With DDR5 memory prices jetting off into silly land, it looks as though AMD is realising that there’s still plenty of life left in its 10-year-old AM4 platform. The company has just unveiled a new CPU for the ageing socket, and unlike the rereleased Ryzen 7 5800X3D, it also has a surprisingly affordable price of £87.98.
The AMD Ryzen 5 5500F has six Zen 3 cores, but unlike the 5500 before it, the new chip has a faster clock speed. This means the Ryzen 5 5500F boosts to up to 4.4GHz, compared to just 4.2GHz on the 5500. While that will give the new chip a slight edge in games, though, bear in mind that there isn’t much cache on this chip.
Ryzen 5 5500F specs
| Ryzen 5 5500F | |
|---|---|
| Architecture | Zen 3 |
| Core | Vermeer |
| Cores / threads | 6 / 12 |
| Base clock | 3GHz |
| Boost clock | 4.4GHz |
| L2 cache | 3MB |
| L3 cache | 16MB |
| TDP | 65W |
| Socket | AM4 |
As with the Ryzen 5 5500, AMD says there’s only 16MB of L3 cache on the 5500F, which means there will be more cache misses, resulting in the need for your CPU to page your system RAM. Weirdly, AMD also says the 5500F is based on its Vermeer core, which usually gives you 32MB of L3 cache (as with the 5600X), while the later Cezanne-based chips only have 16MB. This all sounds a bit suspicious to me, suggesting some crossed wires somewhere. I suspect the 5500F is actually a Cezanne chip, but we’ll hopefully find out what’s going on in the near future.
The price looks good, though. You can currently pre-order the AMD Ryzen 5 5500F for £87.98 from Scan in the UK, meaning it’s a good £58 than a Ryzen 5 5600X from the same retailer. That 200MHz clock speed advantage over the 5500 doesn’t cost a huge amount of money either, with an extra £13 buying you the faster cheap.
That’s not the only new AMD chip that’s appeared today. The company has also launched a cut-price CPU for its AM5 platform, called the Ryzen 5 7500. This chip gives you six Zen 4 cores, complete with 32MB of L3 cache, and a 5GHz boost clock.
Ryzen 5 7500 specs
| Ryzen 5 7500 | |
|---|---|
| Architecture | Zen 4 |
| Core | Raphael |
| Cores / threads | 6 / 12 |
| Base clock | 3.7GHz |
| Boost clock | 5GHz |
| L2 cache | 6MB |
| L3 cache | 32MB |
| TDP | 65W |
| Socket | AM5 |
This one is in a bit of a weird pricing spot, though. Scan is listing it for £167.99 at the moment, meaning it’s actually more expensive than the 5.3GHz Ryzen 5 7600X, which goes for £149.99 at the same retailer.
As we saw in our Ryzen 7 7700X3D review, AMD needs to pay attention to pricing when it brings out ostensibly lower-priced CPUs. If the Ryzen 5 7500 gets a decent price cut in future, it could well be worth considering as an entry-level chip. Even then, though, you’ll need to factor in the cost of DDR5 memory. Of the two new chips, the Ryzen 5 5500F is the clear star of the show here, costing well under £100, while also working with DDR4 RAM. You even get a free Wraith cooler in the box with it.
If you’re looking to upgrade your processor, check out our guide to buying the best CPU for your needs, where we take you through all our current top picks.
