AMD’s new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs are here, and they’re fast

AMD took to a virtual event today to launch its hotly anticipated new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. The new chips are based on AMD’s Zen 3 architecture, which represents a generational leap over the previous Zen 2 chips. And, as you’d expect, they’re fast.

With the Zen 3 architecture, AMD CEO Lisa Su said that it has managed to “deliver the best single-threaded performance” and gaming performance. Based on a 7nm process, AMD says Zen 3 CPUs can deliver up to a 19 percent increase in instructions per clock. That’s in addition to a broader set of improvements on the microarchitecture that result in drastically improved performance.

There’s also power efficiency: AMD’s measurements up to a 20 percent increase in power efficiency over the prior generation. AMD also claims its Zen 3 chips are 2.8-times more efficient than an Intel Core i9-10900K.

Leading the pack is the new Ryzen 9 5900X. This top-end chip is built with 12 cores and 24 threads, running at a 105W TDP with a boost clock of 4.8 GHz. In practical terms, that means a significant increase in performance for gaming in particular.

For people upgrading from AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series, you’ll see double-digit performance gains on a host of games running at 1080p. Specifically, AMD showed off benchmarks for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which showed a framerate jump of 28 percent when moving from the Ryzen 9 3900XT to the Ryzen 9 5900X

While the Ryzen 9 5900X leads the consumer pack, AMD also launched the Ryzen 9 5950X, which is purpose-built for enthusiasts. While running on the same 105W TDP, the 5950X is built on 16 cores with 32 threads and can achieve a 4.9GHz boost.

The rest of the Ryzen 5000 series is made up to the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X. The 5800X features eight cores and 16 threads running at the same 105W TDP with a boost clock of 4.6GHz. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5600X runs at a 65W TDP with six cores, 12 threads, and a 4.6GHz boost clock.