AM4 really is AMD's gift that keeps on giving, with four more CPUs launched for the seven year old platform

10.01.2024 - 16:53 / pcgamer.com

AMD's last generation of desktop CPU socket, AM4, first appeared in September 2016 and most of us assumed that once the current AM5 hit the market, there would be no further CPUs released for the old socket. That's definitely not the case and in this year's CES event, AMD has announced four more AM4 processors: the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, Ryzen 7 5700, Ryzen 5 5600GT and 5500GT.

Starting with the most notable one, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is essentially the same as the much-heralded Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The only difference is a bit of a drop in how fast it runs, with the base clock going from 3.4 to 3.0GHz, and the boost clock coming down by 100MHz to 4.9GHz.

Other than that, nothing else has changed. You're still getting eight cores, 16 threads, 96MB of L3 cache, and a TDP of 105W. When it appeared in April 2022, we were stunned by just how great it was as a gaming-focused CPU. At the time, however, it was pretty expensive and cost more than the 12 core, 24 thread Ryzen 9 5900X. Since then, it's dropped in price and AMD has sensibly pitched the SEP (aka MSRP) for the 5700X3D at $249.

At the moment, the 5800X3D is typically around $349, so the $100 difference is definitely worth your attention. We don't really need to test the 5700X3D, because you can work out the best/worst case scenarios for it, purely from the clock speed differences. Depending on the game and workload, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D will be between 2% and 12% slower than the 5800X3D and that's more than acceptable.

If you currently have an AM4-based gaming PC and you're looking to extend its lifespan, then spending $249 on a Ryzen 7 5700X3D has to be the most cost-effective way of doing it. Let's hope there's going to be plenty of stock around, as I expect these chips will be snapped up very quickly.

Bucking this theme of same-but-slightly-slower, the new Ryzen 7 5700 might appear to just be a Ryzen 7 5700X (read our review) with different clocks, but it's actually quite a different chip. The old 5700X has eight cores, 16 threads, 32MB of L3 cache, and base/boost clocks of 3.4/4.6GHz respectively. It also has full support for PCIe 4.0, allowing you to fit some really fast SSDs into your gaming PC.

The 5700 also has eight cores and 16 threads, and its base/boost clocks are 3.7/4.6GHz, so overall, it's technically clocked faster than the 5700X. However, there's only 16MB of L3 cache and PCIe support is limited to the old 3.0 version. The reason for this is that the Ryzen 7 5700 is actually a Ryzen 7 5700G APU, with the integrated GPU disabled. That's a processor that we've rated very highly in the past, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

However, AMD has set the SEP for the 5700 to $175, which is around $34 less than what you'd pay for a 5700X, at current