AMD Ryzen 5 1500X CPU Review

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Workstation Benchmarks

2D Benchmarks: DirectX And GDI/GDI+

Ryzen 5 1500X falls into the bottom range of AMD's portfolio during these lightly threaded tests, although the quad-core chip does notably outpace Ryzen 7 1700 in a few tests due to its frequency advantage.

2D Benchmarks: Adobe Creative Cloud

The Intel processors continue reaping the fruits of higher IPC throughput in several of these benchmarks, but most productivity-oriented applications don't expose massive performance deficits that would significantly hamper the user experience.

Ryzen 5 1500X surprisingly trails the FX-8370 through our InDesign workload. Then again, there is a mere 1.41-second gap between the best and worst results. After Effects reveals larger disparities. The 1500X trails AMD's 1600X by 14.59 seconds, but beats the Core i5-7500 (its closest competitor based on cost).

3D Benchmarks: DirectX and OpenGL

The 1500X doesn't benefit from its SMT-enabled cores in these lightly-threaded workloads.

We use stock settings to better reflect a real-world workstation environment. Although tuning would help AMD's CPUs, overclocking is less typical in the professional space.

Notably, the 1500X outstrips Ryzen 7 1700 in all of these tests.

CPU Performance: Workstation

The 1500X doesn't perform as well as expected in SolidWorks, but it is more competitive in threaded workloads and trades blows with the Core i5s.

CPU Performance: Photorealistic Rendering

Rendering workloads reward the 1500X's SMT-enabled cores, helping Ryzen trump the Core i5-7500 and, in some cases, Core i5-7600K.

The 1500X isn't as potent as Ryzen 5 1600X with its six cores. However, the quad-core configuration offers a lot of value in applications like Blender, 3ds Max, and LuxRender.

CPU Performance: Encoding & Compression/Decompression

The HandBrake workloads utilize however many threads you offer them, so Ryzen 5 1500X unsurprisingly goes up against the Core i5-7500 and -7600K.

Decompression in 7-Zip isn't as taxing, so the 1500X falls to the bottom of our chart. But packing files into an archive can be parallelized more effectively, giving Ryzen an advantage over Intel's Core i5-7500.

In heavily-threaded workloads, Ryzen 5 1500X trails the pricier six-core Ryzen 5 1600X by a large margin. That's alright though, we think. In this price bracket, a quad-core host processor doesn't need to excel in workstation-oriented tasks. It's far more likely to end up in gaming systems. Still we like knowing that Ryzen can handle heavy lifting in a quad-core configuration if needed.


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Paul Alcorn
Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.

  • Goran_11
    Good review. I would like to see more reviews about AMD Ryzen platform.
    Reply
  • IceMyth
    I think you missed the i5-7600K from the Price per Usable Core/Thread table which is $57.2 if you buy it from OutletPC but if you buy it from Amazon.com it will be ~$60.
    Reply
  • Shale
    Be careful, your fingerprint is visible on the CPU, someone could get enough of it from that photo to print and form a latex fingerprint that could be used to frame you for a crime, or depending on the finger and usage, be used for security breach or unlocking your phone.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Cost per 1% low FPS might be a better metric: emphasize sustainability. Maybe a 35-45-20 blend of average-1%-0.1%.
    Reply
  • Wisecracker
    <50w in the gaming loop is impressive
    Great job overall by AMD, and would love to see a 'head-to-head' with an OC'd AM3+ rig (FX-6350 at 4.5GHz?)

    Page 5 _ "Civilization VI Graphics Test" Heading
    -- graphic says, "Resident Evil 7"

    Reply
  • jkhoward
    It has been shown time and time again that the AMD chip when paired with a Nvidia card has poor performance. You should really consider getting an AMD Workstation card for your test until Nvidia can fix the issue.
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    Why didn't you use the same CPU options for both the Workstation and gaming tests? It would have been helpful to know how an overclocked 1500x stands up against an i5-7500 in any use case. If someone is overclocking for gaming. They aren't likely to disable the overclock when working.

    It sounds like Toms German and US labs need to communicate a bit more to set exact testing requirements for a review. That way the reader receives consistent data.

    As it stands now. The review is haphazard. There are different data sources for gaming, workstation, temperature and power.
    Reply
  • $hawn
    "8T/12T powerhouses" - I think there's a typo here
    Reply
  • $hawn
    Sorry it's correct
    Reply
  • elbert
    Looks like the Ryzen 5 1500X bests the i5-7500 while overclocked. Should the test have included best OC with the stock cooler? Price is important at this level and an aftermarket cooler stripes it of the price advantage.
    Reply