AMD Ryzen 5 CPUs are out

Review roundup: Reviews are in

AMD Ryzen 5 CPUs are now officially available and the NDA veil has been lifted, giving us plenty of reviews that show the performance of those four SKUs, the Ryzen 5 1600X, Ryzen 5 1600, Ryzen 5 1500X and the Ryzen 5 1400.

As detailed back when the Ryzen 5 lineup was officially announced, the lineup includes two six-core and two quad-core parts. According to previous details, AMD has decided to keep the Core Complex (CCX) intact on its Ryzen 5 SKUs, which means that both six-core and quad-core parts will have the same core design as the octa-core Ryzen 7 lineup, featuring two CCX modules. In short, the six-core Ryzen 5 parts will be made on 3+3 design, paired with full 16MB of L3 cache, while quad-core Ryzen 5 parts will use 2+2 CCX design and end up with 8MB of L3 cache.

AMD is marketing its Ryzen 5 lineup as a direct competition to Intel Core i5 and Core i3 SKUs based on Kaby Lake architecture, offering higher core count at a lower price point.

The flagship SKU in the Ryzen 5 lineup is the Ryzen 5-1600X, aimed against Intel’s Core i5-7600K CPU. This is a 6-core/12-thread CPU with 16MB of L3 cache, working at 3.6GHz base and 4.0GHz Turbo clock and has a 95W TDP.

It features the XFR technology, which should boost the overclocking capability depending on the CPU cooling, and will ship without any boxed cooler, at least in retail.

The Ryzen 5 1600 SKU is quite similar but it lacks the XFR feature and works at slightly lower 3.2GHz base and 3.6GHz Turbo clocks. This also means it has a lower 65W TDP and will ship with AMD’s Wraith Spire cooler.

The Ryzen 5 quad-core offer is quite interesting, as the Ryzen 5 1500X packs 8MB of L3 cache, works at 3.5GHz base and 3.7GHz Turbo clocks and has the same 65W TDP. It also comes with the XFR feature, ships with a Wraith Spire cooler and should go against Intel’s Core i5-7500. The Ryzen 5 1400, lacks XFR, works at 3.2GHz base and 3.4GHz Turbo clocks, has 65W TDP and will ship with smaller Wraith Stealth cooler. The Ryzen 5 1400 should go well against Intel’s Core i3 lineup, especially the dual-core Core i3-7350K.

The flagship Ryzen 5 1600X SKUs is priced at US $ 249, the Ryzen 5 1600 at US $ 219, Ryzen 5 11500X at US $ 189 and Ryzen 5 1400 at US $ 169. All four SKUs are already available both in the US, where Newegg.com has the entire lineup ready for shipping, as well as Europe, where you can find all four SKUs listed in all major retail/e-tail shops.

There are plenty of reviews around and it appears that most sites focused on the flagship Ryzen 5 1600X and the Ryzen 5 1500X SKUs (except for Kyle Bennett at HardOCP.com and some other sites).

You can check out some of those reviews below.

– Anandtech.com – Ryzen 5 1600X
– PCPer.com – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Hothardware.com – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– HardOCP.com – Ryzen 5 1600 and Ryzen 5 1400
– Tweaktown.com – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Techpowerup.com – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Tomshardware.com – Ryzen 5 1600X
– Techreport.com – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Hardwarecanucks.com – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Hexus.net – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Overclock3D.net – Ryzen 5 1600X, Ryzen 5 1500X and Ryzen 5 1400
– PCGameshardware.de – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Hardwareluxx.de – Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X
– Computerbase.de – Ryzen 5 1600X, Ryzen 5 1600, Ryzen 5 1500X and Ryzen 5 1400