So far, AMD has confirmed two chips in the Ryzen 5 lineup, the R5 1600X and R5 1500X. The former features 6 Zen cores and 12 threads while the latter features 4 cores and 8 threads. The official release time frame for these chips is the second quarter of 2017, spanning April to June. You could realistically expect AMD to launch Ryzen 5 anywhere in that time-frame.
Ryzen 5 1600X <$300 6-core 12-thread CPU With 3.6GHz Base & 4.0GHz Boost
The chip features the same base and boost clock as its $499 bigger brother the 1800X. Additionally, while pricing has not been announced yet, AMD’s Jim Anderson head of the Computing and Graphics division did confirm that the Ryzen 5 family will slot in between $299-$199. So we know that this chip will definitely come in below $300.
This means that buyers will be able to get a 6-core, 12-thread CPU with the same clock speed as the 1800X and 75% of the multi-threaded performance for nearly half the price. And again, because the clock speeds are identical we’re bound to see a significantly smaller delta in gaming performance between the two chips. Which explains why the 1600X has been a favorite since its announcement among many DIY builders and gamers looking to upgrade.
For this caliber of a chip on the Intel side you’d have to pony up $420 for an i7 6800K. That’s in addition to spending more money on the motherboard. Intel’s X99 platform is significantly more expensive compared to what AMD’s B350 and X370 options are offering. You can easily end up spending twice as much as you would on an 1600X and an AM4 motherboard with a similarly specced 6-core Intel CPU + motherboard.
Ryzen 5 1500X ~$200 4-core 8-thread With 3.5GHz Base & 3.7GHz Boost
The newly announced 1500X will slot in right below the 1600X. You can think of this chip as a Ryzen 7 1700X chopped in half. It has a base clock that’s 100Mhz higher and a boost clock that’s 100Mhz lower than the 1700X. It also has exactly half the number of cores and half the number of threads. Considering that the 1700X is a $400 chip, the 1500X will in all likelihood be priced towards the low end of that $299-$199 range AMD is targeting with the Ryzen 5 family.
Source: wccftech
