AMD Ryzen 5 revealed as competitor to Intel's Core i5

In late February, AMD revealed its high-end Ryzen 7 lineup. With competitive pricing (US$239 to US$499) and performance, Ryzen 7 was a shot across the bow of Intel's Core i7 chips. Today, AMD has revealed its mid-range Ryzen 5 chip line-up. As the name suggests, the Ryzen 5 series aim to compete against Intel's Core i5 chips.

The Ryzen 5 lineup consists of four CPUs: On the lowest end, there is the Ryzen 5 1400. With 4 cores and 8 threads at 3.2-3.4GHz, the 1400 only costs US$169. One step up is the 1500X, which runs slightly faster at 3.5-3.7GHz, for US$189. The upper two chips, the 1600 and 1600X, both have 6 cores and 12 threads. The 1600 runs at 3.2-3.6GHz and costs US$219, while the 1600X runs at 3.6-4.0GHz and costs US$249. AMD is also courting enthusiasts by advertising that all of their chips have unlocked multipliers. In comparison, Intel charges more for their unlocked K-series CPUs.

In addition to the Ryzen 5 series, the Taiwanese company also introduced its AM4 platform. The high-end X370 chipset features USB 3.1, NVMe, up to x8 Gen 2 PCI Express, SLI support, and overclocking. The mid-range B350 offers similar features but with fewer SATA ports, x6 Gen 2 PCI Express, and no SLI support. The low-end A320 offers x4 PCI Express speeds and does not support overclocking.