AMD Ryzen: dates, prices and specifications of the new 5700X, 5600, 5500 and 4000 series mainstream processors

AMD Ryzen: dates, prices and specifications of the new 5700X, 5600, 5500 and 4000 series mainstream processors

AMD Ryzen

AMD has enriched its lineup with a series of consumer processors that, arriving on the market on April 4, expand the possibilities of choice, especially for those aiming to save. In fact, we are talking about long-awaited models such as the AMD Ryzen 5600 and the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, also made interesting by the extension of the compatibility of the AMD 300 motherboards. We also find three AMD Ryzen 4000 models for desktop that resurrect the old Zen architecture 2, including a $ 99 option. ! function () {"use strict"; window.addEventListener ("message", (function (e) {if (void 0! == e.data ["datawrapper-height"]) {var t = document.querySelectorAll ( "iframe"); for (var a in e.data ["datawrapper-height"]) for (var r = 0; r It has been 16 months since the arrival of the AMD Ryzen 5000 processors and in all this time we have wondered where had finished the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and the AMD Ryzen 5600, heir to one of the most popular processors of recent years thanks to the combination of price and overclocking margins. For this we would have liked to see it sooner, but things went differently due to a mix between the marketing strategies of a competitive AMD round, the pandemic and the increasingly common trend to stagger low-end products over time.

Among the new AMD Ryzen 5000 there is also the long-awaited AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Of course, we would not have expected to see new models with Zen 2 architecture, but desktop processors, which expand a series previously restricted to versions with graphics integrated or mobile, they still fill gaps in the company's overall offering and like all CPUs announced today, with the exception of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, they come together with a Wraith Stealth cooler.

AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop series is enriched with 3 models Going back to the models with the latest Zen 3 architecture, if nothing else AMD has made up for the delay by extending the compatibility of the AMD X370, B350 and A320 with AMD Ryzen 5000 processors, which makes a $ 199 option like the AMD Ryzen 5600 more interesting and even more interesting the new AMD Ryzen 5500, a younger brother that enjoys the same 6 cores and 12 threads, while costing $ 154, but gives up a few MHz, the PCIe 4.0 interface and a part of the cache.

Unfortunately, the release suggests that not all AMD 300 motherboards will enjoy BIOS updates to support processors AMD Ryzen 5000, but we expect good support from major manufacturers.

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AMD is returning to budget CPUs with $99-and-up Ryzen 4000 and 5000 chips

AMD is returning to budget CPUs with $99-and-up Ryzen 4000 and 5000 chips

AMD


When AMD introduced its first Ryzen 5000-series chips and the Zen 3 architecture in late 2020, the lineup notably did not include any new CPUs below $300. If you wanted cheaper chips, your best bet was to go with previous-generation chips like the Ryzen 3600, 3300X, and 3100. But those processors have been difficult to impossible to find for months, and renewed competition from sub-$200 12th-generation Intel CPUs like the Core i3-12100 and Core i5-12400 have made them a lot less appealing.


That's changing soon. AMD is releasing a slew of processors priced between $99 and $299 that should be suitable for new budget builds or upgrades to existing PCs. The Ryzen 5000-series chips are all based on AMD's aging-but-still-current Zen 3 architecture, while the cheapest chips re-use the 2019-era Zen 2 architecture to keep prices low.


AMD says that all of these chips will be available on April 4, a couple of weeks before the high-end Ryzen 7 5800X3D. All Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 models come with AMD's Wraith Stealth cooler, while you'll need to buy one for the Ryzen 7 CPU.

CPU (new models emphasized)MSRPArchitectureCores/threadsClocks (Base/Boost)Total cache (L2+L3)Ryzen 3 4100$99Zen 24c/8t3.8/4.06MBRyzen 3 3100$99Zen 24c/8t3.6/3.917MBRyzen 5 4500$129Zen 26c/12t3.6/4.111MBRyzen 5 4600G$154Zen 26c/12t3.7/4.211MBRyzen 5 5600G$259Zen 36c/12t3.9/4.419MBRyzen 5 5500$159Zen 36c/12t3.6/4.219MBRyzen 5 5600$199Zen 36c/12t3.5/4.435MBRyzen 5 3600$199Zen 26c/12t3.6/4.235MBRyzen 5 5600X$299Zen 36c/12t3.7/4.635MBRyzen 7 5700X$299Zen 38c/16t3.4/4.636MBRyzen 7 5800X$350Zen 38c/16t3.8/4.736MB

The Ryzen 4100 and 4500 are AMD's first Ryzen 4000-series chips without integrated graphics—previous Ryzen 4000 chips were all APUs that were sold in OEM PCs but that never actually came to the retail market. But their relatively small amount of cache suggests that these are just Ryzen 4000 APUs with the integrated graphics shut off, so you can expect them to perform a little bit worse in some workloads than other Zen 2 processors with similar clock speeds and core counts (AMD is lumping each chip's L2 and L3 cache together in its slides, so we've done the same for consistency's sake).

AMD is releasing new Zen 2-based CPUs to fill in the cheapest holes in its processor lineup.Enlarge / AMD is releasing new Zen 2-based CPUs to fill in the cheapest holes in its processor lineup.

AMD


Moving on to the Ryzen 4600G, it does appear to be the exact same chip that AMD has been selling to the PC companies for a couple of years now. It's nothing too exciting, but its $150-ish price tag and its still-decent Vega integrated GPU might make it an appealing option if you're upgrading an old Ryzen 2400G or 3400G build, or if you're putting together a super-low-budget gaming PC for Minecraft or Fortnite.

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The budget Zen 3 chips get more interesting—at $200, the Ryzen 5 5600 is a true replacement for the old Ryzen 5 3600 that should be nearly as fast as the 5600X, since the two have the exact same core count and cache. The 5700X occupies a similar spot relative to the 5800X (a bit cheaper, nearly as fast), while the $159 Ryzen 5 5500 loses some cache but should still be a solid upgrade over the Ryzen 5 4500 for just $30 more.

New Zen 3-based CPUs finally fill in the spots below the $300 Ryzen 5600X in AMDEnlarge / New Zen 3-based CPUs finally fill in the spots below the $300 Ryzen 5600X in AMD's lineup.

AMD


AMD's lack of newer budget Ryzen processors can be blamed in part on the chip shortage—manufacturing capacity is limited, and AMD decided to prioritize big PC makers like HP and Lenovo with its lower-end desktop chips rather than splitting them between the PC makers and the retail channel. But it was also because, for the first time since the mid-2000s, AMD's Ryzen 5000-series chips had an indisputable manufacturing and performance advantage over Intel. It's not a coincidence that AMD's return to sub-$250 processors is happening just as Intel is becoming competitive again.


For cash-strapped enthusiasts still using X370 or B350 motherboards, today's CPU announcements are coming with another bit of good news: AMD is officially allowing these old motherboards to support Ryzen 4000- and 5000-series CPUs with a BIOS update. These older boards may struggle to run high-end 8-, 12-, and 16-core Ryzen chips at their full speeds, but they ought to be ideally suited to handle these less power-hungry 4- and 6-core CPUs.


Whether all of these processors will be replaced by budget-friendly Ryzen 7000 CPUs later this fall is anyone's guess. But the most likely outcome is that the same conditions that made Zen 3 processors so pricey—chip shortages plus AMD knowing it can charge a premium for its fastest parts—will make the first wave of Zen 4 chips pretty expensive, too.