Ryzen 5 Information Has Been Released

More Ryzen CPUs, Please

Just a couple of weeks ago we saw AMD burst into the CPU scene with its high-end Ryzen 7 processors, which considerably shook the high-end CPU market through a killer combination of power and affordability, especially when compared to Intel’s own high-end lineup. And now, before we even have the time to recover from this hype-laden release, AMD has officially announced the Ryzen 5 lineup.

Ryzen 5 and What It’s About

We’ve known that this lineup was bound to happen but only now do we know the specifics, as well as a release date of April 11, 2017. So this isn’t speculation or rumors but info straight from AMD. This lineup is exciting for everyone who isn’t a professional or an enthusiast who needs the absolute best components, but for those in the mainstream market looking for the best bang for buck. This lineup will contain two SKUs that are 6 cores/12 threads, and two other SKUs that are 4 cores/8 threads. AMD is putting this Ryzen lineup against Intel’s i5 lineup made up of mostly 4 core/4 threads. Let’s also not forget that ALL Ryzen CPUs (R7, R5, and R3) will be overclockable. Without further ado, let’s take a gander at Ryzen 5.

The Ryzen 5 Team

Let’s start at the top of the ladder with the R5 1600X. Full disclosure, we will be getting our info from AMD’s website. The 1600X is a $249 (around P13,000) CPU with 6 cores/12 threads which runs at 3.6GHz and boosts to 4.0 GHz. It has XFR or Extended Frequency Range which means the CPU automatically overclocks given the ample thermal headroom. It also comes with a 95-watt TDP (thermal design power), which is the highest TDP among the four products in the R5 lineup.

Moving down, we have the R5 1600 with 6 cores/12 threads at 3.2GHz base and boosts up to 3.6GHz, priced at $219 (around P11,000). It doesn’t have the “X” on the name indicating the lack of XFR and it runs at a 65-watt TDP. It includes AMD’s Wraith Spire cooler but note that unlike the R7 1700’s Wraith Spire, it doesn’t have the RGB lighting.

Below that we have the $189 (around P10,000) R5 1500X with 4 cores/8 threads running at 3.5GHz boosts to 3.7GHz. It comes with the XFR feature and runs at a 65 watt TDP. This CPU also includes AMD’s Wraith Spire cooler.

At the bottom we have the $169 (around P9,000) R5 1400 coming with 4 cores/8 threads with a base clock of 3.2GHz and boosts up to 3.4GHz with a 65 watt TDP. This includes AMD’s Wraith Stealth cooler which is basically a smaller version of the Wraith Spire.

Let me reiterate that all the processors are overclockable, so it is possible to get the lower-end SKUs to the frequency of the higher-end SKUs if your cooler can handle the heat. Seeing as Gamers Nexus did exactly that with the R7 1700, getting almost the same performance as the R7 1800X, we’ll make an educated guess and say that the same will probably be true for the R5s.

AMD is looking to be the king of the price-to-performance game right about now, seeing how R7 delivered by showing that the $500 1800x, and even the cheaper 1700 (when overclocked), could compete with the $1000 6900K in productivity scenarios. One criticism that people put forward against R7 is that the gaming performance was still second to Intel’s CPUs. But high-end, productivity-geared CPUs always lagged behind in this department, sacrificing single-core performance for higher core count for rendering, computing, etc. as most games aren’t optimized to use more than 4 cores. But now that the R5s are coming soon, we’ll see what AMD has up their sleeves in terms of mainstream CPUs that will most likely be used for gaming.  April 11 is the release date for the R5 CPUs and we will be updating the article with links to trusted reviewers when the time comes. ‘Til then, have fun speculating on your new PC builds!

EDIT: Ryzen 5 is out! Benchmarks have been posted by reviewers.
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