During the CES show, Intel released the 14th generation of Core mainstream desktop processors, plus the previously launched K series products, completing the upgrade of desktop processors. So after the new product is launched, how should the current mid-range CPU be chosen, and which model is the most cost-effective? Considering factors such as price and performance, the Ryzen 5 7500F is still the first choice for cost-effective installations at this level.
Playing games also depends on the performance of the big core
Since the advent of Zen-based Ryzen™ processors, AMD has made significant improvements to the architecture with each successive generation. On the latest Zen4 architecture, it brings up to 13% IPC improvement, and thanks to the industry-leading 5nm process, Zen4 architecture can provide up to 5.7GHz boost frequency, and the combined single-core performance has been improved by up to 29%. In addition, the front-end, execution engine, loading/storage, and caching have been upgraded, and the AVX-512 instruction set has been added to greatly improve floating-point performance, which can achieve significant performance gains in video encoding and decoding, scientific computing, and AI acceleration.
Don't look at the Ryzen 5 7500F is the lowest-positioned model in the entire Ryzen 7000 series, but its performance is not bad at all in terms of specifications and performance. The product is made up of 6 all-large cores to create a 12-thread core specification, with a base frequency of 3.7 GHz, a maximum boost frequency of 5.0 GHz, and a L3 cache of 32MB. Such specifications are very close to the Ryzen 5 7600, and the difference in performance between the two is very weak. And the Ryzen 5 7500F doesn't have a graphics core, which means the processor can have a lower price. For the GPU platform, the presence or absence of GPU cores has no impact on gaming performance, so for gamers, the Ryzen 5 7500F undoubtedly has a higher performance ratio, which is why the CPU has been popular since its launch.
Compared to the i5 series of competing products, the specifications of the Ryzen 5 7500F do not seem to be dominant, especially when it comes to the core configuration, the gap is still obvious. For example, the i5-14400 is 10 cores and 16 threads, and the flagship i5-14600K even reaches 14 cores and 20 threads, which is a great advantage. In fact, the addition of small cores mainly improves the multi-threaded performance of i5 in video editing, image processing and other applications, and in the game, small cores do not play a role, in fact, it is still 6 cores and 12 threads, compared with Ryzen 5 7500F actually does not have much advantage.
At the same time, the highest turbo frequency of the i5-14600K can reach 5.3GHz, which is also better than the 5.0GHz of the Ryzen 5 7500F. But that's not a problem. After all, as long as the power wall is unlocked, the default all-core frequency of 5.1 GHz can be achieved, and the performance release is very good. Moreover, the Ryzen 5 7500F can also support overclocking, and the motherboard, heatsink and power supply can easily achieve an all-core 5.5GHz frequency without strengthening, coupled with up to 32MB of L3 cache capacity, it can be said that in terms of gaming specifications, even in the face of the Core 14th generation flagship model i5-14600K, the Ryzen 5 7500F is actually not at a disadvantage.
Let's take a look at how the Ryzen 5 7500F performs in real gaming tests.
Game test: Ryzen 5 7500F leads in all aspects
Test platform
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7500F
Intel i5-14600K
内存:芝奇DDR5 6000 16GB×2
主板：华硕TUF GAMING B650M-PLUS重炮手
华硕TUF GAMING B760M-PLUS重炮手
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 7600
HDD: WD_BLACK SN850X 2TB
Power supply: ASUS ROG Thor II.1200W
Operating system: Windows 11 Professional 22H2
In terms of test platforms, we turned on Resizable BAR support in the motherboard BIOS and left the memory with XMP 6000 enabled to ensure that both platforms performed as well as they should. In order to fit a more realistic installation scenario, we chose a mainstream graphics card like the RX 7600.
The results of the actual game test confirm our previous spec analysis, and the Ryzen 5 7500F is not lagging behind in gaming even against the i5-14600K, the highest-end model in the i5 series. Among the 12 games we tested, 7 games, including Red Dead Redemption 2 and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, led the average frame rate of Ryzen 5 7500F, 2 games such as Warhammer 40K: Darktide and Cursed Lands were tied, and 3 games including Final Fantasy 14, Forza Horizon 5 and Middle-earth: Shadows of War lost results, but the gap was only 2fps, which is very weak. Overall, the Ryzen 5 7500F has an average lead of 1% across the 12 games.
On the Ryzen 5 7500F platform, we set the PBO frequency to +200MHz, and then the curve was optimized to -20, and we got an all-core 5.5GHz. At this time, the Ryzen 5 7500F took the lead in all gaming results, and the performance gap widened further.
Summary: Leading performance, more affordable, Ryzen 5 7500F
Although there is a big gap between the positioning and specifications compared with the i5-14600K, the Ryzen 5 7500F relies on the 5nm Zen4 architecture with excellent IPC performance, relatively high frequency and larger L3 cache, etc., even at the default frequency, the performance in the game is not lagging behind, not to mention, it also has a slight advantage, which shows its excellent performance.
When we use the two CPUs to create this set of gaming configurations with similar performance, we can see that the Ryzen 5 7500F has a lower power consumption because the process is more advanced and there are no energy efficiency cores that do not work: the TDP is only 54W, and the power consumption at full load is less than 90 W. Therefore, under the premise that other hardware is basically the same, the Ryzen 5 7500F configuration is cheaper by more than 1000 yuan just for the CPU and cooler.
You should also note that the Ryzen 5 7500F is a good value for money, not just because it is cheaper to build a gaming platform with similar performance. In fact, this Ryzen 5 7500F+B650M configuration can also be overclocked, and it is easy to increase the all-core frequency of the Ryzen 5 7500F to 5.5GHz, at this frequency, the performance of this configuration can be further improved to achieve stronger gaming performance. What's more kind is that to achieve this, it will not increase the burden on the hardware, and there is no need to replace the motherboard, heatsink and power supply, which is equivalent to getting stronger performance without spending money.
Of course, i5-14600K can also be overclocked, but it can't be matched with the affordable B760, you have to get the more expensive Z790, considering the higher heat after overclocking, and strengthen the radiator, such a set of configurations, the installation cost will go up, and the price gap between the two sets of platforms will be further widened. For mid-range users who pay attention to cost performance, it seems that there is no cost performance.
To sum up, the Ryzen 5 7500F has strong performance and low installation cost, which is worth your priority if you want a cost-effective mid-range gaming CPU.