AMD

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs Get Price Cuts Ahead of Ryzen 7000 Launch

February 14, 2024

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs Get Price Cuts Ahead of Ryzen 7000 Launch

I’m excited to share the latest news about AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series CPUs getting price cuts ahead of the upcoming Ryzen 7000 launch. As an avid PC builder and AMD fan, this is great news for consumers like myself looking to upgrade to the latest and greatest AMD has to offer.

Overview of Ryzen 5000 Series

The Ryzen 5000 series is AMD’s current generation of Ryzen desktop processors based on the Zen 3 architecture. Key things to know:

Released in 2020 – The Ryzen 5000 series launched in November 2020 and includes the Ryzen 9 5950X, 5900X, 5800X, and 5600X.
Significant IPC gains – Zen 3 delivered approximately 19% higher instructions per clock (IPC) over the previous Zen 2 architecture. This resulted in major performance improvements in both single and multi-threaded workloads.
Built on 7nm process – The Ryzen 5000 chips are built on TSMC’s advanced 7nm manufacturing process, allowing for higher core counts and clock speeds compared to previous generations.
PCIe 4.0 support – The Ryzen 5000 series supports the latest PCIe 4.0 interface for ultra-fast connections to NVMe SSDs, graphics cards, and other peripherals.
Excellent gaming performance – With the IPC gains and fast clock speeds, the Ryzen 5000 series closed the gaming gap with Intel and exceeded them in many titles at 1080p.

Ryzen 5000 Price Cuts

The exciting news is that AMD has slashed prices across the entire Ryzen 5000 lineup ahead of the upcoming Ryzen 7000 launch. Here are the new lowered MSRPs:

Ryzen 9 5950X: ~~$799~~ $569 (29% price cut)
Ryzen 9 5900X: ~~$549~~ $439 (20% price cut)
Ryzen 7 5800X: ~~$449~~ $339 (25% price cut)
Ryzen 5 5600X: ~~$299~~ $229 (23% price cut)

These price cuts make the Ryzen 5000 chips extremely competitive against Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. The Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core is now priced similarly to the Core i7-12700K, while the 8-core 5700X competes directly with the i5-12600K. This results in much better value for consumers.

Why Price Cuts Before Ryzen 7000 Launch?

There are a few strategic reasons why AMD may have decided to lower Ryzen 5000 prices now:

Clearing inventory – Price cuts help clear out existing Ryzen 5000 stock before the new Ryzen 7000 chips launch. This avoids having old inventory sitting around.
Compete with Raptor Lake – Intel is launching its 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs later this year. Lower Ryzen 5000 pricing helps fend off these new Intel CPUs.
Increase access and adoption – Lower prices allow more budget-conscious buyers access to excellent Zen 3 performance. This helps increase Zen 3’s market share and adoption before the next generation.
Smooth transition – Having Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 7000 concurrently available at staggered pricing allows consumers a smoother transition to the newer generation.

What to Expect with Ryzen 7000 Series

The Ryzen 7000 series launching later this year will bring some major technology enhancements:

Zen 4 architecture – Expected IPC gains around 8-10% over Zen 3. Improved cache, branch prediction, prefetching, and floating point.
TSMC 5nm process – Enables faster clock speeds, higher efficiency, and better yields.
DDR5 + PCIe 5.0 – Next-gen memory support with blazing fast speeds up to DDR5-6400. Also gets the latest PCIe 5.0 lanes.
AM5 platform – Will require new AM5 motherboards. Features include DDR5, more PCIe 5.0 lanes, dual-channel DDR5 memory controllers.

Based on rumors and leaks, the Ryzen 7000 series will be extremely powerful, but also more expensive at launch than current Ryzen 5000 pricing. The Ryzen 7000 flagship is expected to have up to 16 cores and a staggering 5.5 GHz boost clock speed.

Bottom Line

The recent major price cuts on the Ryzen 5000 series make these Zen 3-based CPUs extremely attractive options for new PC builds and upgrades. We get exceptional value right now on some of AMD’s best desktop processors before the next generation arrives. For budget-focused builders, these lower prices are great for accessing premium AMD performance. Enthusiasts eyeing the upcoming Ryzen 7000 series can also consider snagging a discounted Ryzen 5000 chip now for a cheaper stopgap before upgrading later to Zen 4.