After releasing the extensively reviewed 8-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 CPUs last month, AMD marked April as the month of the Ryzen 5 processors. This tier of the Zen microarchitecture-based CPUs includes 4-core and 6-core hyper threaded processors, in a price range of $169-$249.
Today, we will compare the Ryzen 5 1600X ($250) and 1600 ($220) to their price equivalents from Intel: the i5-7600K ($240) and i5-7500 ($200).
This week, AMD launched their exciting Ryzen 5 CPUs, which include two 6-core hyperthreaded chips (the 1600X and 1600) and two 4-core hyperthreaded chips (the 1500X and 1400). These CPUs are now among our recommendations on the Logical Increments homepage, marking a welcome return for AMD to the mid-range CPU space.
Long story short: We have added the the R5 1500X and 1600 to our Great tier, while the R5 1600 and 1600X now appear in our Excellent tier. As a result, the Ryzen chips have shaken up our once Intel-dominated mid-range CPU recommendations, and knocked the Intel i5-7400 completely off our list.
The 6-core Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 are an interesting pair for PC builders.
For both gaming and content creation, having a 6-core/12-thread CPU for the $220-250 price point is excellent. As such, we’re going to create two powerful example builds to give you an idea for what you can make yourself.
The 1600X and 1600 can be used interchangeably with the two builds, so feel free to swap as you see fit!