If you bought an AM4 motherboard way back in 2016, you might want to sit down for this: You’ll be able to drop a brand new AMD Ryzen 5000 processor into it next month. That’s a full eight years on the socket, four years on the 5000-series architecture. With the new Ryzen 7 5800XT and Ryzen 9 5900XT, the AM4 socket might just be immortal.
The XT variants of the existing 5900X and 5800X designs (from 2020!) imply squeezing out a bit more performance from the Zen 3 architecture. And based on the specs, that appears to be the case. The 5900X uses 16 cores and 32 threads with a maximum speed of 4.8GHz and a 105 watt thermal design power (TDP). It’s boasting a generous 72 megabytes of cache.
The 5800XT will hit the same speed with just 8 cores and 16 threads, similarly halving the cache but drawing the same power. The Ryzen 7 chip will come with a Wraith Prism CPU cooler in the box, but those who go for the Ryzen 9 chip will need to find their own. Compared to the non-T variants of these chips, the Ryzen 7 5700XT gets a small 100MHz boost at the highest possible clock speed, while the 5900XT gets the same speed but boosts the core count from 12 to 16.
Oh, one last cool thing. During AMD’s Computex presentation, CEO Dr. Lisa Su was proud to boast that the AM4 socket has 145 different CPU and APU chips on the market. Impressive.
What about pricing for the new chips? Hard to say. The 5900X and 5800X cost $549 and $449 at launch, respectively, but that was four years ago when they were top-of-the-line CPUs. The new 5700X3D AMD launched at CES in January was $249, and given the extra game-boosting cache in that chip, I’d say it’s probably on par with the 5800XT in terms of production cost. Take that as you will.
At least we won’t have to wait long to find out. With both new Ryzen processors set to hit store shelves in July, you’ll be able to check for yourself soon enough.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.