With their combination of excellent (for their class) performance and extremely reasonable asking prices the Ryzen 5 series is a home-run for AMD. So much so that recommending a slightly cheaper Intel i3-7350K or even a similarly priced Intel i5-7500K is bloody difficult. But don’t just take our word for it, instead let’s break it down so you can see where we are coming from and if you agree or not.
Basically, for only $40 more than the unlocked i3 buyers on a tight budget can get a Ryzen 5 1500X that will offer nearly the same single threaded performance (as seen by the i7 vs R5 1500X) but comes with twice the number of cores (and threads for that matter). What this means is that overall real-world performance is going to be higher as there are more cores to spread the load over. This means everything from Adobe Photoshop to WinRAR is going to be noticeably faster. The same holds true for gaming oriented buyers on a tight budget as two real cores is simply not going to be enough for modern multi-threaded enabled games. That makes the Ryzen 5 1500X a steal. As long as your budget can cover the extra $40 it really is as close to a ‘no-brainer’ as you are going to find these days.
Things are not quite so rosy if you are comparing the Ryzen 5 1500X to a i5 7500K, but that is completely acceptable as that is what the Ryzen 5 1600 and Ryzen 5 1600X are for. Here we would recommend ‘only’ saving ten dollars over the cost of the Intel i5 and opting for the noticeably faster 1600X. That is because the 1600X’s single threaded performance is going to be just as good and sometimes better than the Intel competitor. Mix in 50% more cores for superior multi-threaded performance and Intel is going to have seriously think about a price cut if they want their shiny new Kaby Lake i5 to stay competitive. This too is a veritable no-brainer as the Ryzen 5 1600X is the king of value right now for home builders.
So where does this leave the Ryzen 1600? In a pretty good position actually. For the enthusiast who is not afraid to overclock the 1600 is an incredible deal. As the entire Ryzen 5 and 7 lineup are basically going to hit a wall at about the 4.1GHz mark, those looking to save a few dollars can get equal performance from the 1600 as they can from a 1600X, but without spending the ‘X’ premium.
The same holds true for the budget constrained consumer who prizes multi-threaded performance over single thread performance. For instance, those wanting to building a video editing system for school, or their hobby, the Ryzen 5 1600 will be the better choice than any Intel processor in this price range and better than the Ryzen 5 1500X. For these buyers the twenty dollar price premium will be worth it. Just be aware that at stock settings it is going to be slower than the 1600X in all scenarios and slower than the Ryzen 5 1500X in single threaded scenarios.
In other words, this is a CPU that satisfies the needs of multiple groups of people and can be considered a specialist’s CPU. As such if you are not sure if its right for you or not… it probably is not going to be an optimal fit. Rest assured however that no matter which of these three high performance processors you do opt for it really is hard to go wrong. Their value is simply too high to not impress.
The Review
AMD Ryzen 5 series
In other words, this is a CPU that satisfies the needs of multiple groups of people and can be considered a specialist's CPU. As such if you are not sure if its right for you or not… it probably is not going to be an optimal fit.
