After launching the Ryzen 7 last March to good reviews, AMD followed up with the Ryzen 5 series, this time to target the mid-range market. This is a bid to challenge the Intel i5's market share.
AMD released four models under the Ryzen 5 line: 1400, 1500x, 1600, and 1600x. The highest tier — the 1600x — costs $250, while the lowest — the 1400 — costs $170.
AMD claims that the Ryzen 5 has 87 percent more performance than the Intel i5 products and can do multitasking quite well because of its new Zen architecture. But do the experts agree with this claim? Here's the review roundup to find out.
AnandTech
Ian Cutress of AnandTech wrote that over the similar Intel i5 series, the Ryzen 5 1500x and 1600x are better because of their numerous cores; Ryzen 5 has six cores and 12 threads over Intel's four cores and four threads, which for him is "a potential +200 percent uptick in the number of threads and +50 percent in cores, albeit at 10-15 percent lower instructions per clock."
In terms of gaming, Cutress gave the nod to Ryzen, but only for DX12 CPU-limited games like Civilization. But for esports and other games based on DX1, Intel still won. In terms of performance, the Ryzen got the vote for intense CPU work to take advantage of the 12 threads.
Trusted Reviews
Edward Chester of Trusted Reviews thought the Ryzen 5 is good follow-up to the Ryzen 7, calling both the AMD Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 5 1500X "the best CPUs you can buy at their respective prices." The AMD chips are better in multi-thread workload like video editing. He gave the vote on the bang-for-buck quality of the new CPUs, especially the six-core quality of 1600x in its $250 price range.
"Intel doesn't have any six-core processors at this price (regardless of platform) and the only quad-core chips it offers don't include Hyperthreading. This means the Ryzen 5 1600X should be a shoe-in for that middle ground between the eight-core Ryzens and cheaper quad-core processors," he noted.
PC World
Gordon Mah Ung of PC World declared the Ryzen 5 1600x a winner for best mainstream CPU. AMD's mid-range Ryzen 5 beats Intel Core i5 because of the former's multithreading capabilities. He liked AMD's decision to "give up a little single-threaded performance for a huge bump in multi-threaded performance." In most of the benchmark tests he did, Ryzen came out on top. Gaming-wise, the Ryzen is neck-to-neck with Core i5.
"It's pretty hard to pass up the incredible performance the Ryzen 5 1600X offers, especially as we move into a world where more cores and more threads are expected to matter. For that new world, the Ryzen 5 1600X is easily the winner and just a hell of a deal for the overall performance you get," he wrote.
Kotaku
Steve Walton of Kotaku called the Ryzen 5 an amazing alternative to Intel. Performance-wise, the Ryzen 5 beat the Intel Core i5 in terms of multi-threading workloads such as video editing and file compression. Gaming-wise, the Intel has the edge but Ryzen is breathing down its neck.
"Overall I think I'm more impressed with Ryzen 5 series than I was with Ryzen 7 for the simple fact that there is less competition at these price points. Intel has done a poor job of looking after enthusiasts, particularly those on a budget and this is where these new Ryzen 5 chips really hit hard," he remarked.
