The Last Ryzen AM4 CPUs: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

7 new CPUs are out (Well, apparently). But not all are created equally. One is arguably the best gaming chip of all time. Another, the worst. And the rest, somewhere in between. I investigate to try to figure out who all of these new processors could be for.

0:00 - The situation
1:40 - AM4 upgradeability
3:34 - Ryzen 5600 and 5700X
4:19 - Intel's 1X000 series
5:42 - 5800X3D's purpose
6:35 - The budget sacrifices
7:19 - Ryzen 5500
7:43 - Ryzen 4000 series
8:15 - Ryzen 4100? WHERE IS IT
9:02 - Ryzen 4600G
9:49 - Ryzen 4500
10:49 - Conclusion

[alexander_strachan]

The issue is, LGA 1700 motherboards are very expensive compared to AM4 ones. B450s can be found new for around £50 (even lower on sale), while the Intel counterparts are £75 minimum for the lowest end H610 boards. You could also get an even cheaper A320 motherboard for an AM4 system.

[jlatoo]

I still have a b350 board back from when am4 first launched and am rocking a 3600, absolutely loved the upgradeability

[Dribbleondo]

I've had a 1500X for many years now and it has served me well in Video editing and some light rendering tasks. I might actually upgrade to a 5600 soon...

[asphere]

One thing I noticed was missing from your chart; the Intel i5 12500. It's basically just a downclocked 12600, but that also makes it the cheapest intel CPU to provide UHD 770 graphics. It's been my top recommendation for friends looking to build cheap but capable systems lately.

[haralabospap]

I initially built my PC with a b450 + 2200G combo, then bought a graphics card, then a 3 3100. Now I'm looking to upgrade to 5000 series, having the same motherboard all these years is such a pleasure. By Intel standards, I would be on my way buying a third motherboard. Even if buying the absolutely cheapest motherboard available, I would still had spent at least 100€ more on buying motherboards.

[splatlingsquid]

It feels weird not having Closed Captions UK on your video.
Regardless, I kind of love that the CPU market has been really good these past years. Stagnation hit hard after Intel 2000 series, glad to see that we're getting more cores, IPC/Performance, and also competitive prices just about everywhere.

[klmklmklm]

I always thought the 5500 always looked like a good deal but I see now with the cache limitation, it doesn't perform nearly as well as the 5600. Especially in the 1% lows which is what you notice the most. Thanks Philip, was going to buy one!

[BarDocK_LSSJ]

5800x3d is truly an interesting cpu, can't wait to see what the new ryzen 7000 will do with 3d cache

[matthewwatt]

Maybe I'm in a weird niche, but I have a console-like ITX case I'm looking to upgrade from an ancient i5 4670k, and it seems like the motherboards are so much cheaper (~£100 saving) on the AMD side that I'd be much better served by them than the equivalent Intel setup.
My slim CPU cooler also wouldn't have to work as hard for the more efficient AMD chip, and it'd be quieter as a result.

[JaredAF]

Definitely updating to a 5800X3D and an RTX card later this year. Currently on a 2600 and RX 590. Had no idea the 5800X3D even existed!

[maxkarmax]

With the recent 5000 series price drop and BIOS upgrade for my 5 years old(!) Asus Prime x370-pro I upgraded my 1700x to a 5900x and I couldn't be any happier! This is how you keep customers from moving to the competition. Hopefully early adopters for the AM5 platform will receive at least the same (and possibly better) level of support.

[victordrouinviallard]

Damn that integrity Philip! you're an AMD lover as you've proven over the years and now you tell us to buy Intel? :O how big was their check?

(it's a joke)

[justanormalducknothingspec]

As my 9th gen i7 9700k died i ordered a R7 5800X3D. Haven't tried it yet. Getting parts in 2 or 3 days but i am stoked as I'm pretty much only doing gaming and the CPU i had was good enough for everything. Having that huge cache will boost my gaming performance by quite a bit i hope. Most games i play will benefit from the larger cache.

[Stifo]

Hey Philip, I love your videos and watch (almost) every one. I did however have trouble focusing on your voice in this one due to the loud background music. If it is possible to lower it just a little bit in the future I would appreciate it! I don't know it's always been this loud but I haven't reacted like this before. Thanks

[thelordkiller_ytxxshadowmi]

Ayo, where are the subtitles? This is one thing I love about this channel. Because I'm not a native english speaker, the subtitles help me keep up with what is being said in the video. What happened?

[no_mnom]

I heard some LGA1700 boards or sockets bend because of the new mechanism which is definitely... A bit scary worried me a lot when I built my pc, hopefully it will be addressed instead of what Intel gave which is "it won't impact thermal performance enough to matter much" when in reality even 2-4c increase at full load due to a design issue is quite significant

[BER-LF]

Good video but there are a few variables you didn't take into account: First, even the most basic H610 motherboards cost 50% more than A320/A520, and while they are guaranteed to work (on AM4 you really need to make sure the board has the latest bios or else you have to use a boot kit, as mentioned), it basically equalizes the value proposition between AMD and Intel.
Second: Most GPU prices are still around 50% above MSRP, so it still isn't a very good time to build anew.
Third: While Zen 4 will likely steal the show later this year, the (BF) discounts on previous generations of CPUs and AM4 boards will likely make them VERY attractive options, particularly for people who just want to play their existing library at the best possible performance ( I'm probably not the only one who doesn't care much for newer games, particularly from the AAA space)

[qwesx]

I much prefer AMD's processors because of the lower power usage (which does add up over the years, especially with rising energy costs), but there's one thing I always appreciated about Intel's processors: most of them have a version with integrated graphics - so if your GPU dies then you can at least still use your computer until a replacement arrives (or you don't need one at all if you're a regular home desktop user).
And while it's nice that you get ECC memory support with AMD's regular CPUs (which Intel locks to their Xeon processors with a massive premium on top) their APUs don't have ECC support unless your pay the extra premium for the "Pro" version (the premium is very noticably smaller compared to Intel, but still).

I get it, cache is really quite expensive. It's possibly one of the most expensive parts of the sillicon itself so it makes sense that it gets cut for budget CPUs and they're absolutely fine for regular home usage. But seriously AMD, put freaking integrated graphics into your processors already by default.

[Pcktz]

had my a320m for so long, started from 2200g up until I upgraded to a 3700x. and yet that a320m is still holding up very well with no performance deficit

[Delta_Pizza]

Kinda regret I got my 5600X before the price drop but I still feel it was a decent deal