AMD has officially launched the Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500, two strong contenders for the best CPUs on the market if you're on a budget. Both are hexa-core chips, with the Ryzen 5 5500F featuring AMD's Zen 3 execution cores and the Ryzen 5 7500 using the newer Zen 4 execution cores. The Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500, priced at $99 and $189, respectively, are available at U.S. retailers starting today.
- Intel VP Robert Hallock sets Nova Lake expectations, teases return to Raptor Lake for DDR4 platforms
- CPU scaling with DLSS
- Intel's one-two punch plan in desktop CPUs is taking shape
- Benchmarking AMD's BC-250, offering Steam Machine-like performance at half the price
- AMD splits Zen 7 into three EPYC families for 2028 and starts selling server CPUs by the agent
The Ryzen 5 5500F, despite its similar model name to the Ryzen 5 5500, belongs to a different family in AMD's portfolio. The Ryzen 5 5500F hails from the Ryzen 5000 series (codenamed Vermeer), which uses a multi-chiplet architecture. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5500 comes from the Ryzen 5000G series (codenamed Cezanne), which uses a monolithic die design.
Therefore, it is more sound to call the Ryzen 5 5500F a lower-binned version of the Ryzen 5 5600, rather than an iGPU-less variant of the Ryzen 5 5500, which lacks integrated graphics to begin with. The distinction matters because the Ryzen 5 5500F is closer to the Ryzen 5 5600, albeit with a 500 MHz lower boost clock speed and half the L3 cache.
The Ryzen 5 5600, which launched at $199, now retails for around $159, making the new Ryzen 5 5500F approximately 38% more affordable. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5500, which debuted at $159, has lost substantial value over the years. OEM tray versions of the Ryzen 5 5500 now start at just $74, so it is still the most cost-effective entry point into the AM4 ecosystem. Compared to the Ryzen 5 5500, the Ryzen 5 5500F carries a 34% price premium. The latter justifies its higher cost with a slightly higher boost clock speed, which translates to better gaming performance, and support for PCIe 4.0, unlocking faster SSDs and graphics cards.
Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500 Specifications
Processor |
MSRP / Current Price |
Architecture / Codename |
Platform |
Cores / Threads |
Base / Boost Clock (GHz) |
L2 Cache (MB) |
L3 Cache (MB) |
Graphics Model |
Graphics Core |
Graphics Frequency (MHz) |
Memory Support |
PCIe Lanes |
TDP (W) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ryzen 5 7600 |
$229 / $226 |
Zen 4 / Raphael |
AM5 |
6 / 12 |
3.8 / 5.1 |
6 |
32 |
AMD Radeon |
2 |
2,200 |
DDR5-5200 |
24 PCIe 5.0 |
65 |
Ryzen 5 7500 |
$189 / $189 |
Zen 4 / Raphael |
AM5 |
6 / 12 |
3.7 / 5.0 |
6 |
32 |
AMD Radeon |
2 |
2,200 |
DDR5-5200 |
24 PCIe 5.0 |
65 |
Ryzen 5 7500F |
$179 / $157 |
Zen 4 / Raphael |
AM5 |
6 / 12 |
3.7 / 5.0 |
6 |
32 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
DDR5-5200 |
24 PCIe 5.0 |
65 |
Ryzen 5 5600 |
$199 / $159 |
Zen 3 / Vermeer |
AM4 |
6 / 12 |
3.5 / 4.4 |
3 |
32 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
DDR4-3200 |
20 PCIe 4.0 |
65 |
Ryzen 5 5500F |
$99 / $99 |
Zen 3 / Vermeer |
AM4 |
6 / 12 |
3.0 / 4.4 |
3 |
16 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
DDR4-3200 |
20 PCIe 4.0 |
65 |
Ryzen 5 5500 |
$159 / $74 |
Zen 3 / Cezanne |
AM4 |
6 / 12 |
3.6 / 4.2 |
3 |
16 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
DDR4-3200 |
20 PCIe 3.0 |
65 |
When it comes to the Ryzen 5 7500, little mystery surrounds its place in AMD's product stack. True to its name, the Ryzen 5 7500 is the same processor as the Ryzen 5 7500F, which launched three years ago, but with integrated Radeon graphics. This small addition suits users who need basic display output and do not plan to spend money on a discrete graphics card. Apart from the integrated graphics, all core specifications remain identical between the two models.
As a result, the difference between the Ryzen 5 7600 and the Ryzen 5 7500 stands. The former boasts a 100 MHz higher base and boost clock, so performance is somewhat better in certain processor-intensive workloads or gaming scenarios. However, most users may not notice the difference.
The Ryzen 5 7500F hit the market at $179, but over time its retail price has dropped to about $157. In contrast, the Ryzen 5 7600 has held its value over the years, falling only slightly from its original MSRP of $229 to around $226. As a result, the Ryzen 5 7500 positions itself as a mid-point option, priced 16% lower than the Ryzen 5 7600 and 20% above the Ryzen 5 7500F.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
The Ryzen 5 7500 makes sense in this market because not everyone is a gamer, so integrated graphics mean you do not have to spend a fortune on a discrete graphics card at today's ridiculous prices. However, because it runs on AMD's AM5 platform, the Ryzen 5 7500 is still bound by the sky-high cost of DDR5.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
-
usertests ReplyAMD has officially launched the Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500 processors with six Zen 4 and Zen 3 cores, respectively.
That's not how "respectively" works, since it's reversed.
Speaking of reversed, it was actually nuts for AMD to make the 5500F a Vermeer derivative and the 5500 a Cezanne without iGPU. The reverse would make much more sense.
The "F" suffix on the Ryzen 5 5500F is present because Vermeer does come with integrated graphics, so AMD uses it to explicitly indicate the absence of this feature.
Also wrong btw. Vermeer has no iGPU to begin with. -
thestryker AMD's naming of 5000 series parts has been pretty atrocious so this just carries in those footsteps I guess.Reply
5500F: Vermeer with half cache
5500X3D: Vermeer with 3D V-cache
5500: Cezanne with no graphics
5500GT: Cezanne with graphics and higher boost clock speed (basically a 5600G with lower base clock)
There's also a 5600F which has the full 32MB cache, but only boosts to 4GHz so for anything that doesn't benefit from additional cache it would actually be slower than the 5500F.
I know this is largely due to scraping the binning barrel, but I hope they never do the mixing and matching architectures while carrying the same branding again. -
MikeMIke86 Just more junk releases. There’s really nothing worth upgrading to from a 5600 at a decent price. A US release of the 5500X3D would’ve been massive, but nope. Instead, here’s the 5800X3D for $300. Be thankful, peasants. 😂Reply -
usertests Reply
I think it was $349. Only Micro Center is willing to sell it for $300, AFAIK.MikeMIke86 said:Just more junk releases. There’s really nothing worth upgrading to from a 5600 at a decent price. A US release of the 5500X3D would’ve been massive, but nope. Instead, here’s the 5800X3D for $300. Be thankful, peasants. 😂
5500X3D has 400-500 MHz lower clocks, so it's a bit of sidegrade from the 5600 in applications and some games.
I think a 5700X3D re-release at $200 would have gone over well. But the fact is that the 5800X3D was at sky high prices on the used market, so people want it. -
thestryker Reply
I bought one off AliExpress for ~$175 because I only had a single stick of DDR4-3600 and buying more DRAM for a faster non-X3D part didn't make any sense. It's not what I would call a good deal, but if what you do is gaming it's about as good a deal as it gets on AM4 now.MikeMIke86 said:A US release of the 5500X3D would’ve been massive, but nope. -
King_V I dunno, man, I just think there's something kind of awesome about AM4 getting more CPUs that work on it. Ridiculous? Maybe, but I think in a positive way.Reply