Last Updated/Fact Checked on December 12, 2023 by Irslan
In a world riddled with capitalism and countless brands that are either going bankrupt or doing way too good to be listed on NASDAQ, one company that stands out from its crowd is known as AMD.
You might be familiar with AMD or in other instances Advanced Micro Devices which is a reputable brand located in Santa Clara County, California known for its production of top-of-the-line semiconductor-based processors that have given quite a headache to its competitor, Intel.
However, today we aren’t going to talk about the flaming rivalry or how well the brand is doing on the stock exchange rather we would dive into details and hit the sweet spots of brass tacks.
In other words, this article is solely dedicated to the comparison between two of the mighty and magnificent products produced by AMD known As Ryzen processors, and weigh up Ryzen 5 vs Ryzen 7 on a scale.
In jiffy to know about juice details regarding what sets them apart? Well let’s proceed by scrolling down below.
What Exactly Are Those Numbers?
If your query is revolving around “5” or “7”, well let you those “numbers” are simply based and given in terms of performance and to form a generalization, just like Intel terms their Processor as Intel Core i5 or I7.
However, the real difference comes when you dissect the internals of these semiconductor chips where all the magic is present such as core count, base clock and boost clock/Turbo clock, L3 cache sizes, overclocking boundaries, and price point.
If these terms are intriguing and have made you curious, let me simplify them for you.
1. Core Count And Threads
Starting from the mid-range Ryzen 5 which was initially released back in 2017 and had its architecture based on 12nm Zen+ chips known as the 1600 series. Since the first entry, almost all Ryzen 5 chips have 6 cores and 12 threads.
Except for the ones that had the letter “G” in them such as Ryzen 5 2400G which has 4 cores and 8 threads due to the fact that it also comes with an integrated graphics card right off the bat.
Ryzen 5 is perfect for gaming as well as light editing and rendering due to the ample amount of cores, however, if you want to push boundaries and want to start streaming, then you may notice Ryzen 5 may not be up to the mark.
Ryzen 7 on the other hand, also launched on a similar date, however, they had a 14nm Zen+ Architecture chip known as the 1700 series.
And since then, all Ryzen 7 processors have 8 cores and 16 threads which makes them highly suitable for heavy-duty computational tasks and can also act as a medium to the heavy-grade workstation.
2. Base Clock & Boost Clock
The base clock is also one of the most crucial factors that set apart two semiconductor processors as it defines how fast their data calculating power is.
However, if you compare both Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processors, you would see very minute differences between them, almost as small as 0.01Ghz both in their Base clock and Boost Clock.
For instance, let’s take a look at the newest Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7Ghz Base clock and 4.6Ghz boost clock while comparing it to the newest Ryzen 7 5800X 3D edition has a boost clock of 3.4GHz and 4.5Ghz boost clock.
Now looking at the numbers, you can easily determine that there isn’t much of a difference in terms of the cycle of clocks, especially when glancing at the maximum power output.
3. Thermal Design Power
Thermal Design Power in other words TDP is an attribute that relates to the heat that is being produced as a byproduct which is why a better and more robust cooling system is required.
Thermal Design Power is also directly proportional to the power that is being generated by a semiconductor processor since obvious heat is the by-product of the power output and the higher the output is, the more likely you are going to face flaming heat.
And since Ryzen 7 has far more power output, it is no secret that they would require a better heat dissipation system in order to provide better cooling as compared to Ryzen 5.
Looking at the statistics, Ryzen 5 processors tend to have 65W TDP while almost all Ryzen 7 produces a whooping TDP of 105W.
4. Stock Cooling System
Almost all Ryzen 5 processors, when shipped out, have their own stock “AMD Wraith Stealth ” cooling fan, so even if you are shy of extra cash, you can still buy the stock cooling system without having to worry about investing in an aftermarket heat dissipation solution.
Just make sure you don’t overclock, otherwise, you might face plenty of issues, instability, or even shutdowns.
Things on the other hand, for Ryzen 7 aren’t as smooth as you would expect, because even after spending plenty of cash on the high-end Ryzen 7 Processors, you still have to worry about purchasing a top-of-the-line aftermarket cooling fan, whether its an AIO, air cooling or water cooling.
5. Cache Size
Fortunately, with better technological advancement and refinement, both the newer iteration of AMD Ryzen 5 and 7 has 32MB L3 cache in their latest 5000 series Generation processors.
Such high speeds of the L3 cache will no doubt give you an upper hand both while in gaming and processing heavy computational tasks, which was not possible before in the 3000 series where the processor cache was only limited to 16MB.
6. Price Point
It’s not like we were going to ignore the price tags both of these processors had. Since Ryzen 5 is listed as a mid-range processor for users that wanted to play and enjoy all their games without breaking the bank, the newer Zen 3 AMD processor is listed for $199.
While the top of the line Ryzen 7 had its price listing at roughly about $449.
Although Keeping the inflation and chip shortages in mind, I would say those are just the “MSRP” prices, the actual prices you would be getting on the market by third-party sellers are far off the charts.
But, It’s still cheaper to buy a Ryzen 5 5000 series than one of the Ryzen 7 models.
Ryzen 5 Vs Ryzen 7 – The Final Words
So that’s all there is you can possibly know about the differences between Ryzen 5 vs Ryzen 7, some attributes of both of these processors might not be apparent, however, in terms of speeds and benchmarking they surely make a difference.
That being said, if you have any questions, feel free to let me know. I would be happy to sort you out.
