All ryzen cpu: Intel or AMD Ryzen: ​Which CPU is best?

AMD Ryzen CPUs explained: Specs, benchmarks, price, reviews, and more

Updated

AMD’s powerful Ryzen processors democratize CPU cores and challenge Intel’s high-end chips.

By Brad Chacos

Executive editor, PCWorld Feb 13, 2018 7:18 am PST

[email protected]

After a decade of fielding ho-hum FX-series processors, AMD’s finally released its highly disruptive Ryzen chips, throwing down the gauntlet and challenging Intel’s supremacy in high-end computing.

AMD’s Ryzen chips include several CPUs, APUs, and CPU families of various levels of potency. What’s more, Ryzen introduces a completely new motherboard platform, and the processors require different memory and coolers than their predecessors. There’s a lot to sift through—so let’s sift!

Here’s everything you need to know about AMD’s Ryzen.

Editor’s note: This article is updated as new information about AMD Ryzen processors becomes available. The most recent update adds information from our Ryzen APU review in the next section. The ‘What you need to upgrade’ section now mentions BIOS updates that let existing motherboards support the APUs, as well as the new X400 chipset motherboards releasing with Ryzen+ chips in April.

Meet AMD’s Ryzen CPUs

Gordon Mah Ung/IDG

Let’s begin with the stars of the show: the Ryzen chips themselves. We’ve got new info on the next generation, too.

Mentioned in this article

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X processor

AMD’s mainstream Ryzen chips are split across three families. The top-of-the-line Ryzen 7 processors launched first, with 8 cores, 16 threads, and price points that undercut the comparable 8-core Intel Extreme Edition by a whopping $500. Sweet holy moly. The Ryzen 7 lineup consists of the $350 Ryzen 7 1800X, the $309 Ryzen 7 1700X, and the $299 Ryzen 7 1700 following permanent price cuts for many of AMD’s CPUs at CES 2018.

Gordon Mah Ung

The more affordable Ryzen 5 series launched on April 11 with more variation among processors than you’ll find in the 7 series, then also received some price reductions at CES 2018. 

The $219 Ryzen 5 1600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor capable of boosting to 4GHz, the same max speed as the Ryzen 7 1800X. The $189 Ryzen 5 1600 is a 6-core, 12-thread chip that tops out at 3.6GHz. The rest of the Ryzen 5 lineup consists of quad-core, 8-thread CPUs, with the $174 Ryzen 5 1500X hitting 3.7GHz with boost and the $169 Ryzen 5 1400 hanging between 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz.

Moving down to the mainstream Ryzen 3 lineup, the $109 Ryzen 3 1200 and $125 Ryzen 3 1300X are true quad-core 65W chips without hyperthreading, designed to battle Intel’s dual-core (but hyperthread-enabled) Core i3 processors.

The Ryzen 3 1200’s clock speeds hover between 3.1GHz and 3.4GHz, while the Ryzen 3 1300X hits 3.5GHz to 3.7GHz, and both come with AMD’s Wraith Stealth cooler.  

Nearly a year after Ryzen launched, AMD is preparing a new generation of chips. APUs that mix Ryzen CPU cores with Radeon Vega graphics cores hit February 12, 2018. The Ryzen 5 2400G ($169 on Amazon) packs four cores running at 3.6GHz to 3.9GHz with simultaneous multi-threading enabled, paired with 11 Vega compute units. The Ryzen 3 2200G ($99 on Amazon) has four cores without SMT, running at 3.5GHz to 3.7GHz, along with eight Vega compute units.

These chips game surprisingly well too, as PCWorld’s Ryzen APU review shows. They’re a solid option for PC gamers on a budget.

That’s just the appetizer, though. A refined “Zen+” series of chips will launch in April, using a new 12nm manufacturing process rather than the current 14nm. The new chips will clock higher than Ryzen’s first incarnation, and feature the newer Precision Boost 2 frequency control as well as an improved XFR2 clockspeed booster. Cache and memory improvements are also on tap.

These next-gen Ryzen APUs and CPUs will work with existing AM4 motherboards after a BIOS update, as well as new motherboards based on a fresh X400 chipset.

Gordon Mah Ung

Mentioned in this article

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X

Looking for even more oomph? AMD launched ferocious new Ryzen Threadripper CPUs for high-end desktop (HEDT) builds. There are three models, each offering 64 PCI-E lanes and an abundance of CPU cores and threads:

• The $999 16-core, 32-thread 3.4-GHz Threadripper 1950X
• The $799 12-core, 24-thread 3.5-GHz Threadripper 1920X
• The $449 8-core, 16-thread 3.8GHz Threadripper 1900X

Threadripper’s designed to battle Intel’s powerful new Core i9 chips, which top out at 18-core models—but AMD’s HEDT processors severely undercut Intel’s Core i9 pricing. Check out PCWorld’s Threadripper and Core i9 reviews to see what happens when two titans clash. Second-gen Threadripper chips are expected to release in the second half of 2018, AMD said at CES 2018.

Ryzen Mobile laptops started appearing in the third quarter in APU form, marrying Ryzen CPU cores with cutting-edge Radeon Vega graphics cores on a single chip.

Ryzen technologies

AMD

Icons for the various SenseMI technologies.

AMD imbued Ryzen chips with SenseMI technology consisting of separate parts: Pure Power, Precision Boost, Extended Frequency Range (XFR), Neural Net Prediction, and Smart Prefetch.

• Pure Power measures hundreds of on-chip sensors to optimize temperatures and power use while maintaining performance.
• On the flip side, Precision Boost offers fine-grained, automated frequency control that can nudge performance up by 25MHz increments (versus 100MHz for Intel) to boost performance without consuming more power.
• Extended Frequency Range (XFR) can nudge clocks speeds past their official maximum if Ryzen detects advanced CPU cooling, such as liquid-cooling or liquid nitrogen, for your chip. At Ryzen’s launch XFR only adds a paltry 100MHz overclock in chips.
• Neural Net Prediction examines your usage and “primes your processor to tackle your app workload more efficiently. ”
• Smart Prefetch works hand-in-hand with Neural Net Prediction, identifying how your applications behave and preloading data that it expects you to need for faster performance.

Every AMD Ryzen processor can also be overclocked with a compatible motherboard. Chips with an “X” designation at the end support SenseMI’s Extended Frequency Range technology more than the others. The Ryzen 1600X, 1700X, and 1800X can boost an extra 100MHz and the Ryzen 5 1500X can add 200MHz to its top speed, while non-X CPUs have the potential for a mere 50MHz boost.

Brad Chacos

The pinnacle of AMD PC performance: the Ryzen 7 1800X and Radeon Fury X.

Ryzen performance

So how does it all work in practice? Well. Damned well.

PCWorld’s exhaustive AMD Ryzen 7 review compared the $500 Ryzen 7 1800X and $330 Ryzen 7 1700 against their FX predecessors and Intel’s latest, greatest chips. AMD’s chips went blow-for-blow or outright bested the $1,050 Core i7-6900K—Intel’s cheapest 8-core, 16-thread processor at the time—in every content-creation and productivity task we threw at them, giving Ryzen downright outrageous price-to-performance value for folks who need more cores.  

Mentioned in this article

AMD Ryzen 5 1600X Processor

The 6-core Ryzen 5 1600X usurps Intel’s unlocked Core i5 as the new mainstream computing champion, as PCWorld’s Ryzen 5 review shows. Intel responded by releasing 8th-gen Core processors with six cores, and it’s a beast, too.

Gaming performance is a bit more complicated. Benchmarks revealed that while Ryzen isn’t bad at gaming whatsoever, it definitely lags behind Intel processors—even older ones—in raw frames per second in some games. That disparity’s most pronounced when you’re using modest graphics cards at 1080p resolution, or on a monitor with an especially high refresh rate.

That said, the CPU gaming performance gap is felt less if you toss in more potent GPUs and crank the graphics and resolution to higher levels, since that effectively moves the system’s gaming bottleneck from the processor to your graphics card. Ryzen 5’s raw gaming performance is much closer to Intel’s Core i5 gaming performance, as well. The disparity’s mostly felt when comparing Ryzen 7 chips against Intel’s flagship quad-core, the speedy Core i7-8700K.

Brad Chacos

AMD’s Wraith Max cooler.

AMD says gaming performance “will only get better” over time as more game developers optimize their titles for Ryzen. Not-so-coincidentally, AMD also announced a partnership with Bethesda the same week Ryzen launched, designed to implement the low-level Vulkan graphics API in multiple game. Early Ryzen-specific game optimizations have indeed greatly boosted performance, and AMD’s seeded hundreds of developers with Ryzen kits. Games released going forward seem more likely to account for Ryzen’s architecture out of the gate.

The Ryzen APUs with Radeon Vega graphics deliver shockingly good gaming on a budget.

Overclocking Ryzen chips can also provide significant performance increases in gaming. AMD’s even released a powerful, yet easy to use overclocking tool for the new chips. Check out PCWorld’s guide to Ryzen Master to dive into the performance-boosting, heat-increasing world of overclocking.

Streamers and YouTubers will no doubt appreciate Ryzen’s extra cores, as well. Ryzen 7’s major niche is productivity and content creation tasks.

Finally, all Ryzen chips also support business-grade ECC memory out of the box—though it hasn’t been validated on the initial wave of consumer motherboards.

Next page: What you need to upgrade to Ryzen, performance tips and tweaks

What you need to upgrade for Ryzen

Speaking of motherboards, you’ll need a new one for Ryzen. AMD’s ditching its old platforms and unifying its processors around motherboards using the new AM4 socket.

Ryzen motherboards drag AMD systems into the current era, with support for modern amenities such as 10Gbps USB 3.1 gen. 2 ports, NVMe storage, M.2 SSDs, et cetera. There are several different chipsets available for AM4 motherboards that can significantly affect your system’s features, however. For example, A320 motherboards won’t let you overclock your processor, while multiple graphics cards are only supported by X370-based motherboards. Be sure to read PCWorld’s guide to AMD Ryzen motherboards for a no-nonsense breakdown of what each AM4 chipset offers.

New AM4 motherboards based on a fresh X400 chipset will launch alongside Ryzen+ CPUs releasing in early 2018. Details are unknown, and the new processors will also work on existing AM4 motherboards after a BIOS update. All major motherboard vendors released BIOS updates to support AMD’s Ryzen APUs at launch.

Brad Chacos

Gigabyte’s Aorus AX370-Gaming 5 motherboard.

You’ll need more than a new motherboard though. With Ryzen, AMD systems are moving from DDR3 to faster, more energy-efficient DDR4 memory, so you won’t be able to transfer over the RAM from your old PC unless you’re migrating from an Intel Skylake, Kaby Lake, or recent Extreme Edition machine. The bad news: Memory is expensive this year. 

Ryzen’s performance is sensitive to memory speeds, and the Vega graphics cores in Ryzen APUs are even more so. Be sure to hop into your system BIOS and ensure your RAM is running at its advertised speeds. Most systems will run it at JDEC-standard 2133MHz by default rather than the rated timings and voltages for your specific kit. While hitting high memory speeds used to be finicky on AM4 motherboards, the release of new AMD software in May 2017 alleviated those headaches. Overclocking memory is much easier now, assuming you’re running a recent BIOS revision that includes the AGESA 1.0.0.6 updates.

Mentioned in this article

Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero X370 motherboard

You might need a new CPU cooler as well. The 1331-pin AM4 socket (so close to 1337!) has about 100 more pins than older AM3 boards, so it needs new mounting hardware, and hence, new coolers. Existing AM3 coolers that secure to the processor using clips rather than bolts through the motherboard should still work with Ryzen, however, and many third-party manufacturers of older AM3 CPU coolers will send you AM4 mounting brackets if you ask. If you’ve already dropped big money on cooling for an existing AMD system, the high-end Asus Crosshair VI Hero motherboard ($255 on Amazon) includes both AM3 and AM4 mounting holes to support all sorts of coolers.

AMD

The various AMD Wraith coolers available for Ryzen chips.

You might not need to worry about cooling if you buy the right processor, though. Every Ryzen chip besides the Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and Ryzen 5 1600X ships with one of AMD’s Wraith coolers. The Ryzen 7 1700, Ryzen 5 1500X, and Ryzen 5 1600 include the Wraith Spire, while the Ryzen 5 1400, Ryzen 5 2400G APU, and Ryzen 3 220G APU include the Wraith Stealth.

AMD sold the Wraith Max separately at e-tailers. A fancier Wraith Prism cooler around the time of Ryzen+’s launch, upgrading the Wraith Max’s single-color LED ring of the original to a circle of fully controllable RGB lights, along with some other minor tweaks.

Ryzen operating systems

Mentioned in this article

Microsoft Windows 10 Home USB Flash Drive

Windows 10 is the only Microsoft operating system supported by Ryzen. (Linux works, too.) You’ll still be able to install Windows 7 or 8 on a Ryzen PC if you want, but if something goes wrong—and that’s very possible with a new CPU architecture on a new motherboard platform—you won’t get any technical assistance from Microsoft, AMD, or anybody else. There won’t be any official Windows 7 drivers released for Ryzen, either.

Ongoing support is something you definitely want with a fresh platform, too. For instance, AMD pushed out a Ryzen-optimized “Balanced” power plan for Windows 10 that helped the chips behave better with the operating system, improving performance in games by an average of 5 percent (and as much as 21.6 percent).

Ryzen performance tips and build guides

Brad Chacos

That’s all you need to know about buying a Ryzen processor. But if you pick one up, there are several tweaks—some straight from AMD—that might help you eke out even more power from this fresh-faced new platform. (Once again: Overclocking can really bolster Ryzen’s speed.)

Be sure to check out PCWorld’s 7 Ryzen tips and tricks to maximize your PC’s performance to discover which knobs to turn and settings to tweak to push the processors even further. Because for as well as Ryzen performs out of the box, a mere hour or so of fine tuning can make it that much better.

Still planning out your PC? PCWorld’s trio of Ryzen builds can also help if you’re looking for more concrete guidance to constructing an AMD machine:

• A Ryzen 7 1800X paired with a Radeon Fury X for the water-cooled, fire-breathing apex of AMD power.
• A versatile Ryzen 5 1600X PC built for work and play.
• An affordable Ryzen 5 1500X all-AMD PC that brings 8-thread gaming to the masses.
• A powerful, portable 6-core mini-ITX Ryzen gaming PC.

Author: Brad Chacos, Executive editor

Brad Chacos spends his days digging through desktop PCs and tweeting too much. He specializes in graphics cards and gaming, but covers everything from security to Windows tips and all manner of PC hardware.

AMD Ryzen 7000 – release date, price, specs, and benchmarks

AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs are almost here, with team red promising significant performance improvements versus its current generation processors. In addition to higher clock speeds and cutting edge specs, Zen 4 chips will boast a host of new features too with the introduction of AM5 motherboards.

Support for DDR5 gaming RAM and the PCIe 5.0 interface finally arrives on team red silicon with the AMD Ryzen 7000 series. This should help the company’s processors keep pace with their main competition for the title of best gaming CPU, the 12th Gen Intel Core family. However, it remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to fend off upcoming Raptor Lake chips.

Here’s everything we know about AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs:

AMD Ryzen 7000 release date

The AMD Ryzen 7000 release date is September 27, 2022, with four desktop processors being available at launch:

• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
• AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
• AMD Ryzen 7 7800X
• AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

AM5 motherboards with X670E and X670 chipsets from manufacturers like Asus, Gigabyte, and others will be available in September, with more budget leaning B650E and B650 options arriving a month later in October.

AMD Ryzen 7000 price

You’ll need to part with at least $299 USD to meet the minimum AMD Ryzen 7000 price, but there are more powerful options available that’ll cost you extra, with the top spec Ryzen 9 7950X coming in at $699 USD.

SKU	Price
Ryzen 9 7950X	$699 USD
Ryzen 9 7900X	$549 USD
Ryzen 7 7700X	$399 USD
Ryzen 5 7600X	$299 USD

However, the actual cost of upgrading to the Ryzen 7000 series will be much higher than the base price of the processors indicate. Should you want to upgrade your gaming PC with one of these new chips, you’ll need at the very least need a new motherboard, the prices of which are yet to be confirmed.

Additional costs may include a new CPU cooler, as Ryzen 7000 series processors will not come with a stock cooler. Thankfully, AM4 thermal solutions should be backwards compatible, but you’ll want to make sure whatever you’re planning to bring over can handle the chips’ higher TDP.

Finally, you won’t be able to use any DDR4 gaming RAM you have lying around, as the Ryzen 7000 series is only compatible with DDR5 sticks, which could further add to the cost of your upgrade.

AMD Ryzen 7000 specs

As you might expect, AMD Ryzen 7000 specs offer a significant generational improvement versus the Zen 3 equivalents. While core and thread counts remain the same, everything else about Zen 4 silicon has been given a boost.

	Cores / Threads	Base / Boost clock	TDP	Cache (L2+L3)
Ryzen 9 7950X	16c / 32t	4.5GHz / 5.7GHz	170W	80MB (16+64)
Ryzen 9 7900X	12c / 24t	4.6GHz / 5.6GHz	170W	76MB (12+64)
Ryzen 7 7700X	8c / 16t	4.5GHz / 5.4GHz	105W	40MB (8+32)
Ryzen 5 7600X	6c / 12t	4.7GHz / 5.3GHz	105W	38MB (6+32)

AMD Ryzen 7000 processors are the first CPUs to be built on a 5nm manufacturing process, but also feature a new 6nm I/O die that houses an integrated RDNA 2 GPU. It also acts as a controller for DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0.

The X670E chipset will be found on the best motherboards for Ryzen 7000 processors, giving you 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 14 USB ports including 20Gbps and Type-C, WiFi 6e, Bluetooth 5.2, in addition to up to four DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 ports. Meanwhile, X670, B650E, and B650 boards will forgo some of these features in exchange for lower prices.

The first PCIe 5.0 storage devices should hit the market alongside in November, which may make AMD Ryzen 7000 processors an ideal pairing for those looking to get the most out of the best SSDs for gaming.

AMD Ryzen 7000 benchmarks

As part of its AMD Ryzen 7000 benchmarks showcase during the company’s ‘together we advance_PCs’ livestream, team red claims its new CPUs boast “the fastest core for gamers and the most compute for creators.”

Compared to Ryzen 5000 chips, AMD alleges that its new processors boast a ~13% IPC (instructions per clock uplift) and a whopping 29% single thread performance gain.

In terms of gaming, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X should offer somewhere between 6-35% better frame rates than the 5950X according to team red’s own benchmarks. Compared to the Intel Core i9 12900K, it can at best outperform the competing flagship by as much as 23% and at worst fall short by just 1%.

Production workloads meanwhile in applications such as Cinebench R23 and Blender see improvements of 30-48%. It’s here that the Ryzen 9 7950X shines versus the Core i9 12900K, with a minimum boost of 36% and a whopping maximum performance improvement of 62%.

However, what’s more exciting is that the Ryzen 5 7600X can match and sometimes outperform team blue’s flagship in gaming, with the mainstream chip enjoying up to an 11% lead in F1 22.

While these AMD Ryzen 7000 benchmarks seem impressive, we’ll need to wait until we can get our hands on these processors to see just how cherry-picked these results are.

AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D Launches April 20th, Plus 6 New Low & Mid-Range Ryzen Chips

Since the launch of AMD’s Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5000 desktop processors in late 2020, the company’s retail desktop chip offerings have been rather static. With AMD facing heavy demand for products on multiple fronts – from CPUs to GPUs to console APUs – and all during an unprecedented chip crunch, the company has held back on expanding its desktop offerings. Instead, AMD has focused its limited TSMC 7nm wafer allocations on trying to keep up with demand for some of their most important (and highest margin) products, such as server CPUs, laptop chips, and high-end desktop CPUs.

However, as the chip crunch has ever-so-slightly abated, AMD is now turning their attention back to the desktop space, to finally focus on fleshing out their desktop processor product lineups. We saw our first glimpse of that last week with the announcement of the long-awaited Threadripper Pro 5000 series for workstations. And now for this week the company is announcing the launch dates of several new Ryzen desktop processors.

Leading the charge is AMD’s new Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Previously announced at CES 2022 with a “spring” launch timeframe, the 5800X3D is perhaps the most interesting desktop chip design to come out of AMD in the last few years, thanks to its inclusion of additional L3 cache in the form of AMD’s die-stacked V-Cache. AMD is specifically pitching this 8 core processor as the ultimate chip for gaming – on the basis that gaming performance benefits in particular from the extra L3 cache – and will be releasing it on April 20^th for $449.

Meanwhile, AMD is also using this moment to finally fill out the lower half of what would be its traditional chip product stack, which up until now stopped with the relatively powerful hex-core Ryzen 5 5600X at $230. Altogether AMD is launching 6 new processor SKUs to fill out the sub-$300 segment, including a pair of 6-core Zen 3 CPUs and an 8-core Zen 3 CPU. More unusually, the other 3 parts are new Zen 2 chips, which are being used to round out their cheapest processors. One of these SKUs includes an APU and will be sold under AMD’s Ryzen 4000 product line, with sales expected to start on April 4^th.

Finally, in a move as equally unexpected as launching new Zen 2 SKUs in 2022, AMD is also finally relenting on enabling official support for Ryzen 5000 processors on AMD’s older 300 series chipsets. Though the company has long declined to support the newest Zen 3 chips on these older chipsets, almost a year and a half later AMD is finally changing their tune, and will be releasing (and supporting) the necessary code to motherboard manufacturers to add support for the chips in new BIOSes. To that end, Ryzen 5000 support should start appearing in beta BIOSes in April and May.

Ryzen 7 5800X3D: “The World’s Fastest Gaming CPU”

Headlining today’s announcements from AMD is the announcement of a release date for the company’s innovative Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This chip and its full specifications was announced back as part of AMD’s CES 2022 presentation, though at the time AMD was still ramping up production for a spring launch. Now spring has nearly sprung, and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s launch date has been locked down to April 20^th.

When it launches, the 5800X3D will be just the second chip from AMD to launch with V-Cache, following the Milan-X family, which at last check is still expected before the end of this month. The 5800X3D, in comparison to the massive Milan, is a fair smaller-scale deployment of AMD’s cache stacking technology. But none the less it is the first desktop processor to receive the technology, and will be our first real taste at what adding all of that extra L3 cache can do for AMD’s Zen 3 CPU architecture.

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processors for Desktop (>$200) Zen 3 Microarchitecture (Non-Pro, 65W+)
AnandTech	Core/ Thread		Base Freq	1T Freq	L3 Cache	iGPU	PCIe	TDP	SEP
Ryzen 9 5950X	16	32	3400	4900	64 MB	—	4.0	105 W	$590
Ryzen 9 5900X	12	24	3700	4800	64 MB	—	4. 0	105 W	$450
Ryzen 9 5900	12	24	3000	4700	64 MB	—	4.0	65 W	OEM
Ryzen 7 5800X3D	8	16	3400	4500	96 MB	—	4.0	105 W	$449
Ryzen 7 5800X	8	16	3800	4700	32 MB	—	4.0	105 W	$350
Ryzen 7 5800	8	16	3400	4600	32 MB	—	4.0	65 W	OEM
Ryzen 7 5700X	8	16	3400	4600	32 MB	—	4. 0	65 W	$299
Ryzen 5 5600X	6	12	3700	4600	32 MB	—	4.0	65 W	$230

As a quick refresher, the cache-heavy chip will have a single Zen 3 CPU core chiplet with all 8 cores enabled, and the extra 64MB of V-Cache stacked on top for a total of 96MB of L3 cache. AMD is essentially treating this as a larger cache version of the current 8-core 5800X, however clockspeeds are going to be a bit different. The 5800X3D will have a base clockspeed of 3.4GHz and a turbo clockspeed of 4.5GHz, both reduced a bit from the regular 5800X. According to AMD, this is because they’ve opted to hold the chip’s TDP at the same 105W level as the original, and thus clockspeeds had to be dialed down some to accommodate the power consumption of the additional cache.

In either case, AMD has decided to go after the gaming market with their beefy 8-core CPU. As detailed by the company back at CES 2022 and reiterated in today’s announcement, AMD has found that the chip is 15% faster at gaming than their Ryzen 9 5900X. As our own Dr. Ian Cutress noted at the time: “The extra cache is meant to help with communications with discrete graphics cards, offering additional performance above the regular R7 5800X. Productivity workloads are less likely to be affected, and for those users the regular Ryzen CPUs are expected to be better.”

And, perhaps most critically, we now have a price for the chip: $449. The price comes as AMD recently enacted what appears to be an across-the-board price cut for their Ryzen 5000 desktop chips, which among other things saw the original 5800X drop from around $400 to $350. At current prices, this means the 5800X3D and its extra 64MB of L3 cache carry a $100 premium, which is a stiff increase for just the performance unlocked by a larger cache. But it may prove more than worth it if it’s enough to truly vault the chip into the top spot for gaming workloads.

In practice, I expect the 5800X3D to live (or die) based on pricing. AMD’s 12-core Ryzen 5900X is also $449, so buyers who are willing to part with that money will be choosing between 4 more CPU cores or a single Zen 3 chiplet with 64MB more L3 cache. This gives the 5800X3D a very narrow scope to excel at, since most workloads that can put 8 cores to good use can do even better with 12. Games are one of the only exceptions to this rule: not only are multiplatform games designed against 8 core CPUs to begin with, but out of necessity they often have one heavily-serial master thread that bottlenecks efforts efforts to spread out work over a large number of cores.

In any case, gamers will get a chance to get their hands on the chip in just a bit over a month, when it goes on sale on April 20^th. Like AMD’s other X chips, this one doesn’t come with a cooler, so you’ll have to bring your own for this launch.

Expanding Down: 6 New Ryzen 5000 CPUs & Ryzen 4000 APUs

As well as launching a new high-end gaming chip, AMD is also using events over the next few weeks to finally fill out the lower half of their chip product stack. Since the launch of the Ryzen 5000 series back in November of 2020, the cheapest chip AMD has offered is the 6-core Ryzen 5 5600X, which even following recent price cuts is still $229. Due to AMD being constrained by the ongoing chip crunch, the company has been opting to put its limited allocations into higher-end products, which are more profitable than the kind of lower-margin products that make up the sub-$200 market.

This has left Intel with essentially free reign of the low-to-mid-range market for the last several months. While the boys in blue are not entirely insulated from the chip crunch either, by owning their own fabs Intel isn’t competing with other vendors for wafer allocations. Consequently, Intel has been the only vender shipping chips suitable for the sub-$200 market for the better part of the last year.

But Intel’s uncontested dominance of that market is set to finally come to an end in early April, when AMD launches several new Ryzen chip SKUs to flesh out their sub-$300 line. With the new chips ranging in price from $99 to $299 and offering between 4 and 8 cores, AMD is very clearly lining themselves up to go against Intel’s full 12^th Gen Core (Alder Lake) product stack.

Unlike the 5800X3D, there aren’t any novel features to talk about here – these are just new SKUs based on existing chip designs – so the new chips are relatively straightforward. None the less, there are some interesting things going on here with respect to what architectures and dies AMD has opted to use – particularly the introduction of new Zen 2 SKUs in 2022.

AMD Ryzen 4000/5000 Series Processors for Desktop (<$300)
AnandTech	Core/ Thread		Base Freq	1T Freq	L3 Cache	CPU uArch	iGPU	PCIe	TDP	SEP
Ryzen 7 5700X	8	16	3400	4600	32 MB	Zen 3	—	4. 0	65 W	$299
Ryzen 5 5600X	6	12	3700	4600	32 MB	Zen 3	—	4.0	65 W	$230
Ryzen 5 5600	6	12	3500	4400	32 MB	Zen 3	—	4.0	65 W	$199
Ryzen 5 5600G	6	12	3900	4400	16 MB	Zen 3	Vega7	3.0	65 W	$210
Ryzen 5 5500	6	12	3600	4200	16 MB	Zen 3	—	3. 0	65 W	$159
Ryzen 3 5300G	4	8	4000	4200	8 MB	Zen 3	Vega6	3.0	65 W	OEM
Ryzen 5 4600G	6	12	3700	4200	8 MB	Zen 2	Vega7	3.0	65 W	$154
Ryzen 5 4500	6	12	3600	4100	8 MB	Zen 2	—	3.0	65 W	$129
Ryzen 3 4100	4	8	3800	4000	4 MB	Zen 2	—	3. 0	65 W	$99

We’ll start with the new Ryzen 5000 series chips, the Ryzen 7 5700X, Ryzen 5 5600, and Ryzen 5 5500. Like the rest of the 5000 series, these are all based on the Zen 3 architecture, and based on the specifications look to be using a single Zen 3 CPU core chiplet. With 6 cores each, the $199 5600 and $159 5500 are designed to bring the 5000 series family down to the ~$150 price point.

With 3 6C processors in its lineup, AMD isn’t going to be differentiating these parts much on the basis of clockspeed. The 5600 is clocked a couple of hundred MHz lower than the existing 5600X, and the 5500 a bit lower still. Instead, the defining difference for the 5500, being the cheapest chip, is that it’s also giving up some L3 cache and PCIe 4 functionality. This chip will instead have 16MB of L3 cache (half as much as usual), and its PCIe links will be limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds. So the additional cache and PCIe 4. 0 functionality will remain a premium feature (of sorts) for the 5600 and up (and consequently, I wouldn’t be surprised if 5500 is really a Cezanne chip).

Meanwhile the Ryzen 7 5700X is the odd member of the group, as it’s not meant to extend the Ryzen range so much as it is meant to fill some holes. The 8 core chip will be priced at $299, giving AMD their first sub-$300 8C chip in a while, and offering something stronger to fend off Intel’s 6+4 core i5-12600K at this price point. I expect this will prove a very tempting chip for buyers looking to save a few bucks, as it offers the same 32MB of L3 cache as the 5800X, and the top turbo clockspeed is only 100MHz below AMD’s better-known 8C chip.

Finally, in order to bring AMD’s current retail product stack below the $159 mark, AMD is also re-enlisting some Zen 2 hardware. Specifically, almost 2 years after AMD first launched their Renior-based Zen 2 APUs for the OEM desktop market, we’re finally getting 7nm Renoir in the retail desktop market, albeit with mostly new SKUs. And, in keeping consistency with the hardware and the branding, these new chips will be sold as part of the Ryzen 4000 family – thereby marking the first time the Ryzen 4000 family has been available at retail.

First off, we have the Ryzen 5 4600G, a true APU that up until now has only been available to OEMs. This part offers 6 Zen 2 CPU cores combined with AMD’s RX Vega 7 (7 CU) graphics. The top turbo clockspeed of 4.2GHz combined with Zen 2’s lower IPC means there’s going to be a noticeable gap in CPU performance between this and the Ryzen 5 5500. Still, if you need a cheap Ryzen chip with integrated graphics, then the 4600G will be your one and only option for an AMD APU with an iGPU.

Below the 4600G we have two new SKUs from AMD, the $129 Ryzen 5 4500, and the $99 Ryzen 3 4100. And while both of these parts would seem to be based on Renoir as well, AMD has disabled the iGPUs on these parts. So they are essentially APUs-sans-graphics, the first time we’ve seen AMD do this with the Ryzen 4000 series. From a practical perspective, it looks like AMD is using these SKUs to finally sell off Renoir dies that have completely faulty graphics, with AMD having the last two years to stockpile those chips.

The Ryzen 5 4500 is a 6C part with a base clockspeed of 3.6GHz and a turbo clockspeed of 4.1GHz, both of which are 100MHz below the 4600G. Otherwise, the chip gets the same 8MB of L3 cache. Finally, the Ryzen 3 4100 offers just 4 Zen 2 cores, which are clocked at 3.8GHz base and 4.0GHz turbo. With one of Renoir’s two CCXes disabled, it offers just 4MB of L3 cache. Both of these chips will be going up against Intel’s Core i3 lineup, with the 4100 facing off against the equally iGPU-less i3-12100F.

All of the new Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 SKUs will be paired with AMD’s Wraith Stealth cooler, and will hit the streets on April 4^th. Meanwhile the Ryzen 7 5700X will skip the cooler, but it will hit the streets on the same date as the rest of the chips.

Official Ryzen 5000 Support for AMD 300 Series Chipsets

AMD’s final product-related announcement of the morning focuses on motherboards – and specifically, older motherboards.

After almost a year and a half since the launch of AMD’s first Ryzen 5000 (Zen 3) CPUs, AMD is finally bringing official support for the newest Ryzen CPUs to AMD’s older Zen/Zen+ 300 series chipsets. Since AMD has used the same socket AM4 throughout the entire run of the Ryzen family of chips thus far, Ryzen 5000 chips have always been able to fit and electrically work in older motherboards. However, those older boards have lacked the necessary BIOS support to boot the chips.

All of this has made adding support for the newest Ryzen chips a longstanding request from existing AMD users, to give them an upgrade path for their existing boards. But it’s also one AMD has been less than eager to deliver on, as the 300 series chipset is multiple generations older than the Ryzen 5000 chips. Even AMD’s support for Ryzen 3000 CPUs on the 300 series chipset has been piecemeal at best.

But all of this is finally changing, starting next month. AMD is finally bringing a degree of official support for the Ryzen 5000 family on AMD 300 series chipset motherboards, starting with AGESA 1. 2.0.7. For 300 series chipset motherboards, that version of AMD’s BIOS module will add what the company is terming “beta” support for the Ryzen 5000 family. For those boards that can meet Ryzen 5000’s power requirements, it will be possible to boot the chips in conjunction with the new AGESA.

This will however require that motherboard manufacturers roll out new BIOSes for their 300 series motherboards, which at this point are two generations old (and have been since late 2019). So any such updates are almost certainly to be piecemeal – popular motherboards from top-tier manufacturers are more likely to get the necessary BIOS update than lesser-known motherboards. So while AMD is making the necessary AGESA available to all of the vendors, no one is expecting Ryzen 5000 support to become universal across 300 series motherboards.

Overall, this is a very similar strategy to how AMD has handled Ryzen 3000 (Zen 2) CPU support for 300 chipset series motherboards. There was never universal support there either, but there was beta support for motherboard vendors that opted to add it.

According to AMD, users should expect to see BIOSes with Ryzen 5000 support in an April-to-May timeframe. Since BIOS updates are the domain of the motherboard manufacturers themselves, the specific timing will be up to the latter group and when they opt to release updated BIOSes.

Tweet

Which AMD Ryzen processor to choose for your PC

AMD’s Ryzen line of processors has been very popular among gamers for several years now. In addition, it was this series that returned AMD to the leading position and allowed for much-needed competition from Intel Core, since it offers lower prices and more cores.

If you’re looking to purchase a Ryzen processor for your new PC, we’ve got you covered as this article will cover all the important factors to consider when choosing the right model for your PC.

How many processor models are there?

Like the Intel Core series, the Ryzen line is divided into several models:

• Ryzen 3 — affordable budget processors;
• Ryzen 5 — mid-range processors with a good price;
• Ryzen 7 — more expensive models focused on demanding tasks;
• The Ryzen 9 are top-of-the-line enthusiast models.

Apart from these four, there are Ryzen Threadripper, which are extremely expensive and mainly aimed at professional users, making them a poor choice for a gaming PC.

However, many are wondering how the above Ryzen processors differ and how do they perform when compared to each other? And more importantly, what should you choose when building a gaming PC?

Number of cores and threads

As mentioned earlier, one of the main advantages that Ryzen processors offer is the number of cores and threads, since this figure is much higher than what you can get when buying a similarly priced Intel Core. However, Intel has finally caught up with AMD in this regard with the release of 10th generation Core processors.

But what’s the benefit of having more cores/threads?

In essence, the more cores a CPU has, the more tasks it can process simultaneously. Naturally, this can improve the overall performance of the computer, but nowadays more and more games are being developed to take advantage of multiple processor cores, which is why this aspect is more important for gaming now than a few years ago.

Moreover, in recent years, multithreading has also become an important factor. What is its functionality? It allows a single processor core to handle two tasks at once when needed, effectively doubling the CPU’s multitasking capabilities. Today, all of the latest gaming processors from both AMD and Intel are equipped with this feature.

If we are looking at the third generation of Ryzen processors (current), then the latest model Ryzen 3 has 4 cores and 8 threads, Ryzen 5 has 6 cores and 12 threads, Ryzen 7 offers 8 cores and 16 threads, while Ryzen 9 has a total of 12 cores and 24 threads (16 cores and 32 threads in the case of the Ryzen 9 3950X).

The next question is how many cores and threads do you really need?

Well, it’s hard to generalize on this, as hardware requirements and software optimization will inevitably differ by game, but the general consensus is that a 6-core processor is the ideal choice for gaming in 2020.

Of course, quad-core models are also suitable, especially if you are on a tight budget. However, with core and thread requirements increasing, the quad-core option won’t be as reliable going forward, and newer games will probably work best with more cores.

In the meantime, an 8-core CPU is overkill these days unless you have a powerful graphics card or intend to use any software that requires a powerful processor. However, 12- and 16-core Ryzen 9 modelshave much more processing power than a modern gaming PC needs, so, as before, they are only suitable for professional users.

Clock speeds and overclocking

The next question is about clock speeds. The clock speed of a processor, usually expressed in gigahertz, indicates how many operations a single core can perform in a second. Of course, the higher the number, the better, but do not forget that high clock speeds mean that the CPU will generate more heat.

When it comes to gaming, clock speed tends to be more important than core/thread count, so Intel processors tend to have a slight advantage over AMD when it comes to raw gaming performance.

The latest Ryzen processors have base clocks in the 3.6-3.9 GHz range and overclocking frequencies ranging from 3.9 to 4.7 GHz, although «on paper» numbers are hardly a good way to gauge processor performance.

Here we inevitably come to the question of overclocking — the process of increasing the clock frequency of a computer component above normal modes in order to increase its speed. And, unlike Intel Core processors, the multipliers of all Ryzen models are unlocked and can be freely overclocked. On the other hand, overclocking capabilities are not as good as competing high-end Intel Core models.

With that in mind, is overclocking a Ryzen processor worth it at all?

For the most part, overclocking is for avid hardware enthusiasts, and mostly appeals to people who enjoy the process of tweaking CPU settings to see how much extra performance can be squeezed out of a device without any hiccups.

The in-game performance boost you’ll see when overclocking a mid-range processor isn’t really that noticeable, and really not worth it if you’re on a budget or trying to get the best value for money. The fact is that in this case you will have to spend additional money on a cooler!

Cache

There is another element in the characteristics of the processor that you might notice — the cache. So what is cache and is it important for gaming?

Essentially, a cache includes a relatively small amount of memory that the CPU uses to store important data that it may need to access quickly. And while this obviously helps with overall performance and stability, it’s not very noticeable when it comes to gaming, especially since all recent Ryzen processors have the same cache size anyway.

CPU versus hybrid

The Ryzen line includes both central processing units (CPUs) and hybrids (APUs — accelerated processor units). How are they different?

Basically, an APU is just a marketing term coined by AMD to describe processors that are combined on a single die, eliminating the need for a discrete graphics card on some PCs. The

APUs are great for PCs that aren’t meant to be used for any overly complex tasks, but are they good for gaming?

Actually, yes. Some of them are really good in games. Vega-equipped Ryzen APUs such as the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G are going to be pretty good options, as shown in the following video: they still cannot match what even the weakest modern discrete video cards are capable of. On top of that, hybrid models also offer significantly less processing power and are a bottleneck for most GPUs. Considering all these factors, it is worth saying that the APU is not the best choice if you are going to use a discrete graphics card.

Letter designations

As with many Intel Core models, some AMD Ryzen processors have specific letter designations at the end of the model number. So, what are AMD’s designations and what do they mean?

You will surely see the two most common letter designations:

• X — indicates that the processor has a higher overclock speed and provides better overclocking performance, although, as mentioned earlier, the multiplier of all Ryzen processors is unlocked.
• G — Indicates that the processor is an APU.

However, there are several other less popular designations:

• AF — only used in two processors so far, Ryzen 5 1600 AF and Ryzen 3 1200 AF, which are based on the Zen + architecture and were released as budget 12nm variants.
• E/GE — Used to indicate that the CPU/APU is more energy efficient.
• XT — So far only used for three updated processors (Ryzen 5 3600XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT and Ryzen 9 3900XT) to indicate a slight increase in overclocking frequency and overclocking performance, which distinguishes them from their predecessors.

Socket and Chipset

Compatibility is one of the key factors you should consider when buying a new processor, and fortunately AMD has been doing much better than Intel in this area over the past few years.

The fact is that all Ryzen processors (except for Threadripper models) use the standard socket AM4, so there is no need to worry about the chipset version.

However, not every chipset fits every processor, so you still need to make sure that the CPU you are purchasing is compatible with the motherboard’s chipset. You can see a list of processors with AM4 chips here.

What generation of CPU should I buy?

New processors come out every year, and it’s often tempting when you buy a new component to simply buy «the latest and greatest.» But is it really worth chasing the latest technology, or is it better to save money by choosing an older model?

In general, using the latest processors is the best option, as the prices of older CPUs rarely drop low enough to actually save a lot.

Of course, you can still get the latest generation CPU at a bargain price, but if you really want to save money, your best bet is to buy a used CPU rather than a new one. Of course, such a deal is always risky, but processors are considered «safer» components in this respect.

If you are aware of the usual factors to look out for when buying used equipment — good seller reviews, box and documentation, etc. — then everything should be in order.

If we are talking specifically about the Ryzen line, then at the moment there have been three generations, but the release of the fourth is just around the corner. This includes the original Ryzen 1000 (Zen), Ryzen 2000 (Zen+), and Ryzen 3000 (Zen 2), while the Ryzen 4000 (Zen 3) series is scheduled to release towards the end of 2020.

Overall, the 3rd Gen Ryzen models offer a more noticeable performance boost over the 2nd Gen, which is only marginally better than the previous generation when it comes to gaming.

Still, Ryzen 3rd Gen is the best option, but it would also be wise to wait a few more weeks and see how much of a performance boost the new 4th Gen models offer.

Is buying a new Ryzen processor a good idea?

Finally, one more question remains to be answered: is it worth switching to Ryzen right now?

Well, not really, and not just because Ryzen 4000 is on the horizon. The fact is that AMD will introduce the new AM5 socket in 2021, along with the Ryzen 5000 series processors, so the upcoming Ryzen 4000 models will be the last generation of Ryzen to use the AM4 socket.

So, if you want your PC to be future-proof, it might be worth waiting for the Ryzen 5000 lineup with an AM5 type API.

Of course, if you want to build a new PC right now and don’t worry too much about the distant future, now is the perfect time to upgrade.

Conclusion

So with all the factors we’ve looked at, which Ryzen processor should you buy?

As mentioned earlier in the article, the Ryzen 5 processor is the best choice for most gamers as the models are relatively affordable and will pretty much not bottleneck any graphics cards other than the most powerful high-end models.

However, Ryzen 7 is also a good option if you’re looking to get an expensive GPU and/or want something more future-proof. However, it’s worth noting that Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 are geared more towards professional users than casual gamers.

As far as Ryzen 3 is concerned, the processors are good for budget gaming PCs, although they are not as promising and are not suitable for more powerful GPUs.

Finally, Ryzen hybrid models are great for those on a tight budget who want to build the cheapest possible gaming PC. They are also good as an alternative to playing less demanding games.

In terms of generation, as we mentioned earlier, it would be better to wait a little more until the Ryzen 4000 model comes out before buying a new processor, as they can potentially offer better value for money. In addition, due to its release, 3rd generation models may become slightly cheaper.

We’ve rounded up all the key factors to consider when choosing the right Ryzen processor!

For a more in-depth comparison of the best processors, check out our selection of the best gaming processors available on the market right now!

Source: gamingscan.com

HOW TO ENABLE ALL CORE

Once upon a time, dual cores were considered the ultimate dream of users. Now there are also ten-cores on sale. However, each new generation of chips is more expensive than the previous one, and therefore there is a temptation to overclock, reconfigure, connect something somewhere.

Is it possible to increase processor performance by simple tuning? Read on and find out.

Avoiding Overheating: 5 Ways to Prevent CPU Throttling

How can I find out the number of processor cores?

Chip core can be checked in the following ways:

1. Via device manager
Enter the command devmgmt.msc. A list of accessories is displayed in alphabetical order. We find the processors and double-click on them to reveal the contents. We see several identical lines. Their number is the number of chip cores.

2. Through system information
Enter in «Start» msinfo32. The System Information window appears. In its right part we see the full name of the processor. We copy it into the search engine line and find information about the number of cores on the manufacturer’s website.

3. Through third party software
You can use the following programs:

• AIDA64. It hardly makes sense to buy software for one-time purposes. It is more logical to use the trial version. Install Aida and go to the «Motherboard» section. Before us is not only the number of cores, but also the loading of the CPU.
• CPU-Z is a free utility with a concise interface. The number of cores involved in the work can be seen in the «CPU» section. Next to it is the number of logical processes.

Aida is good because it shows the load of each core as a percentage. You can lightly load the computer, for example, with a movie, and see how the processor works. The participation of both nuclei confirms that everything is OK. If at the same time the PC does not slow down when loading the system, it makes no sense to bother with the question of how to turn on all the processor cores.

In the tenth Windows, there is another option that allows you to find out the nuclear chip — the task manager. You can get information by clicking on the «Performance» tab. How to test the processor: 3 popular utilities However, it is not. Why wouldn’t a paid system use the full potential of a PC? To make people buy less of it? It doesn’t make any sense. We can safely say that in terms of processor efficiency, versions of Windows of the same generation are no different. The difference between them is in functionality, but not in performance. A more expensive modification may be slower. In any case, the default operating system uses all available cores.

As for the initial loading of the OS, not everything is so simple. Microsoft representatives claim that by default the process runs at maximum speed. However, in practice, changing the configuration can slightly speed up the download.

It is worth noting that the thesis “the more cores, the higher the performance” is generally true. But other factors also affect the speed of the software:

1. The amount of RAM.
2. Type of hard drive (hard drives are faster).
3. Windows settings.
4. Timely PC cleaning.
5. Maintenance of components and more.

In a gaming PC, a lot depends on the graphics card.

Choosing a chip for a laptop: How to choose a processor for a laptop: 6 characteristics The first path does not require any qualification, but conducting experiments with changing OS parameters sometimes leads to the fall of Windows, after which it has to be reanimated or even reinstalled. In general, here you need to think: is it worth it in the hope of speeding up the download to risk losing time, which may have to be spent on reinstalling the operating system. In the case of BIOS, there is no such risk, and in terms of performance impact, both methods are the same.

Understanding Intel chips: An overview of the Intel processor line by 5 parameters: series, generation, number and version in the name

How to enable all cores on Windows 10 through system configuration

msconfig . Next: «Loading» → Additional parameters. And here, perhaps, you will see a shocking «1» in the «Number of processors» field. In fact, this does not mean at all that your operating system uses only one core.

The advanced options window is intended for developers. With its help, programmers test applications on a strong PC that mimics the work of a weak computer. That is, additional parameters are not needed in order to know how to enable all cores on slow Windows 10. The purpose of this part of the OS configuration is to temporarily slow down the PC.

However, no one bothers to change the dubious «1» to the number of cores of your processor. And at the same time, you can add RAM by setting the parameter corresponding to its volume in your computer. The tablet will simplify the transfer from GB to MB:

Setting the maximum memory size does not mean adding performance to the computer. It uses all available RAM by default. After rebooting, you will most likely see «0» in the memory field, as it was originally.

After exiting the advanced options, you can check the box, prompting the OS to make the set boot options permanent. However, after that it will no longer be possible to return to the default settings with one click on the “General” tab: you will have to remember what was in the additional parameters before or look for the contents of the configuration fields on the Web.

You will need to reboot for the changes to take effect. It is possible that the OS will load faster, but the FPS in games will not increase from editing the configuration.

Another nuance is the potential harm from including all cores. If your CPU is running out of steam, setting yourself to use all of its resources can be a crossbow in the leg. It will be cool if you find the reason and can, by changing the settings, achieve the loading of the operating system. Otherwise, you will have to reinstall the OS.

How to enable all cores in the BIOS

Fans of experimenting with software may find another tool to control the computer’s nuclear power useful. It’s about the BIOS. Adjustment in it is convenient, because if something goes wrong, it will always be possible to return the changed parameter to its original state without any troubles. To enter the BIOS, use Delete or the function keys F2 or F12. The choice of button depends on the manufacturer and model of the motherboard. You need to press the magic key at the very beginning of the PC boot.

The next step in the algorithm, how to enable all processor cores in the BIOS, involves using a section whose name is Cores or CPU. In it, select All Cores or Auto. Next, exit the BIOS, agreeing to save the changes.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that the idea of ​​increasing the power of the computer by increasing the cores, despite its modest potential, helps to expand the horizons of novice users. The experience gained during the study of the issue will be useful in solving other problems.

Battle of the Giants: Which processor is better for gaming, AMD or INTEL — choose from 2 manufacturers Page 1

::>Processors
>2017
> AMD Ryzen 5 1600

05/26/2017

Page 1
Page 2
One page

Many users, holding hope, expected the debut of the AMD Ryzen processor line. The top models of the AMD Ryzen 7 series were the first to appear. Although it is now officially known that they will not remain in the rank of flagship solutions for a long time on the market, after all, the AMD Ryzen 9 (Threadripper) line with 16-core (32-thread) processors will appear in the summer. chapter. Nevertheless, most buyers, of course, expected the debut of more affordable and less productive AMD Ryzen 5 and AMD Ryzen 3 series CPUs. AMD Raven Ridge series APUs, which combine the AMD Zen microarchitecture (processor part) and AMD Vega ( The grafical part).

But AMD Ryzen 3 and AMD Raven Ridge will be available in the third quarter, and already now you can find AMD Ryzen 5 series processors on sale, which included two 4-core (8-thread) and two 6-core (12- flow) models. In this review, we’re talking about the 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 1600 with a suggested price tag of $219, which makes it a competitor for the 4-core (4-thread) Intel Core i5-7600 model ($213 — 224). We note right away that a 4-core (8-thread) AMD Ryzen 5 1400 model also got into our test laboratory, so we plan to please you with its review in the near future.

Specification

Model	AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Marking	YD1600BBAEBOX / YD1600BBM6IAE
Processor socket	Socket AM4
Base frequency / dynamic frequency, MHz	3200 / 3600
Multiplier	32 / 36
System bus base frequency, MHz	100
Number of cores / threads	6 / 12
L1 cache size, KB	6 x 32 (data memory) 6 x 64 (instruction memory)
L2 cache size, KB	6 x 512
L3 cache size, MB	2 x 8
Microarchitecture	AMD Zen
Codename	AMD Ryzen
Maximum design power (TDP), W	65
Technical process, nm	14
Maximum temperature, °	—
Instruction and technology support	MMX (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4. 1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, x86-64, AMD-V, AES, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, XFR, SHA, ADX, BMI1, BMI2, RDRAND, SMAP, CLZERO
Built-in memory controller
Memory type	DDR4
Supported frequency, MHz	1866 — 2667
Number of channels	2
Maximum memory size, GB	128
Manufacturer website	AMD
Model page	AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Purchase link	AMD Ryzen 5 1600

All prices for AMD+Ryzen+5

Packaging, delivery and appearance

BRAIN Computers kindly provided us with a boxed version of the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor for testing, so we can appreciate the live photos of its cardboard packaging. It uses a cute design, but is not very informative. Basic information about the model inside can be gleaned from the label. And on one of the sides there is a window in which you can see the processor itself.

Inside the main package there is an additional box containing the CPU (in another package, but already from a blister), an AMD Ryzen 5 series sticker and a user manual. That is, you should not worry about the safety of the novelty during transportation.

And since the boxed version of the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 was tested, the AMD Wraith Spire CPU cooler was also included in the package. It uses a fairly simple design that includes a round-shaped aluminum radiator with a diameter of 88 mm and a height of 38 mm, as well as a 90 mm axial fan. The maximum rotation speed of its blades is 2600 rpm, but even in this mode, the background noise remains quite comfortable. The total height of the cooling system reaches 70 mm, so it can easily fit even in compact cases.

The front side of the processor is notable for the designation of the model and countries of manufacture. On the back there are contact legs for the Socket AM4 connector. Since there are a lot of them (1331) and they are quite thin, you should be extremely careful when installing the CPU.

Performance analysis

At maximum load, the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 reached 3.4 GHz at 1.160 V. Under specific loads, we can achieve speeds of 3.6 GHz, but we will fix such indicators in the process of testing failed. The processor also supports AMD XFR technology, which can raise the frequency of only one core by another 50 MHz (up to 3.65 GHz), but we were not able to fix its work either.

There were no problems running the AIDA64 and LinX 0.6.5 stress tests. For cooling, we used the Scythe Mugen 3 bench cooler, which kept the CPU temperature below 58°C without any problems.

Simulation of 50% CPU usage with the help of the WPrime benchmark did not raise any questions either: the core clock kept at 3.4 GHz at a voltage of 1. 152 V. The processor temperature dropped to 43°.

After switching to power-saving mode, the frequency of processor cores decreased to 1.55 GHz, and the voltage fluctuated between 0.536 — 0.832 V.

The processor temperature in this mode was even lower than on the motherboard chipset: 30°C and 35°C, respectively.

AMD Ryzen 5 1600 cache memory is organized as follows:

• 32 KB L1 cache per core with 8 associativity channels reserved for data;
• 64 KB L1 cache per core with 4 associativity channels used for instructions;
• 512 KB L2 cache per core with 8 associativity channels;
• 8 MB shared L3 cache per 4-processor CCX module with 16 channels of associativity.

At the time of the announcement of the AMD Ryzen line of processors, the built-in RAM controller was guaranteed to support the modules of the maximum DDR4-2667 MHz standard. But AMD is actively working on expanding the supported frequencies by releasing new versions of AGESA microcode, based on which motherboard manufacturers update BIOS settings.