMD’s obvious lack of any sub-$250 Zen 3 chips.
AMD’s resolution is fairly easy: The corporate is bringing again its non-X fashions, however with a twist. As a reminder, AMD’s non-X fashions are the lower-cost and lower-performing variations of the ‘X’ fashions (just like the Ryzen 5 5600X), however they’ve traditionally provided almost the identical efficiency as their counterparts, notably after overclocking. AMD can also be placing a brand new spin on the observe: A few of these new fashions, just like the Ryzen 5 5500, are repurposed APUs with a disabled built-in GPU.
| Worth Road/MSRP | Design – Arch. | E/P – Core|Thread | P-Core Base/Enhance (GHz) | TDP / PBP / MTP | L3 Cache | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 7 5800X3D | $449 | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 8P | 16T | 3.4 / 4.5 | 105W | 96MB |
| Ryzen 7 5700X | $299 | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 8P | 16T | 3.4 / 4.6 | 65W | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600 | $199 | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 6P|12T | 3.5 / 4.4 | 65W | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 5500 | $159 | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.2 | 65W | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 4600G | $154 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6P | 12T | 3.7 / 4.2 | 65W | 8MB |
| Ryzen 5 4500 | $129 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.1 | 65W | 8MB |
| Ryzen 3 4100 | $99 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 4P | 8T | 3.8 / 4.0 | 65W | 4MB |
The 4 new non-X fashions are designed to reply to Intel’s commanding lead on the low finish, and AMD has additionally slashed pricing on its current Ryzen 5000 fashions. AMD is even enabling assist for Ryzen 5000 chips on older 300-series motherboards, opening up a price choice that’s match for the brand new low-end Ryzen lineup. This is how AMD’s new mainstream contenders stack up.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and 5500 Specs and Pricing
| Worth – Road/MSRP | Design – Arch. | E/P – Core|Thread | P-Core Base/Enhance (GHz) | E-Core Base/Enhance (GHz) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence Assist | L3 Cache | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 5 5600X | $230 ($299) | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 6P | 12T | 3.7 / 4.6 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600G (APU) | $220 ($259 ) | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6P | 12T | 3.9 / 4.4 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 5600 | $199 | Zen 3 – Vermeer | 6P|12T | 3.5 / 4.4 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Core i5-12400 / F | $192 – $167 (F) | Alder Lake | 6P+0E | 6C/12T | 4.4 / 2.5 | – | 65W / 117W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 18MB |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | $250 ($240) | Zen 2 | 6P | 12T | 3.8 / 4.4 | – | 95W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | $229 ($200) | Zen 2 | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.2 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 32MB |
| Ryzen 5 5500 | $159 | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6P | 12T | 3.6 / 4.2 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 4600G (APU) | $154 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6P | 12T | 3.7 / 4.2 | – | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 8MB |
| Core i3-12100 / F | $122 – $97 (F) | Alder Lake | 4P+0E | 4C/8T | 3.3 / 4.3 | – | 60W / 89W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 12MB |
The Ryzen 5 5600 and 5500 have drastically totally different designs, however there are a number of commonalities. Like their extra full-fledged counterparts, each chips include a bundled Wraith Stealth cooler that’s enough for inventory operation. Additionally they assist as much as DDR4-3200 reminiscence. As well as, these chips are totally unlocked for overclocking the CPU cores, reminiscence, and cloth. In distinction, Intel’s non-Ok fashions solely assist reminiscence overclocking, and the corporate’s nonsensical resolution to maintain sure voltages locked restricts DDR4 overclocking headroom.
The $199 Ryzen 5 5600 is a brand new Vermeer mannequin, that means it comes with the usual chiplet-based Zen 3 structure. This chip is the long-awaited and badly-needed ‘non-X’ model of the Ryzen 5 5600X, so it shares the identical characteristic set, albeit with decreased clocks. The 5600 has a 3.5 GHz base and 4.4 GHz enhance, so that you’re solely shedding 200 MHz for the bottom and enhance clock price in comparison with the 5600X. This chip will grapple with Intel’s in style Core i5-12400.
For its lowest-end Zen 3 chip, the $159 Ryzen 5 5500 finds AMD using a brand new tactic of repurposing its monolithic (single-chip) Cezanne silicon that it sometimes makes use of for APUs, however the firm has disabled the chip’s built-in Radeon Vega graphics engine. This six-core 12-thread chip slots in to compete with Intel’s graphics-less $167 Core i5-12400F.
Other than the disabled iGPU, the 5500 has the identical design because the Ryzen 5 5600G, together with assist for PCIe 3.0 as an alternative of PCIe 4.0. In consequence, this chip will make a terrific pairing for older, lower-end AM4 motherboards (you undoubtedly don’t wish to pay for performance you don’t want by pairing it with a PCIe 4.0-supporting motherboard).
The 5500 is similar to the 5600G that has the identical structure, however an energetic iGPU — there’s solely a 200 MHz distinction in CPU base/enhance clock charges between the 2 chips. Like its counterpart, the Ryzen 5 5500 additionally comes with 16MB of cache, half that of the chiplet-based Ryzen 5 5600 that has the identical variety of cores and threads. This may lead to decreased efficiency in a number of workloads.
The Ryzen 5 5600 and Ryzen 5 5500 would make nice pairings for cheap 300- and 400-series motherboards. These chips are already supported on 400-series boards, and as of AGESA model 1207, most 300-series motherboards will assist Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 processors after a BIOS replace (ensure the BIOS has AGESA 1207 or newer). AMD says that Ryzen 5000 assist will differ by vendor, as will the timeline for brand new BIOS revisions. Nevertheless, we should always see the updates arrive within the April-Might timeframe. Notably, these BIOS revisions may also embrace the repair for AMD’s fTPM stuttering points. Let’s transfer on to the CPU benchmarks.