So last month AMD introduced Ryzen to the world with their Ryzen 7 processors. I took a look at all three and also did some more in depth gaming testing. Well, now it's finally time for AMD to introduce the Ryzen 5 CPUs for those who are looking for more of a budget friendly option. A few weeks ago they sent over a kit with the Ryzen 5 1600X and the 1500X and I’ve had a little time to spend with them. So today I’m going to run through the new series then take a look at how the new 4 and 6 core flagships from AMD perform. Then tomorrow I’m going to check out the coolers they bundle with them as well.
Product Name: AMD Ryzen 5 CPUs
Review Sample Provided by: AMD
Written by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
AM4 Testbench also supported by: Corsair, Asus, and Noctua
Ryzen 5
Okay so before we get into anything else let's check out what the Ryzen 5 series entails. In the table below I’ve got all four of the new Ryzen 5 CPUs and the three Ryzen 7 CPUs as well for comparison. So all of the Ryzen 7 CPUs were 8 physical cores and 16 logical cores but with Ryzen 5 there are now 6 and 4 core options with 12 and 8 logical cores respectively. The R5 1600 and the R5 1600X are the 6 core options. They both have a +100 MHz XFR but the 1600X starts with a higher clock speed, matching the 1800X with its 3.6 base and 4 GHz boost clocks. The extra clock speed pushes the 1600X up into the 95W TDP range. Now both 1600 CPUs have the same 16MB L3 cache meaning there is actually more per core. In fact, all of the Ryzen 5 CPUs have 16 still except the 1400 with its 8MB L3 cache. With the 4 core R5 variants they left a gap in the naming under the 1500X and above the 1400 for potentially two more CPUs though there isn’t much room in the clock speeds. The two CPUs I will be testing today actually come in above both the R7 1700X and the R7 1700 for clock speeds so it should make for some interesting results with tests that didn’t take advantage of the extra cores in the R7 CPUs.
|
|
R7 1800X |
R7 1700X |
R7 1700 |
R5 1600X |
R5 1600 |
R5 1500X |
R5 1400 |
|
Base Frequency |
3.6 GHz |
3.4 GHz |
3.0 GHz |
3.6 GHz |
3.2 GHz |
3.5 GHz |
3.2 GHz |
|
Boost Frequency |
4 GHz |
3.8 GHz |
3.7 GHz |
4.0 GHz |
3.6 GHz |
3.7 GHz |
3.4 GHz |
|
Physical Cores |
8 |
8 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
4 |
4 |
|
Logical Cores |
16 |
16 |
16 |
12 |
12 |
8 |
8 |
|
L3 Cache |
16 MB |
16 MB |
16 MB |
16 MB |
16 MB |
16 MB |
8 MB |
|
TDP |
95W |
95W |
65W |
95W |
65W |
65W |
65W |
|
XFR |
+100 |
+100 |
+50 |
+100 |
+100 |
+200 |
+50 |
|
Price |
$499.99 |
$399.99 |
$349.99 |
$249.99 |
$219.99 |
$189.99 |
$169.99 |
|
Cooler |
N/A |
N/A |
Spire RGB |
N/A |
Spire |
Spire |
Stealth |
So like I said in the opening, AMD sent over a whole Ryzen 5 kit just like they did with the Ryzen 7 launch. This time around there wasn’t a badass wooden box, but they did have a black box with the Ryzen branding on it. Inside our kit had been banged around and the cutout inside was torn up but I put it back together as much as I could. It has Experience Ryzen across the top with the two boxes below it. Inside was a motherboard, the 1600X and 1500X and a ram kit.
The packaging for the Ryzen 5 CPUs is basically the same as the Ryzen 7 CPUs. You have the Ryzen logo in the middle on a gray box then down in the bottom corner is the 5. The model can be found on the sticker keeping everything sealed. Inside of the bigger 1550X box, there was also a Spire Wraith cooler like you would find in retail along with the CPUs. They also included the larger RGB Wraith cooler in the kit as well, tomorrow I will be checking them both out.
The CPU in the box comes in a black box and then inside of that a plastic tray to keep the pins safe. Along with the tray, you also get a small Ryzen 5 case badge as well.
The original kit had Corsair memory and an X370 board. For Ryzen 5 they went with a little faster DDR4 kit from GEIL, their EVO X kit with built in RGB lighting running at 3200MHz. Then for the board, they went with a cheaper B350 chipset motherboard, our kit specifically had the AB350 Gaming 3 from Gigabyte. Ironically I actually already had this same board from the original launch where I reviewed it HERE. AMD mentioned that they went with B350 boards because they better fit the pricing on what someone would be looking to get when shopping for a Ryzen 5 CPU. For our testing though, to keep all of our results consistent I will still be testing with our X370 board and the same launch memory though the AB350 Gaming 3 is a great board as you will see in our review.
