Alleged AMD Ryzen 5 3500 And 3500X Poised To Battle Intel In Budget PC Market
AMD might be planning to roll out more affordable third-generation Ryzen processors in the very near future. According to the latest round of leaks, there are at least two lower end chips in the wings, including the Ryzen 5 3500X and Ryzen 5 3500. Neither of these would qualify as entry-level, but both would presumably be cheaper than every current third-generation Ryzen processor.
We will get to the leaks in a moment, but first let's have a look at AMD's current third-gen Ryzen stack. Here are the processors that have been released (or announced) to date, with each one's launch pricing...
- Ryzen 9 3950X: 16 cores / 32 threads, 3.5GHz to 4.7GHz, 64MB L3 cache, 105W, $749
- Ryzen 9 3900X: 12 cores / 24 threads, 3.8GHz to 4.6GHz, 64MB L3 cache, 105W, $499
- Ryzen 7 3800X: 8 cores / 16 threads, 3.9GHz to 4.5GHz, 32MB L3 cache, 105W, $399
- Ryzen 7 3700X: 8 cores / 16 threads, 3.6GHz to 4.4GHz, 32MB L3 cache, 65W, $329
- Ryzen 5 3600X: 6 cores / 12 threads, 3.8GHz to 4.4GHz, 32MB L3 cache, 95W, $249
- Ryzen 5 3600: 6 cores / 12 threads, 3.6GHz to 4.2GHz, 32MB L3 cache, 65W, $199
Over on Twitter, user @momomo_us posted a slide deck of an unreleased Ryzen 5 3500X processor, along with a product link in China. Have a look...
According to the leaked slide, the Ryzen 5 3500X is a 6-core/6-thread processor with a 3.6GHz base clock and 4.1GHz boost clock (and is based on AMD's Zen 2 architecture, of course). It will also have 32MB of L3 cache and a 65W TDP, and ship with a Wraith Stealth air cooler. Those are close in specs to the Ryzen 3600, only without simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) support, and a 100MHz slower boost clock.
We can't say if the slides are accurate, but if they are, then AMD will be pitching the Ryzen 5 3500X as a better option than Intel's Core i5-9400F, which is a 6-core/6-thread chip clocked at 2.9GHz to 4.1GHz, with 9MB of L3 cache.
In a pair of benchmarks slides, we see the Ryzen 5 3500X offering comparable performance to the Core i5-9400F in a handful of games. The message appears to be that the Ryzen 5 3500X is just as fast (and more so in some cases), while offering lower latencies in several esports games, such as League of Legends. AMD seemingly attributes the latter to the beefier L3 cache (32MB versus 9MB).
We have to take all this with a grain of salt, and the same goes for the premature product listing in China, where the Ryzen 5 3500X is priced at 1,099 yuan (around $154 in US currency).
Ryzen 5 3500
— APISAK (@TUM_APISAK) August 23, 2019
6C/6T
4.1/3.6 Ghz
These leaks and specs may or may not be legitimate. However, it's a safe bet that AMD will round out its third-gen Ryzen lineup with additional SKUs on the lower end, including both Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 processor options. We just have to sit back and see what materializes.
