AMD Ryzen 5 Lineup to Launch in April

By Amee Florence Payno, Christian Post Contributor Monday, March 20, 2017

After the launch of AMD's higher-end Ryzen 7 central processing unit (CPU) series earlier this month, AMD has announced the upcoming release of its midrange Ryzen 5 CPU series this coming April.

According to a press release issued by AMD, the Ryzen 5 desktop processors will launch worldwide on April 11. The midrange processor chips will come with the powerful and efficient "Zen" architecture, which varies from six-core, 12-thread and four-core, eight-thread options. Delivering enhanced performance and immersive experiences to gamers and consumers all over the world, the Ryzen 5 has a price range between $169 to $249.

"Ryzen will ultimately bring innovation and competition to virtually every segment of the PC market, and Ryzen 5 is the next big step on that journey, designed to achieve new levels of compute performance for millions of PC users," Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Computing and Graphics Group, said.

"AMD reinvigorated the high-performance desktop market with Ryzen 7 earlier this month, and AMD Ryzen 5 now brings the power and efficiency of the 'Zen' core to users in the highly popular sub-$300 segment of the market," he added.

The midrange Ryzen 5 series will consist of four stock keeping units (SKUs): the 1600X, 1600, 1500X and 1400.

The 1600X is the flagship chip and will come with a base clock speed of 3.6 GHz and a boost clock speed of as much as 4 GHz for the price of $249. The 1600 chip, on the other hand, has a base clock of 3.2 GHz and boost clock speed of 3.6 GHz, and costs $219. Both CPUs are six-core,12-thread processors built on AMD's new architecture.

The four-core, eight-thread variants of the Ryzen 5 series are the 1500X, priced at $189, and 1400, priced at $169. The 1500X will be released with a base clock speed of 3.5 GHz and a 3.7 GHz boost clock. The 1400X, on the other hand, will arrive with a 3.2 GHz base clock speed and a 3.4 GHz boost speed.

The AMD Ryzen 5 CPU series will be made available for purchase starting on April 11.