It’s October 8 and AMD has finally announced its most anticipated Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors, based on the new Zen 3 architecture. Lisa Su announced the mainstream Ryzen 9 5900X, followed by the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X. Then there’s also their new flagship Ryzen 9 5950X – a 16-core 32-thread CPU, boosting up to 4.9GHz. In this article let’s learn more about the 5900X, 5800X, and 5600X desktop CPUs.
UPDATE (11/5/2020): AMD Ryzen 500 Series CPUs are now live. Check latest pricing and availability below:
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X – Amazon.com here or Newegg.com here
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X – Amazon.com here or Newegg.com here
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X – Amazon.com here or Newegg.com here
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X – Amazon.com here or Newegg.com here
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X – The World’s Best Gaming CPU
AMD CEO Lisa Su first presented the Ryzen 9 5900X; it’s the successor to the Ryzen 9 3900XT offering the same number of core and thread count but with a slightly higher boost clock speed than its predecessor. The 5900X is a 12-core 24-thread CPU with a boost clock speed of up to 4.8GHz.
According to AMD, the new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs based on the Zen 3 architecture features a remarkable 19% IPC increase over the prior generation in PC workloads. These Zen 3 CPUs also pushes gaming and content creation performance leadership to a new level. Zen 3 architecture reduces latency from accelerated core and cache communication and doubles the directly accessible L3 cache per core; while delivering up to 2.8X more performance-per-watt versus the competition.
AMD also claims that the Ryzen 9 5900X offers the best gaming experience by an average of 7% in 1080p gaming across select game titles versus the competition. It’s also 26% faster on average in 1080p gaming across select titles compared to the previous generation.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs 3900XT
AMD showed several slides and we can see that at 1080p gaming resolution, the Ryzen 9 5900X offers a significant boost in gaming performance versus the Ryzen 9 3900XT. Robert Hallock, AMD’s Director of Technical Marketing, also showed that the Ryzen 9 5900X is the first desktop CPU to break the 600 points in single-thread performance in Cinebench R20.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X vs Intel Core i9-10900K
Speaking of single-thread performance, it was the Core i9-10900K that the Ryzen 9 5900X beat in Cinebench R20’s single-thread performance. Note that this is AMD’s internal testing and I’m curious to see if the 5900X do go above 600 points in Cinebench single-core test consistently.
When it comes to gaming performance, the Ryzen 9 5900X offers a bit of performance gain versus the Core i9-10900K in 1080p resolution. Now a 2% to 5% increase is not that really huge. But AMD showed that it’s 19% faster in CS:GO and 21% faster in League of Legends. Considering that the Ryzen 9 5900X performs on par or slightly faster than the Core i9-10900K, I say it’s impressive and they finally caught up when it comes to gaming performance.
For reference, the Core i9-10900K is a 10 core 20 thread CPU with a boost clock speed of 5.3GHz. Although the Ryzen 9 5900X has two more cores and 4 more threads, its boost clock speed is only up to 4.8GHz. Again, we’ll have to wait for reviews to go live and see how this CPU really performs in the real world.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X
Below the Ryzen 9 5900X are the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X. The Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 are AMD’s best selling series so far. The 5800X is an 8-core 16-thread CPU with a boost clock speed of up to 3.8GHz. Meanwhile, the 5600X is a 6-core 12-thread CPU with a boost clock speed of up to 4.6GHz.
These new Zen 3 CPUs basically have the same core and thread count as their respective predecessors. Even the clock speeds are mostly similar, including the TDP. The real difference is within the architecture and layout itself. Also, notice that these new Ryzen 5000 CPUs are a bit expensive compared to their predecessors. Speaking of price…
Ryzen 5000 Series CPU Pricing and Availability
The Ryzen 9 5900X comes with an MSRP of $549, followed by the Ryzen 7 5800X priced at $449, and finally, the Ryzen 5 5600X priced at $299. All of these new CPUs will be available starting November 5.
If you check the table below, notice that the launch price of these new processors is higher than the launch price of their predecessors. So, basically speaking, these new Zen 3 CPUs are faster, but (unfortunately) more expensive as well.
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Specifications
| Specifications | Cores | Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock | Total Cache | TDP | MSRP (launch) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 9 5950X | 16 | 32 | 3.4 GHz | up to 4.9 GHz | 72MB | 105W | $799 |
| Ryzen 9 5900X | 12 | 24 | 3.7 GHz | up to 4.8 GHz | 70MB | 105W | $549 |
| Ryzen 7 5800X | 8 | 16 | 3.8 GHz | up to 4.7 GHz | 36MB | 105W | $449 |
| Ryzen 5 5600X | 6 | 12 | 3.7 GHz | up to 4.6 GHz | 35MB | 65W | $299 |
| Ryzen 9 3950X | 16 | 32 | 3.5 GHz | up to 4.7 GHz | 73MB | 105W | $749 |
| Ryzen 9 3900XT | 12 | 24 | 3.8 GHz | up to 4.7 GHz | 70MB | 105W | $499 |
| Ryzen 7 3800XT | 8 | 16 | 3.9 GHz | up to 4.7 GHz | 36MB | 105W | $399 |
| Ryzen 5 3600XT | 6 | 12 | 3.8 GHz | up to 4.5 GHz | 35MB | 95W | $249 |
Check AMD Ryzen 3000 Series latest pricing and availability:
- Ryzen 9 3950X on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 9 3900XT on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 9 3900X on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 7 3800XT on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 7 3800X on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 7 3700X on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 5 3600XT on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 5 3600X on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 3 3300X on Amazon.com here
- Ryzen 3 3100 on Amazon.com here
