AMD finally delivers budget Ryzen 5000 and 4000-series CPUs

AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPU showing its chiplet based design
(Image credit: AMD)

AMD has finally announced cheaper Zen 3 CPUs, over a year after their high-end counterparts were released. Generally the plan has been to fill out the cheaper end of its chip stack with APUs and integrated graphics, but it's been Intel that has won the recent battles for more budget-friendly chips. The Intel Core i5 12400, for example, is a budget gaming machine. Intel also tends to get a full slate of budget CPUs out a little quicker than AMD—as today's tardy processor release shows. 

AMD has announced three new Zen 3 CPUs today: the Ryzen 5 5500, Ryzen 5 5600, and Ryzen 7 5700X. 

Alongside that, AMD is finally bringing the long lost Ryzen 4000-series to the desktop with the Ryzen 3 4100, Ryzen 5 4500, and Ryzen 5 4600G. These are all Zen 2-based parts and the Ryzen 5 4600G also includes integrated Radeon graphics using something akin to the Vega architecture. 

Now what's interesting about all of these chips are the prices. The Zen 2-based 4000-series chips start out at $99 and reach $154 with the Ryzen 5 4600G. That could be a good pickup for a gaming PC on a budget, though remains a Vega-powered GPU onboard—we're more excited for the RDNA 2-based APUs coming out of AMD with Ryzen mobile chips for their graphical grunt nowadays, but needs must.

The 5000-series now begins at $159 and ends up at the $299 Ryzen 7 5700X. That's actually at the price the Ryzen 5 5600X demanded at launch, though it has since dropped to $230. With these new chips launching, it looks like some of the discount Ryzen 5000-series price drops we've spotted recently are here to stay. 

That makes sense considering the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is sitting at a tasty $199 MSRP.

All of which makes for more competition with Intel's cheaper chips, such as the $209 Core i5 12400 and $120 i5 12100F. Though perhaps it's not a silver bullet to the heart of Alder Lake, considering as AMD's cheaper chips here are built on an older architecture.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
New 2022 AMD Ryzen processors
Row 0 - Cell 0 Cores/threadsBoost clock/base clock (GHz)Price
Ryzen 7 5800X3D8/164.5/3.4$449
Ryzen 7 5700X8/164.6/3.4$299
Ryzen 5 56006/124.4/3.5$199
Ryzen 5 55006/124.2/3.6$159
Ryzen 5 4600G6/124.2/3.7$154
Ryzen 5 45006/124.1/3.6$129
Ryzen 3 41004/84/3.8$99

There's one more chip AMD has announced more details on today, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This is the first with AMD's 3D V-Cache technology, and is looking to launch as the best CPU for gaming the AM4 socket will ever see. That chip is arriving on April 20, 2022.

We've not heard a firm release date for these remaining AMD Ryzen 5000- and 4000-series processors yet, but we'll keep an eye out for availability. These announcements are all a part of AMD's Spring Update, so they're bound to be available soon. If I had to take a guess, I'd say retailers will be stocking them momentarily, and perhaps some OEMs will begin offering these in prebuilt machines.

One more thing: AMD has announced that it is now officially supporting 5000-series chips on 300-series motherboards, such as those with the X370 and B350 chipsets. That means if you're rocking an older chip, such as the Ryzen 5 1600, you could now upgrade to one of these newly-announced chips in a pinch for a significant performance uplift.

TOPICS
Jacob Ridley
Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.

Read more
AMD press slide detailing the Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor.
AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D CPUs are rumoured to launch at the end of March at roughly the same time as the RX 9070-series GPUs
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor
AMD has just announced the two new 9000-series X3D chips we were hoping for, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor
A German retailer reports the Ryzen 7 9800X3D has outsold the entire non-X3D 9000 line
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor
AMD's CEO Dr Lisa Su claims 'highest sell-out in many years' for desktop processors and the company is 'catching up with some demand' for gaming CPUs
A close-up photo of AMD's AM4 CPU socket
Old AM4 CPUs including the Ryzen 5000 still make up 50% of AMD's sales today
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor
AMD accuses Intel's Arrow Lake of being a 'horrible' product and implies a lack of options for consumers has caused the Ryzen 7 9800X3D shortage
Latest in Processors
A chip being held up in an Intel fab
Intel is reportedly 'working to finalize commitments from Nvidia' as a foundry partner, suggesting gaming potential for the 18A node
AMD Strix Point APU chip, held in a hand, with the reflected light showing the various processing blocks in the chip die
AMD's next-gen 'Gorgon Point' APU outted and seemingly sticks with RDNA 3.5 graphics which is disappointing for handheld gaming PCs if accurate
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivering pancakes and sausages to pre-GTC show hosts and guests, wearing an apron
'There might be a party. I wasn't invited,' says Jensen Huang of the rumoured TSMC proposal to join forces and run Intel's chip fabs
Nvidia Feynman GPU
While we despair of RTX 50-series supplies and wait on next-gen Rubin, Nvidia reveals its next-next GPU architecture will be known as Feynman and is due in 2028
Nvidia Vera CPU
Nvidia reveals Vera, a new CPU with 'custom' cores which could be very exciting for its upcoming premium PC processor
Machinery tools and equipment,Rolls of galvanized steel for production metal pipes and tubes for industrial ventilation systems in factory.
New super-thin '2D' metal sheets could enable ultra-low power chips and can you guess how they're made? Yup, by squishing stuff really hard
Latest in News
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April
Napster client circa 1999
Former music-pirating platform Napster to be reborn rather ironically as a metaverse for musicians to connect with their fans after $207 million deal
The snazzy red and black HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headphones float in a teal void. The microphone is attached to the headset.
The best wireless gaming headset is now even better in the Amazon Big Spring Sale, boasting a more than $50 discount
A chip being held up in an Intel fab
Intel is reportedly 'working to finalize commitments from Nvidia' as a foundry partner, suggesting gaming potential for the 18A node