AMD Ryzen 5000 Series

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series

Zen noun
Definition

1: a Japanese sect of Mahayana Buddhism that aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation
2: a state of calm attentiveness in which one's actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort
3: a revolutionary AMD architecture that transformed the chip manufacturer's fortunes in the battle against rival Intel

It's that third definition that tech enthusiasts will remember, and make no mistake, since the arrival of the first AMD Ryzen processors a little over three years ago, the Zen architecture has made rapid progress with subsequent releases, culminating in today's arrival of the all-singing, all-dancing Ryzen 5000 Series.

A choice of four chips is available on day one, with each harnessing the latest enhancements available to the ultra-refined Zen 3 architecture. We'll cover some of those upgrades shortly, but first let's see where the initial 5000 Series quartet fits into the overall AMD Ryzen desktop product landscape.

Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X. Those are the choices at launch, and perusing the specification table suggests that not a lot has changed between 3000 and 5000 Series parts. Core and thread counts are consistent with previous-generation counterparts, TDPs are familiar at up to 105W, and the latest hardware continues to be built on a 7nm process that has served AMD well.

On paper, the most obvious change is an increase in peak frequency - the headline Ryzen 9 5950X can hit 4.9GHz, a 0.2GHz increase over the incumbent 3950X - but such goodness is offset by a slightly higher MSRP that doesn't take into account retail discounts on older hardware. Doesn't seem a revolutionary upgrade, yet there's more to Zen 3 than first meets the eye.

Zen 3 Upgrades

Appreciating that it has an incredibly solid foundation in Zen 2, AMD's focus has shifted primarily to IPC, identified as the last remaining hurdle that separates its Ryzen CPUs from rival Intel Core. You may have heard suggestions that Core hardware is better suited to gaming, and for the most part that argument has proven accurate; Intel's lead in IPC (instructions per clock) has thus far managed to keep Ryzen at arm's length in common gaming scenarios.

The time has come to banish such ideals. With Zen 3, AMD promises a significant IPC uplift to the tune of almost 20 per cent. No small feat for a processor series built on the same process while employing the long-running AM4 socket. So how has AMD managed to drastically increase the amount of work completed per clock cycle?

As is often the case with CPU architectures, it's a case of multiple seemingly small tweaks that combine to great effect. At the front end, AMD has beefed up the branch predictor with more bandwidth and the ability to quickly recover from mispredicts, helping keep things moving in an optimal manner.

The Zen 3 execution engine stands to benefit from a 50 per cent increase in dispatch bandwidth (6 vs. 4), and greater load/store resources are at hand to shift data from memory and registers more efficiently than ever before. These are evolutionary enhancements geared toward bridging the IPC divide, and the changes extend all the way through to cache.

In an eight-core configuration, for example, Zen 2 would employ dual CCXes (core complexes), giving each access to an independent pool of L3 cache. Zen 3 takes a far more favourable approach in the form of a monolithic CCD (core chiplet die) whereby each core is able to dip into one all-encompassing L3 cache, reducing the need for cross-communication and the added latency that such inefficiency would bring. Point is, Zen 3 takes Zen 2 and irons out certain wrinkles to fundamentally transform IPC performance. And remember, a Ryzen 5000 Series CPU will slot right into most existing X570 and B550 motherboards with a simple BIOS update.

Performance

You have to see it to believe it, and benchmarks from leading review sites confirm that AMD's IPC ambitions have been realised, and then some. The single-thread Cinebench test is a good indication of IPC performance, and Ryzen 9 5950X delivers a performance uplift of just over 21 per cent compared to the already-quick Ryzen 9 3950X.

Top of the charts in both single- and multi-threaded tests. It is clear that AMD's Ryzen journey is complete; the new 5000 Series delivers on all fronts.

And yes, for gamers, Ryzen can no longer be deemed a second-class citizen. Indeed, at the time of writing, there is no better gaming CPU than AMD Ryzen 9 5000 Series.

Summary

Make no mistake, AMD has well and truly hit its stride, and with the Zen 3 architecture delivers best-in-class performance irrespective of scenario. Whether you're gaming, rendering, or getting accustomed to working from home, a Ryzen 5000 Series CPU ticks every applicable box.

Ready to make the leap? The full range of AMD Ryzen 5000 Series processors are available to purchase right here at Scan Computers.