Introducing AMD Ryzen 5 Processor Family

AMD announced that it will launch four Ryzen 5 processors worldwide on Tuesday, April 11, 2017. These new mainstream processors are designed to bring innovation to the high-volume, sub-$300 CPU market with a disruptive price-to-performance ratio for gamers and creators.

These Ryzen 5 CPUs will be available for sale on April the 11th.

• Ryzen 5 1600X : 6-Cores 12-Threads, Base Clock 3.6 GHz, Boost Clock 4.0 GHz
• Ryzen 5 1600: 6-Cores 12-Threads, Base Clock 3.2 GHz, Boost Clock 3.6 GHz
• Ryzen 5 1500X: 4-Cores 8-Threads, Base Clock 3.5 GHz, Boost Clock 3.7 GHz
• Ryzen 5 1400: 4-Cores 8-Threads, Base Clock 3.2 GHz, Boost Clock 3.4 GHz

The top end 1600X is priced at $249, and is the only CPU in this series that is rated at 95W TDP. All the others in this series are 65W TDP. The 1500X has "special" spec as well, as its XFR frequency is 200MHz over its top rated clock, where the others are 100MHz. And of course all the Ryzen 5 CPUs are multiplier unlocked.

The coolers for Ryzen 5 are not RGB capable like the ones we saw with the Ryzen 7. The smaller Stealth cooler is rated at 65W and the Spire cooler is rated at 95W.

Certainly the Ryzen 5 1600 and 1600X are going to be interesting. As AMD positioned them directly to compete with Intel's Core i5 Kaby Lake. Specifically, AMD is taking aim at Intel’s $242 Core i5-7600K, a 3.8GHz, 4-Cores/4-Threads chip, with its slightly pricier Ryzen 5 1600X ($249), which offers three times the threads count. (Intel’s cheapest 6-core chip, the Core i7-5820K, is $389). AMD claimed that the Ryzen 5 1600X will perform 69% better than Core i5-7600K on Cinebench.

As a refresh, below are AMD AM4 motherboard chipsets line-up:

Last but not least...

Kelangkaan Motherboard AM4

Processor AMD Ryzen 7 telah resmi diluncurkan seminggu yang lalu dan tersedia dalam jumlah yang cukup memadai. Ryzen mendapat sambutan positif dari sebagian besar reviewer. Banyak pengguna tertarik untuk membangun sistem PC baru berbasis AMD Ryzen saat ini. Akan tetapi, ada satu hal yang menghalangi momentum tersebut, yaitu terjadinya kelangkaan motherboard AM4 yang kompatibel dengan AMD Ryzen.

Saat ini kelihatannya sangat sulit menjumpai motherboard X370 bahkan B350 di pasaran, baik retailer online maupun channel distribusi tradisional. Banyak pengguna mengeluhkan hal ini dan menunda pembelian processor Ryzen hingga motherboard tersedia, dengan alasan logis bahwa tidak ada gunanya memiliki processor andalan AMD ini tanpa didukung oleh motherboard AM4.

Apa sumber permasalahan ini? Mengapa hal ini bisa terjadi? Menurut beberapa sumber, ternyata para pemegang merk motherboard ternama pada awalnya kurang yakin atas kinerja atau bahkan sedikit menganggap remeh potensi pasar Ryzen. Alhasil, mereka tidak memproduksi stok dalam jumlah besar karena belum yakin apakah produk mereka akan laris atau tidak.

Kabar terakhir, sejumlah pabrikan motherboard telah menggenjot produksi setelah keberhasilan peluncuran Ryzen yang gemilang. Diharapkan dalam 2 minggu ke depan, persediaan motherboard akan dapat mencukupi kebutuhan pasar. Hopefully! :-)

Ryzen Launch Detected! AMD is Back

March 02, 2017: AMD’s highly anticipated Ryzen CPU was officially launched and lives up to the hype. It delivers a very good value at an unbeatable price: $499 for the highest-end Ryzen 7 1800X. That’s half the price of its closest Intel competitor.

The failure of Bulldozer made AMD lagging behind for years, left the high end market to Intel and pursuing on an ARM CPU for servers. In fact, the last time AMD had a truly competitive CPU, George W. Bush was still the President of USA. It's a long time ago, in the galaxy far, far away :D

Ryzen is very different from its predecessor. The AMD FX (Bulldozer) CPUs used a technique called clustered multithreading (CMT) that shared key components of the chip; they were built on an uncompetitive 32nm, and later 28nm process.

With Ryzen, AMD rebooted its CPU design, adopted a technique called simultaneous multithreading (SMT), which virtualizes CPU resources. Ryzen CPUs are built on a state-of-the-art 14nm process by AMD’s spun-off fab, Global Foundries.

The appearance: AMD FX, and AMD Ryzen chip

AMD FX on the left has more pins than the AMD Ryzen on the right

AMD has already said Ryzen exceeds its goal of a 40-percent increase over previous designs—in fact, it has hit a 52-percent increase in clock-for-clock performance over the Piledriver cores. But the most important you want to know is how well it does against Intel.

Well, reviews and benchmarks already flooded the web...Check it out!

“Based on my analysis of AMD Ryzen, I can confidently say that Ryzen desktop is the real thing and AMD is back in desktops, back with a vengeance.” Forbes - AMD Ryzen Desktop: AMD Said It Would Be Awesome And It Is – Pat Moorhead

“Ryzen is going to rock for some time to come. AMD's new Ryzen CPU family is off to a great start.” Hothardware: Marco Chiapetta

“AMD’s Ryzen 7 1800X is a good chip at a great price and its putting Intel on notice. AMD is back and the 1800X is the first step in the perennial underdog’s plan regain market share from Intel and build confidence in its products.”  SemiAccurate: Thomas Ryan

“AMD fans have something to rejoice about, and CPU buyers have some tough decisions to make. Regardless if you are a fan of either camp or an impartial observer, competition is always a good thing for the consumer, so I guess we all win!” Tweaktown

“Consider where AMD was coming from and look at what they have achieved with Ryzen, it’s nothing short of amazing. I’m excited to see AMD delivering competitive high-end CPUs and it’ll be interesting to watch how well they can refine the Zen architecture over the coming years.” Techspot

“The overall performance of the 1800X is breathtakingly impressive, and it’s a feeling that we’ve not seen with an AMD CPU in a very long time.” – HardwareZone Malaysia

“To sum it up – Ryzen is Amazing!” – Goldfries

“All in, Ryzen 7 solidly puts AMD back into the mindshare of enthusiast PCs. The Zen architecture is definitely much more exciting than Intel's incremental Kaby Lake and proof that AMD is able fight Intel head to head in terms of innovation.” – HardwareZone Singapore

“Ryzen is certainly shaping up to be the disruptive force we're all hoping it can be” – PC Authority