Alongside its new Zen 5 CPU architecture, AMD unveiled new Ryzen 5000XT processors for Socket AM4 motherboards. Team Red touted these chips as equals to Intel’s 13th Gen Core series, with promising performance benchmarks. Since then, though, a closer look at the company’s methodology reveals some unfortunate flaws.
On paper, Ryzen 9 5900XT and 7 5800 XT look to be among the best CPUs for Socket AM4 motherboards. While both processors boost higher clock speeds than their ‘X’ siblings, the former actually sports four additional cores too. These qualities should make the chips decent, if unexciting, additions to the Ryzen 5000 series overall. However, AMD’s benchmark blunders have slightly soured their reputation ahead of launch.
Turns out, AMD used a Radeon RX 6600 for its processor performance comparisons. As such, rather than testing the capabilities of each CPU, the results are reflective of the GPU instead. This naturally makes the comparisons drawn between the Ryzen 5000XT and Intel chips at Computex null and void. In search of a more accurate picture, though, we thankfully have some idea of where things stand.
Hardware Unboxed took up the task of more accurately demonstrating the differences between the AMD and Intel chips in question. While the outlet doesn’t have Ryzen 9 5900 XT or 7 5800XT to hand, there are near-identical approximates available today. The outlet’s findings are both illuminating and damning in equal measure and we applaud Steve Walton’s efforts here.
Using a Radeon RX 6600, the likes of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Core i3-12100 were neck and neck across the suite. Obviously, these processors are actually worlds apart in their capabilities. What this serves to illustrate though, is how misguided AMD was in selecting this graphics card for its benchmarks.
On average, Ryzen 7 5800X was in fact 13% slower than Core i5-13600K in the same games with a more appropriate graphics card for testing, namely Radeon RX 7900 XT. Worse still, the claimed 12% advantage enjoyed by 5800XT in Cyberpunk 2077 won’t be anything close to that come release. Instead, it’ll be around 27% slower according to these head-spining results.
Meanwhile, any notion that Ryzen 9 5900XT will be anywhere close to Core i7-13700K in gaming is swiftly put to rest from these tests. The closest processor on the market to the new AMD chip is Ryzen 9 5950X. Using this processor in its place, Intel still pulls ahead by a whopping 16% on average.
While a Radeon RX 7900 XT isn’t the most “realistic” pairing for most of these processors, it’s a damn sight closer than Radeon RX 6600. More importantly, though, as made plain by the results discussed above, it better illustrates the differences between each CPU.
We recommend checking out the Hardware Unboxed video above, or reading Steve’s write up on Techspot to get the full picture. In the meantime, though, this Ryzen 9 5900 XT and 7 5800XT debacle should serve as a pertinent reminder to always question first-party benchmarks.
With this in mind, we’ll have Ryzen 9000 series reviews complete with our own benchmarks for you to digest once AMD releases them into the wild. In the meantime, though, give our Ryzen 9 7950X review a read, to reacquaint yourself with Team Red’s current top dog.
