Including the “world’s best gaming CPU” AMD unveils the latest Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 processors

AMD has just announced the latest line-up of Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors, which are also the first chips from the company set to feature the next-gen Zen 3 architecture and mark the largest leap for AMD’s desktop chips.

AMD is also setting strong hopes, boasting that the latest Ryzen 5900X is nothing short of “the world’s best gaming CPU.” New chips will be available beginning at $299 for the Ryzen 5 5600X entry-level variant on November 5th.

Like last year’s Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 desktop chips these new versions replace, the new 5000 series processors also use the 7 nm process of AMD but deliver a 19 percent improvement in instructions per loop, along with a complete redesign of the chip architecture and a higher peak boost speed. (The latest chipsets jump right to the Ryzen 5000 series branding to prevent any misunderstanding with the latest Zen 3 chips with the Zen 2-based Ryzen 4000 desktop chips that AMD launched for pre-built systems during the summer.)

All in all, AMD says that actually replacing a Zen 2 CPU with a comparable Zen 3 model-new chips are consistent with older motherboards after firmware updates — will result in an average 26% increase for consumers, all while keeping TDP and core counts the same. 

AMD continues with four new Zen 3 CPUs. The top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 5950X edition has 16 cores, 32 threads, and a max speed boost of 4.9GHz at $799; the $549 Ryzen 9 5900X, with 12 cores, 32 threads, and a max speed boost of 4.8GHz; the $449 Ryzen 7 5800X, with eight cores, 16 threads, and a max speed boost of 4.7GHz; and the $299 Ryzen 5 5600X, with six cores, 12 threads, and a max speed boost of 4.6GHz.

AMD Ryzen 5000 Zen 3 CPUs

Notably, both of these chips had a price boost of $50 relative to the initial price of the equivalent Zen 2 CPUs from 2019. The four new CPUs will be eligible from November 5th.

AMD is taking a direct shot at Intel with the current line-up, in particular, the Core i9-10900 K variant, which Intel has previously boasted is “the best gaming processor in the world.” While AMD’s chips don’t beat Intel’s 10th Gen chips at pure clock speed — Intel’s top chip is at 5.3GHz, while the Ryzen 5950X (AMD’s latest new chip) is at 4.9GHz.

Of course, the latest CPU requires a new GPU to go with it, and AMD also took the opportunity to start teasing its forthcoming Radeon RX 6000 “Big Navi” graphics cards based on its next-generation RDNA 2 architecture, which the company will be officially announced on October 28. The latest cards are expected to be AMD’s response to Nvidia’s RTX 3000 GPUs, and the company is promising that it will still be able to push high-level 4 K gameplay, tapping over 60fps benchmarks for Borderlands 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Gears 5 at ultra settings.

AMD won’t have too long to rest on its laurels, though: Intel is already planning for its response, teasing its 11th CPU Gen Rocket Lake in early 2021.