Start of sales: Six inexpensive Ryzen CPUs as competition for Intel Alder Lake

Sebastian Schenzinger

AMD has been at a loss in the entry-level segment since the release of Intel’s inexpensive Alder Lake processors at the beginning of the year. While there is still a direct opponent for the Core i5-12400 (to the test report) with the Ryzen 5 5600X, at least from a performance point of view, the RRP of the AMD processor is a whopping 90 euros higher. For the Core i3-12100F (to the test report), AMD has not had an equivalent competitor in its portfolio so far. However, that changes as of today’s deadline. AMD is releasing six new Ryzen processors based on Zen 3 Vermeer or Cezanne and Zen 2 Renoir to round off the portfolio at the bottom and to stand up to the competitor in the entry-level segment.

Here you can buy the new AMD processors

AMD’s six new Ryzen processors should not only close gaps in the portfolio, but also compete with Intel’s Alder Lake line-up in terms of price. For this reason, AMD has set the prices as high as the direct competitor model: The Ryzen 7 5700X costs about the same as the Core i5-12600K and the Ryzen 5 5600 costs the same as the Core i5-12400F. Since the market prices of processors are currently below the RRP, we assume that the new models will actually be available at the official price, unlike new graphics cards. Unfortunately, we did not receive any direct product links in advance, but the following shops are likely to have listed the new products for release:

Technical data of the new models

The six released processors are not fundamentally new chips, but rather a new variant of an existing product with lower clock speeds and a more attractive price. For example, the Ryzen 7 5700X is based on the Ryzen 7 5800X. However, due to the reduced power budget from 105 watts to 65 watts, the new CPU clocks a little lower, which is why the performance should be marginally worse. We already know this game from the Ryzen 7 3700X and the Ryzen 7 3800X as well as the later released Ryzen 7 3800 XT. All three models are based on the same chip and therefore offer the same number of cores and threads and the cache size is identical. There are only differences in the clock rates, which means that the processors are only separated by a few percentage points in the tests.

CPU benchmark 2022: AMD Ryzen or Intel Core i processor? The ranking list comparison

In practice, these few percent were not decisive and if you did it manually, you could get the same performance with an overclocked Ryzen 7 3700X as with a tuned Ryzen 7 3800X. Accordingly, the cheaper CPU was clearly the better choice for most users. The same game also applies to the Ryzen 5 5600, which corresponds to a Ryzen 5 5600X with slightly reduced clock speeds. The Ryzen 5 5500 located underneath is in turn based on the Ryzen 5 5600G, although there is no integrated graphics unit and the clock rates are slightly lower. You can read more about the differences in our product presentation to the new models or the information in the following table: