AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors (CPUs) available now

AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPUs – specifications
AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPUs – specifications

According to the reviews from the major computer-hardware websites, AMD has put itself in the driving seat in the desktop PC market after trailing Intel for decades. The change of guard began in 2017 with the release of the first series of Ryzen CPUs. The second and third series kept the improvements coming. For example, the fabrication process of the 5000 series is smaller –  down  from 14nm to 7nm.

As you can see in the table at the top of the page, the top Ryzen 5000 series CPU, the 9 5950X model, has 16 real cores and 16 virtual cores (threads) created by its hyper-threading feature, making a total of 32 cores/threads. Note that Ryzen chips support “Simultaneous Multi-Threading” (SMT) that is similar to Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology.

Moreover, the new Smart Memory Access feature enhances data-transfer performance between a 5000-series processor and the graphics card. For the time being, this new feature only works with an AMD Radeon RX 6000 graphics card and a Ryzen 5000 series processor.

There is no Ryzen 4000 series

For some reason, AMD did not like the number four, so there is no Ryzen 4000 series. It was a similar story with Windows – Windows 4 is Windows 95, Windows 5 is XP and Windows 6 is Vista. Windows 7, 8 and 10 were next. Apparently, there is no 9 because Windows 10 is going to remain the name for as long as Windows exists. Obviously, for a final name 10 looks and feels better than 9.

The company’s latest Ryzen 5000 series processors not only reach the 5GHZ stock-speed barrier, they surpass by surprising margins Intel’s equivalent offerings in all of the metric measurements that matter, such as single- and multi-threaded workloads, applications and even gaming performance,

AMD Ryzen 5000 series from the Ryzen 5 5600X ($299) up to the Ryzen 9 5950X ($799)

The table at the top of the page provides the names and main specifications of the four models of the 5000 series ( available at the time of writing) from the Ryzen 5 5600X ($299) up to the Ryzen 9 5950X ($799). Sadly, as yet, there is no Ryzen 3 5000-series model, as there was for the first three series. However, more models are expected soon.

For those of you who want a Ryzen 3 5000 series model, I looked online and the the Ryzen 3 CPUs from those first three generations are still available new and second-hand online, such as the first-generation Ryzen 3 1200 model, which is still an excellent choice for an office/home workstation, especially if paired with a super-fast M.2 NVMe SSD.

The first number of the four digits in the processor’s model name provides the series/generation. So, the 5600X is a 5th generation 5000-series CPU and the Ryzen 3 1200 is a first-generation model.

AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs and RAM memory compatibility

Motherboards that run Ryzen CPUs tend to be finicky when it comes to the RAM memory that they are compatible with. If the CPU is not compatible with the memory, only the PC’s fans will work. You won’t even be able to get into the BIOS Therefore, to avoid the anxiety that such a situation would entail, especially if you are building a new PC,  you should find out what the motherboard manufacturer’s website advises as being compatible memory. Alternatively, use the memory selectors on crucial.com to buy memory that is guaranteed to work with a particular make/model of motherboard.

Where Intel is at in November 2020

In November 2020, Intel has its inferior Comet Lake processors up against the AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. Intel’s Rocket Lake models should arrive by March 2021 and will market as “Intel 11th generation Core” CPUs, use the same Socket LGA 1200 and 400-series chipset as Comet Lake.. There will be a new 500-series chipset as well. Rocket Lake will have up to 8 cores, down from 10 cores for Comet Lake. and feature Intel Xe graphics. The range will have PCIe 4.0 support. that enables faster speeds for graphics cards and PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSDs. Unfortunately for Intel, as you can see in the table at the top of this page, the Ryzen 9 5000 models have 12 and 16 cores. The Ryzen 7 5800X model matches The Rocket Lake’s 8 cores. All in all, Intel’s latest Core offerings, out in March 2021, at the earliest, are not going to compete with AMD’s current offerings.

AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Price, Benchmarks, Specs and Release Date [November 2020] –

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/…

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About Eric 275 Articles
I am an experienced PC technician who has been the owner and sole writer of the PC Buyer Beware! website since 2004. I am learning all the time in this very dynamic, ever-changing field.