AMD Ryzen 7000 vs. Ryzen 5000: Specs, Price, Performance

AMD Ryzen 7000 processors are here, and AMD says they will take the crown for best processor ranking. They are powered by the new Zen 4 core architecture and combine performance and power efficiency in the world’s first 5nm desktop processor. A lot is changing in this generation, so we thought it was high time to compare the Ryzen 7000 to the latest generation Ryzen 5000 processors.

AMD said Ryzen 7000 processors and Socket AM5 will be available on September 27. Until then, we are unable to physically test the chips ourselves and must base our impressions on what AMD has told us so far.

Pricing

AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors launched on November 5, 2020 and Ryzen 7000 processors will be available on September 27, 2022. It’s difficult to make predictions about the inventory situation when Ryzen 7000 launches, but it’s safe to assume that the first wave of processors will be sold out for at least a week or two. We’ll just have to see if that continues in the final months of the year.

This time Ryzen 7000 processors are actually cheaper than Ryzen 5000 processors at launch. Here’s what the range looks like now:

• Ryzen 9 7950X: $700
• Ryzen 9 7900X: $550
• Ryzen 7 7700X: $400
• Ryzen 5 7600X: $300

Although Ryzen 7000 was cheaper at launch, Ryzen 5000 processors are much cheaper now. They’re seeing deep price discounts now that next-gen CPUs are coming, which means you can save big with a latest-gen CPU and motherboard if you’re willing to sacrifice a little performance. Here’s what the current prices of the Ryzen 5000 look like (along with the original list price as a side note):

• Ryzen 9 5950X: $550 ($800)
• Ryzen 9 5900X: $390 ($550)
• Ryzen 7 5800X: $250 ($450)
• Ryzen 5 5600X: $190 ($300)

Especially between the Ryzen 9 5900X and the Ryzen 7 5800X you save a lot silver compared to the Ryzen 7000. These prices may drop further as retailers also start to sell off their stock.

The value and the price are however different. At least based on what AMD has shared so far, Ryzen 7000 looks like a massive performance upgrade that may well justify the price delta.

Specifications

Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 5000 don’t look too different on paper, offering the same number of cores and threads and modest increases in clock speed. There’s a lot going on under the hood, though. To start, here are the Ryzen 5000 specs:

The most interesting note is that the Ryzen 5000 processors aren’t capable of hitting 5GHz out of the box – something Intel has been able to achieve for years with processors like the Core i9-12900K. Ryzen 7000 cracks that fashionable barrier, but at the cost of power demand and the same core that matters:

At the root of any processor are its cores. AMD created the Zen 3 core for its 5000 series processors, but then jumped into the future with the Zen 4 core for the 7000 series chips.

Zen 3 brought big changes to AMD’s Zen core lineup, including more loading/storage bandwidth, lower latency, and no TDP increase over the previous Zen 2. AMD also unified its complex to 8 cores and its L3 cache into a single resource, so core-to-core and core-to-cache latency was almost non-existent.

This Zen 3 architecture is what gave AMD such a boost in multi-threaded performance over Intel processors. But the Zen 4 is an entirely different beast.

The new Zen 4 offers up to twice the L2 cache and load/storage bandwidth and introduces RDNA2 graphics at the core. However, faster speed and more performance result in higher power requirements.

Zen 3 CPUs maxed out at 105W, while Zen 4 CPUs climb to 170W. This isn’t the highest possible power consumption either, as flagships like the Ryzen 9 7950X can increase up to 230W when under stressful load. That’s almost as much as Intel’s Core i9-12900K, which is one of the hottest and most power-hungry processors on the market.

Obviously, Ryzen 7000 will consume more power, but AMD still insists that these are more efficient processors than Ryzen 5000. After all, it’s not about how much power you consume. That’s a lot of performance you get for that horsepower.

Performance

For raw performance, it’s no surprise that Ryzen 7000 improves on the previous generation. According to AMD’s numbers, which may not be 100% representative, the Ryzen 7000 sees around a 29% increase in single-core performance over the Ryzen 5000. It’s also up to 35% faster in games and can jump up to 50% faster in rendering. workloads.

It’s a massive improvement, at least according to what AMD has shared so far. We have to wait for third-party opinions to validate these claims.

AMD is putting a lot of emphasis on efficiency this generation, likely due to increased power consumption for its flagship chips. The company says the overall 35% improvement at max power actually increases to 74% by limiting the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X to 65W. Overall, AMD says Ryzen 7000 consumes up to 62% power. less energy for the same performance as the previous generation.

If you’re looking for the best performance, it’s safe to assume that Ryzen 7000 will deliver. It’s next-gen, and extremely unlikely to be worse than Ryzen 5000. The main performance question is how much better Ryzen 7000 will end up being, and we have to wait until we get the opportunity to test processors before. draw definitive conclusions.

Platform features

Performance and specs matter, but Ryzen 7000 is mostly different from the previous generation because of its platform features. In particular, Ryzen 7000 supports DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, while Ryzen 5000 is limited to DDR4 and PCIe 4.0. Newer is faster and faster is better, but the features of the Ryzen 7000 platform are designed more for the future than the present.

Even the best DDR5 RAM provides only modest improvements in most workloads, and virtually no difference when it comes to gaming. It can offer a big boost for some memory-sensitive workloads, but those are mostly relevant in the data center, not on a home PC. Likewise, PCIe 4.0 is just beginning to mature enough that hard drives with the connection are readily available, so PCIe 5.0 is still a long way off.

The biggest advantage of the Ryzen 7000 over the previous generation is the AM5 socket. AMD is ditching the AM4 socket it’s been using since 2016 (AM4 is what Ryzen 5000 uses), ending your upgrade path if you’re using Ryzen 5000 now. AMD says it will continue to support AM5 through 2025 and beyond, so building a Ryzen 7000 PC opens up your options for easier upgrades in the future.

Which should you buy?

If you’re building a brand new PC, Ryzen 7000 makes the most sense. It offers a clear upgrade path and is sure to outperform at least Ryzen 5000. We have yet to evaluate the chips ourselves, but AMD’s claims are promising.

Ryzen 5000 is still competitive, however. If you just upgraded your PC, you can score big on a Ryzen 5000 processor and motherboard now that next-gen is coming to the pike. They don’t offer the best performance, of course, but they’re still pretty close considering how much money you can save right now.

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