AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Price, Benchmarks, Specs and More

With the Ryzen 5000 series, it's fair to say that AMD had finally, and fully, eclipsed Intel's performance dominance in desktop PCs. AMD's Zen 3 architecture landed in the new Ryzen 5000 series, breaking the 5GHz barrier with a newer version of AMD's most successful architecture to date and taking our list of best CPUs for gaming by storm. We've got plenty of gaming and application benchmarks, power measurements, and thermal testing here in this article to serve as a guide to the performance you can expect from AMD's most dominant series of processors in more than a decade. We also have pricing guides and links to tips on where to find the chips at retail, and you can see how the Ryzen 5000 chips rank compared to Intel's chips in our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy.

The desktop PC was first on AMD's Zen 3 chopping block, but the new microarchitecture powers AMD's full lineup of next-gen processors, including the Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer" desktop processors that have taken over our list of Best CPUs and the EPYC Milan data center processors. AMD has also now announced its new Ryzen 5000 Mobile series, which is coming to retail soon in a host of new laptops. This base design also powers the promising new Ryzen 5000G 'Cezanne' APUs that are coming to a desktop PC near you later this year. 

The first four Ryzen 5000 series desktop PC models stretch from the $299 Ryzen 5 5600X up to the $799 Ryzen 9 5950X. Barring shortages, the CPUs are on shelves now and represent a massive shift in the AMD vs Intel CPU wars. At launch, the Ryzen 5000 processors finally eclipsed Intel's chips in every single metric that matters, like single- and multi-threaded workloads, productivity applications, and 1080p gaming performance, all by surprising margins. 

AMD's Zen 3 features a ground-up rethinking of the microarchitecture that finally allowed it to take the 1080p gaming performance lead from Intel. Paired with a 19% boost to instructions per cycle (IPC) throughput and peak rated boost speeds of up to 4.9 GHz, Zen 3 is the magic 7nm bullet that finally upset Intel from its position at the top of our CPU gaming benchmarks. 

However, Intel fired back with the Alder Lake processors, like the Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core i5-12400 which retook the lead, at least at the comparable price points.

Here's the Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series processors that AMD launched as its initial salvo, and given that the company is launching its Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 chips by the end of the year, we don't think we'll see newer models any time soon:

AMD followed up that impressive roster with a new lineup to face down Intel's Alder Lake:

AMD’s new Cezanne and Renoir chips take a new approach of using Zen 3 and Zen 2-powered APU silicon with disabled integrated graphics units to tackle the low-end, while the Ryzen 7 5800X3D retook the gaming performance crown.

We also took the Ryzen 7 5700X, Ryzen 5 5600, and the Ryzen 5 5500 all for a spin, and we're working to test the last few of the new AMD Ryzen 5000 entrants. We'll do a full update of the article below after we've retested the entire Ryzen 5000 stack. For now, you can check out these charts with the new competitive positioning and the following face-offs, all of which will help highlight the current competitive positioning:

• Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Core i7-12700K and Core i9-12900K Face-Off: The Rise of 3D V-Cache
• Intel Core i9-12900K vs Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X: Alder Lake and Ryzen 5000 Face Off
• Intel Core i5-12600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and 5800X Face Off: Ryzen Has Fallen
• Intel Core i7-12700K vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and 5800X Face Off: Intel Rising
• Intel Core i5-12400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Face-Off: The Gaming Value Showdown

Check out those articles above for the latest performance and pricing info. We'll update the rest of the article once we're done retesting the new Ryzen 5000 models. The historical view follows:

AMD's Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series begins with the impressive 16-core 32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X that has a recommended $799 price tag. This chip boosts up to 4.9 GHz, has 64MB of unified L3 cache, and a 105W TDP rating. As you'll see in the CPU benchmark comparisons below, AMD's Ryzen chip is faster than Intel's 10-core Core i9-10900K in pretty much everything, which isn't surprising — Intel has no equivalent for the mainstream desktop.

The $549 Ryzen 9 5900X slots in as the more mainstream contender, at least by AMD's definition of 'mainstream,' with 12 cores and 24 threads that boost up to 4.8 GHz. Intel's Rocket Lake Core i9-11900K exceeds the 5900X's AMD's single-threaded prowess while still trailing in gaming and multi-threaded work.

The 6-core 12-thread $299 Ryzen 5 5600X's base clocks come in at 100 MHz less than the previous-gen 3600XT, while boosts are 100 MHz higher at 4.6 GHz. AMD's previous-gen 6C/12T Ryzen 5 3600XT had a 95W TDP, but AMD dialed that back to 65W with the 5600X, showing that Zen 3's improved IPC affords lots of advantages. Despite the reduced TDP rating, the 5600X delivers explosive performance gains. 

The Ryzen 5 5600X's $300 price tag establishes a new price band for a mainstream processor, so Intel doesn't have chips with an identical price range; the Core i5-11600K is the nearest Intel comparable. This chip carries a $262 price tag for the full-featured model, while the graphics-less 11600KF weighs in at $237. 

But AMD does have a glaring hole in its product stack: You'll have to shell out an extra $150 to step up from the $300 6C/12T Ryzen 5 5600X to the $450 8C/16T Ryzen 7 5800X, which is a steep jump that leaves room for the 10700K to operate. Based upon product naming alone, it appears there is a missing Ryzen 7 5700X in the stack, but it remains to be seen if AMD will actually introduce that model. 

AMD also recently announced the Ryzen 9 5900 and Ryzen 7 5800 processors, but those are destined for OEMs, meaning you won't be able to find them at retail. The company also announced its Ryzen 5000 Mobile 'Cezanne' processors at CES 2021, bringing the power of Zen 3 to laptops for the first time, which we'll dive into further below. AMD has also announced its long-anticipated Ryzen 5000G chips that come armed with the Zen 3 architecture and Vega graphics. These chips are headed to OEMs now and will come to retail outlets soon, meaning enthusiasts will soon have a lower-cost path to entry-level gaming, which will be helpful in these times of shortages. 

As odd as it sounds, Intel may have one hidden advantage — pricing. AMD now positions the Ryzen 5000 series as the premium brand. As a result, AMD has pushed pricing up by $50 across the stack compared to its Ryzen XT models. However, the XT family doesn't really represent AMD's best value; its own Ryzen 3000 series, which comes at much lower price points, holds that crown. 

However, AMD still maintains the performance-per-dollar lead that justifies the price tag. Let's see below how that shakes out.  

AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series At A Glance

• 1080p gaming performance leadership
• Ryzen 9, 7, and 5 models
• CPUs from 6C/12T up to 16C/32T
• Same optimized 7nm process as Ryzen XT models
• Zen 3 microarchitecture delivers 19% IPC improvement
• 24% gen-on-gen power efficiency improvement — 2.8X better than 10900K
• Higher peak frequencies for most models — 4.9 GHz on Ryzen 9 5950X
• Lower base frequency for all models, offset by increased IPC
• L3 cache now unified in a single 32MB cluster per eight-core chiplet (CCD)
• Higher pricing across the stack (~$50)
• No bundled cooler with Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 models
• Drop-in compatible with the AM4 socket
• No new chipset/motherboards launched
• Current-gen 500-series motherboards work now (caveats below)
• Beta support for 400-series motherboards has already begun
• All Zen 3 desktop, mobile, and APU CPUs will carry Ryzen 5000 branding
• Same 142W maximum socket power for AM4 socket as previous-gen
• Same 12nm GlobalFoundries I/O Die (IOD) 

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Specifications

Here we can see the full Ryzen 5000 series product stack, and how the new CPUs stack up against Intel's Comet Lake. The first big thing you'll notice is the increased Precision Boost clock rates, which now stretch up to 4.9 GHz. However, we also see a broad trend of lower base frequencies for the Ryzen 5000 series compared to the previous-gen processors, but that isn't too surprising considering the much higher performance-per-watt that we'll outline below.

AMD obviously leans on its improved IPC rather than raw clock speeds, thus boosting its power efficiency and reducing heat generation. The Ryzen 5 5600X is the best example of that — despite only a slight reduction to the base frequency, the chip drops to a 65W TDP compared to its predecessor's 95W. 

What's not as impressive? AMD has continued with the precedent it set with its Ryzen XT series: Bundled coolers no longer come with processors with a TDP higher than 65W. That means the Ryzen 5 5600X will be the only Ryzen 5000 chip that comes with a cooler in the box. AMD said it decided to skip bundled coolers in higher-TDP models largely because it believes most enthusiasts looking for high-performance CPUs use custom cooling anyway. AMD also still specs a 280mm (or greater) AIO liquid cooler for the Ryzen 9 and 7 CPUs, which significantly adds to the overall platform costs.  

AMD continues to only guarantee its boost frequencies on a single core, and all-core boosts will vary based on the cooling solution, power delivery, and motherboard BIOS. The Ryzen 5000 series CPUs still expose the same 20 lanes of PCIe 4.0 to the user (another four are dedicated to the chipset) and stick with DDR4-3200 memory. Memory overclocking capabilities have also improved vastly, particularly regarding fabric clocking that allows tuners to run the memory in optimized 'coupled' 1:1 mode. We've seen plenty of reports of reaching DDR4-4000 in coupled mode, and we've done it ourselves. However, as with all overclocking, your mileage may vary – we could only achieve a stable DDR4-4000 overclocked in coupled mode with one of our four samples (The 5950X). (For more about overclocking head to our How to Overclock a CPU article.)

Ryzen 5000 Mobile

Before we jump to performance benchmarks for the desktop chips, AMD announced the 'Cezanne' Ryzen 5000 Mobile processors that bring the powerful Zen 3 architecture to the notebook market for the first time, opening the door for the company to finally have a larger presence in the highest-end gaming notebooks. That means that we'll finally see AMD's chips paired with the highest-end mobile GPUs when the new Ryzen 5000 Mobile processors come to market in February, which could shake up our Best Gaming Laptops rankings. 

AMD says the new chips set the new standard for battery life in x86 notebooks and remain the only 8-core x86 chips for ultrathin laptops. The 13 new processors span from low-power 15W chips up to two new overclockable 45W+ HX-series models designed to bring desktop PC-like gaming performance to notebooks. The Ryzen 5000 mobile processors all come with threading enabled, the 7nm Vega graphics engine with higher graphics boost clocks than the prior-gen models, support CPPC (Collaborative Power and Performance Control) technology, which we’ll dive into shortly, and have higher CPU boost clocks than the previous-gen. 

As before, the H-series models are designed for notebooks that will use discrete graphics. The two 45W+ eight-core HX models carve out a new high-performance niche by bringing CPU, memory, and fabric overclocking to AMD-powered notebooks for the first time, but overclocking headroom will largely be dictated by the thermal and power characteristics of each notebook. Naturally, bulkier notebooks with more robust cooling and power delivery will unlock better overclockability.

The two H models slot in with eight- and six-core variants and a 45W TDP rating, with the former having eight CUs that boost to 2.0 GHz, while the latter has seven CUs that stretch up to 1.8 GHz.  

AMD also expanded its HS series with four chips with boost clocks that reach up to 4.8 GHz within the 35W TDP envelope. AMD segments the HS stack with three eight-core models with varying base and boost clocks, but these models have lower base clocks than the H-series models to accommodate the 35W TDP envelope. AMD also has a lone six-core twelve-thread model to round out the bottom of the H-Series stack. AMD also segments the HS models with either seven or eight Vega CUs, with peak boost clocks weighing in at 2.1 GHz.

The 15W U-Series models slot in for thin and light devices and will often lean on the integrated graphics units. AMD recently chose to unify its Ryzen Mobile branding under the same Ryzen 5000 umbrella as its desktop chips to clear up the confusion with the Ryzen 4000 series processors that came with an older architecture than desktop Ryzen 3000 models. 

However, AMD also sprinkled in three Zen 2 'Lucienne' chips in the Ryzen 5000 Mobile stack, muddying the waters. AMD says this approach meets specific pricing criteria and customer (OEM) demand on the lower end of its product stack. These Zen 2-powered Ryzen 3, 5, and 7 models slot into the lowest-end 15W U-series category.

The Zen 2 variants come with the same design as their predecessors, but again, the targeted enhancements to the SoC (all of the same modifications listed below apply) and increased clock rates result in higher performance.

The Ryzen 7, 5, and 3 families also include one Zen 3 model apiece with either eight cores and 16 threads, or four cores and eight threads. Unlike the previous-gen Ryzen 4000 chips, all of the 15W models come threading enabled. 

We're primarily focused on the desktop PC chips for this article, but you can head to our AMD Announces Ryzen 5000 Mobile 'Cezanne' Processors, Zen 3 and Overclocking Comes to Laptops article for an overview of the mobile chips, including Ryzen 5000 Mobile benchmarks.  We also have our AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile 'Cezanne' SoC Deep Dive: Zen 3 Powers Into Notebooks article that has all the deep-dive architectural details.

AMD Ryzen 5000 Zen 3 Performance Benchmarks and Comparisons 

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X Gaming and Application CPU Benchmarks 

Here you can see the geometric mean of our gaming tests at 1080p and 1440p, with each resolution split into its own chart. 

We're accustomed to Intel dominate the gaming charts, so these cumulative measurements are quite shocking: AMD's stock Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X lead Intel's heavily-overclocked Core i9-10900K and Core i7-10700K in our 1080p gaming suite in average frame rates (Intel's overclocked chips hold a slight lead in 99th-percentile measurements). 

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To put things in perspective, take a glance at the delta in 1080p gaming between the previous-gen Ryzen 9 3900XT, which basically runs overclocked right out of the box, compared to the Ryzen 9 5950X. That's a huge generational leap. AMD has made big gains in a single generation.

Flipping over to the 1440p chart improves things a bit for Intel, but only slightly — the overclocked Core i9-10900K returns to its normal spot at the top of the chart, and it still has better 99th percentile frame rates after overclocking. However, AMD still beats Intel in both average and 99th-percentiles at stock settings, cementing the company's lead.    

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Here are the individual results of our Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X real-world game benchmarks at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. For further analysis of each title, and to see our synthetic gaming benchmarks, head to our review. 

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These measurements include the geometric mean of both the most important lightly- and heavily-threaded tests in our application suite, which gives us a broad sense of overall performance. We're quite accustomed to AMD's chips leading in the multi-threaded rankings while trailing, sometimes by a big amount, in the single-threaded performance ranking. Zen 3 changes that entirely and easily leads both rankings. This is the underpinnings of the solid performance we see in nearly every workload we throw at the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. 

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Here's a rollup of a selection of our mainstream application tests, but we have far more tests in our full review. We also have testing in the Adobe suite, SPECWorkstation3, and SpecViewPerf 2020 for those interested in professional applications. 

Again, head to our Ryzen 9 5950X and 5900X review for more benchmarks and in-depth analysis, including power testing, thermals, overclocking, and efficiency measurements. 

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X Gaming and Application Performance Benchmarks 

Here you can see the geometric mean of our gaming tests at 1080p and 1440p, with each resolution in its own chart. Again, this gives us a broad sense of overall gaming performance for the Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X. 

We tested the Ryzen 5 5600X with both the bundled Wraith Stealth cooler (marked as HSF in the charts above) and the Corsair H115i 280mm liquid cooler (AIO) to measure the difference in gaming. Overall, the Wraith Spire cooler provides the same level of gaming performance as the AIO cooler. 

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In terms of value, the $300 Ryzen 5 5600X wrecks Intel's halo $490 Core i9-10900K in our 1080p gaming suite. The 5600X even takes away the overall performance crown, too. The 10900K is a bit more impressive in our 1440p suite, but not by much - it trails the 5600X at stock settings, and overclocking the 10900K only yields a scant 1 fps advantage. For all intents and purposes, the processors have effectively tied after overclocking. 

The 5600X is even more dominating over the chips in its price range. At stock, the Ryzen 5 5600X beats the Core i5-10600K in both 1080p and 1440p gaming by ~25% and 13%, respectively. Overclocking the Core i5-10600K to 5.0 GHz doesn't help much - the Intel chip still trails the stock 5600X by 7% at 1080p and effectively ties the 5600X at 1440p. Naturally, overclocking the Ryzen 5 5600X gives it the lead. 

The $300 Ryzen 5 5600X is $35 more expensive than the Core i5-10600K, though, so we turn to Intel's higher-end $375 Core i7-10700K to see how it stacks up. If gaming is your primary goal, paying $75 more for the 10700K than the 5600X is a waste of money. The stock 5600X beats the10700K by 15% at 1080p, and ~8% at 1440p. Overclocking the 10700K doesn't help, either – the stock 5600X ties the overclocked 10700K at 1080p and trails by a mere 3 fps at 1440p. Overclocking the Ryzen 5 5600X gives it the lead over the pricey 10700K.  

Finally, if you step up a tier to the $450 Ryzen 7 5800X, you won't get much extra over the 5600X, at least as far as gaming is concerned. The Ryzen 5 5600X matches the overclocked Ryzen 7 5800X step-for-step at both stock and overclocked settings in both resolutions, making the Ryzen 5 5600X the new mainstream gaming champ. 

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Here you can see the game-by-game breakdown of the benchmarks compared to Intel's Comet Lake chips, but you can head to our Ryzen 5 5600X review for a more detailed analysis. You can't go wrong with either the Ryzen 7 5800X or Ryzen 5 5600X for gaming, but if you don't need a lot of threaded heft for frequent heavy workloads, the Ryzen 5 5600X is the best value.    

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