new budget Zen 3 and Zen 4 CPUs soften the blow from high RAM

AMD has officially launched the Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500, two strong contenders for the best CPUs on the market if you're on a budget. Both are hexa-core chips, with the Ryzen 5 5500F featuring AMD's Zen 3 execution cores and the Ryzen 5 7500 using the newer Zen 4 execution cores. The Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500, priced at $99 and $189, respectively, are available at U.S. retailers starting today.

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The Ryzen 5 5500F, despite its similar model name to the Ryzen 5 5500, belongs to a different family in AMD's portfolio. The Ryzen 5 5500F hails from the Ryzen 5000 series (codenamed Vermeer), which uses a multi-chiplet architecture. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5500 comes from the Ryzen 5000G series (codenamed Cezanne), which uses a monolithic die design.

Therefore, it is more sound to call the Ryzen 5 5500F a lower-binned version of the Ryzen 5 5600, rather than an iGPU-less variant of the Ryzen 5 5500, which lacks integrated graphics to begin with. The distinction matters because the Ryzen 5 5500F is closer to the Ryzen 5 5600, albeit with a 500 MHz lower boost clock speed and half the L3 cache.

The Ryzen 5 5600, which launched at $199, now retails for around $159, making the new Ryzen 5 5500F approximately 38% more affordable. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5500, which debuted at $159, has lost substantial value over the years. OEM tray versions of the Ryzen 5 5500 now start at just $74, so it is still the most cost-effective entry point into the AM4 ecosystem. Compared to the Ryzen 5 5500, the Ryzen 5 5500F carries a 34% price premium. The latter justifies its higher cost with a slightly higher boost clock speed, which translates to better gaming performance, and support for PCIe 4.0, unlocking faster SSDs and graphics cards.

Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500 Specifications

Processor

MSRP / Current Price

Architecture / Codename

Platform

Cores / Threads

Base / Boost Clock (GHz)

L2 Cache (MB)

L3 Cache (MB)

Graphics Model

Graphics Core

Graphics Frequency (MHz)

Memory Support

PCIe Lanes

TDP (W)

Ryzen 5 7600

$229 / $226

Zen 4 / Raphael

AM5

6 / 12

3.8 / 5.1

6

32

AMD Radeon

2

2,200

DDR5-5200

24 PCIe 5.0

65

Ryzen 5 7500

$189 / $189

Zen 4 / Raphael

AM5

6 / 12

3.7 / 5.0

6

32

AMD Radeon

2

2,200

DDR5-5200

24 PCIe 5.0

65

Ryzen 5 7500F

$179 / $157

Zen 4 / Raphael

AM5

6 / 12

3.7 / 5.0

6

32

N/A

N/A

N/A

DDR5-5200

24 PCIe 5.0

65

Ryzen 5 5600

$199 / $159

Zen 3 / Vermeer

AM4

6 / 12

3.5 / 4.4

3

32

N/A

N/A

N/A

DDR4-3200

20 PCIe 4.0

65

Ryzen 5 5500F

$99 / $99

Zen 3 / Vermeer

AM4

6 / 12

3.0 / 4.4

3

16

N/A

N/A

N/A

DDR4-3200

20 PCIe 4.0

65

Ryzen 5 5500

$159 / $74

Zen 3 / Cezanne

AM4

6 / 12

3.6 / 4.2

3

16

N/A

N/A

N/A

DDR4-3200

20 PCIe 3.0

65

When it comes to the Ryzen 5 7500, little mystery surrounds its place in AMD's product stack. True to its name, the Ryzen 5 7500 is the same processor as the Ryzen 5 7500F, which launched three years ago, but with integrated Radeon graphics. This small addition suits users who need basic display output and do not plan to spend money on a discrete graphics card. Apart from the integrated graphics, all core specifications remain identical between the two models.

As a result, the difference between the Ryzen 5 7600 and the Ryzen 5 7500 stands. The former boasts a 100 MHz higher base and boost clock, so performance is somewhat better in certain processor-intensive workloads or gaming scenarios. However, most users may not notice the difference.

The Ryzen 5 7500F hit the market at $179, but over time its retail price has dropped to about $157. In contrast, the Ryzen 5 7600 has held its value over the years, falling only slightly from its original MSRP of $229 to around $226. As a result, the Ryzen 5 7500 positions itself as a mid-point option, priced 16% lower than the Ryzen 5 7600 and 20% above the Ryzen 5 7500F.

The Ryzen 5 7500 makes sense in this market because not everyone is a gamer, so integrated graphics mean you do not have to spend a fortune on a discrete graphics card at today's ridiculous prices. However, because it runs on AMD's AM5 platform, the Ryzen 5 7500 is still bound by the sky-high cost of DDR5.