Review: Ryzen 5 5500 and 5600 Can Breathe New Life Into Older AMD PCs
upstart writes:
Review: Ryzen 5 5500 and 5600 can breathe new life into older AMD PCs:
AMD's Ryzen 5 5500 and 5600 CPUs (which go on sale today for $159 and $199, respectively) are both six-core 12-thread processors aimed squarely at mid-range, price-conscious PCs used for gaming and photo and video editing. The new Ryzens significantly undercut the original $299 asking price of the Ryzen 5 5600X (the 5600X was, for many months, the cheapest way to get Zen 3). And the CPUs finally provide a replacement for the last-gen $199 Ryzen 5 3600.
But the new chips have stiff competition in Intel's Core i5-12400 processor ($210-ish with an integrated GPU, $180-ish without one). Intel's desktop CPUs were saddled with the aging Skylake architecture and/or the aging 14nm manufacturing process for years, but a modern architecture and the Intel 7 process make the 12400 Intel's most appealing mid-range CPU option in a long time. The Ryzen 5 5600X has also seen price cuts recently, falling down to around $230 to make more room for the $300 eight-core Ryzen 7 5700X.
[...] AMD's power efficiency compares well to older 10th- and 11th-generation Intel chips. The Ryzen PCs draw a bit more power at the wall, but they also take less time to complete the work. But the Core i5-12400 manages to catch up and then some, thanks to the Intel 7 process. AMD may well regain its power-efficiency edge with Ryzen 7000 CPUs on TSMC's 5nm process, but for now, Intel has a small advantage (at least when you're not running a Core i7 or i9 CPU with its power limits turned up).
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.