AMD RyZen 5 is in stores - review

AMD RyZen 7 is not recommended for gamers, who don't stream or anything else while gaming, as 4 of the 8 cores remain mostly unused in today's games. Most games are optimized for 4 cores, so RyZen 5 makes much more sense for gamers, as they can spend less money on the CPU and more on the GPU, making the system much more affordable and balanced.

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In terms of raw CPU performance the AMD RyZen 5 1400/1500X 4c/8t is on the same level as the previous generation AMD FX-8000 processor lineup, while the power consumption is just 50% of the AM3+ platform... but for gaming, obviously the new platform is much better, as it features PCI-Express 3.0 and up to DDR4-3600Mhz memory, alongside the fast M.2 SSD storage slot.

AMD RyZen 5 1600/1600X 6c/12t has more power than Intel's Core i7-7700 4c/8t, but it's not as good a deal gaming, as the RyZen 5 1400 4c/8t. This processor is recommended for heavy multitasking on a very low budget.

The good news about these processors is that they all contain two quad core modules, with 2 or 4 cores disabled symmetrically, so the 16MB L3 cache, PCI-Express lanes and memory controllers remain intact - they are the same as in the RyZen 7 lineup.

In some situations it would be faster to have a single module, as the four cores could be directly connected to everything, instead of going through the Infinity Fabric between CPU modules, CPU and RAM, CPU and video card...etc. BUT some reviewers did a simulated comparison, and came to the conclusion that in real world gaming it doesn't make a noticeable difference.

The big question in my mind is whether AMD will release some low end processor (RyZen 3 or Athlon category) with only one module, as they would be faster and more efficient than current FM2+ and AM3+ quad core processors, even though they would be limited to single channel memory and 8 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes for the main graphics card slot. It remains to be seen if AMD will consider such products at least for low end laptops, where single channel memory is actually quite common.