AMD Ryzen 5700X vs 5800X

Last Updated: March 31st, 2022

AMD Ryzen 5700X vs 5800X, which is better? AMD has released some amazing CPUs over the years on the AM4 platform and as it appears, there’s still more to come. The Ryzen 7 5700X is set to release soon and we want to see how it stacks up against its bigger brother the 5700X. 

In this article, we will be measuring price, performance and specifications to determine the best of the two CPUs. 

Ryzen 5700X vs 5800X: specifications

We’ll add the 5700X here when it’s released.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

Pros

Very good gaming performance

Excellent value for money

Cons

More expensive than Intel alternative

When comparing PC components of any kind, it’s important to take a look at their specifications and use these as an indication of how well they will perform. Doing so will help you gain a deeper understanding of the product and its use case. Some examples of CPU specifications are core count, thread count and core speed.

5700X 

The Ryzen 7 5700X is one of the CPUs AMD will release on April 4 2022. This CPU is designed to replace the Ryzen 7 3700X and offer an increase in performance and efficiency, but how will it stack up against the 5800X?

The specifications for the Ryzen 7 5700X are as follows: 

5800X

The Ryzen 7 5800X is the top of the range Ryzen 7 processor available to date. Released on November 5 2020, this CPU demolished the competition and maybe most importantly its predecessor the Ryzen 7 3800X. 

The specifications of the Ryzen 7 5800X are as follows: 

Ryzen 5700X vs 5800X: specification comparison 

We will now take a look at each of our CPU’s on-paper specifications and determine which one is the better CPU based on these alone. This should help you gain a deeper understanding of each CPU, and what to look out for in more powerful CPUs.

Core count 

Both CPUs have the same number of processing cores. 

A higher core count means that your CPU will be better at multitasking natively. This is a fancy way of saying that the PC can perform more tasks at once without its resources being overwhelmed. Whether this is useful to you or not depends on the applications you use. Some older applications do not utilize more than one core at once, making your other seven useless. 

This is rare however and every mainstream modern application is designed to utilize more than one core for performance. 

Thread count

Both CPUs have the same thread count.  

Thread count is not unlike core count and having a higher thread count will allow your CPU to be more efficient and perform better when multitasking. Cores and threads are similar in practice, as in they do the same things. However, they are very different. 

SMT stands for Simultaneous Multithreading and this enables your CPU to process two instructions simultaneously per core instead of being limited to one. This essentially doubles your CPU’s per-core output. 

Cores and threads are accumulated by the operating system and labelled ‘logical processors’, however, cores and threads are not the same. Because cores are physical and are recipients of data they have a physical CPU resource allocation. Threads are virtual and are virtualized by the cores themselves. This means threads have to share resources with the CPU core, making them slightly slower as a result.

You can learn more about SMT in our ‘what is SMT’ article. 

Core speed 

The Ryzen 7 5800X has a higher core boost speed at 4.7GHz. 

A higher core speed is usually indicative of a better performing CPU if you’re comparing CPUs in the same generation with the same ‘nm process’. 

Core speed simply is the number of times per second your CPU can complete a cycle, a ‘cycle’ referred to as the instruction cycle. The instruction cycle consists of three main actions: fetch, decode and execute. These three actions are the very foundation of computing as we know it. 

There’s a different measurement known as IPC or ‘instructions per clock’ that adds a greater layer of complexity. IPC is the number of instructions your CPU can handle per cycle and is all to do with how many transistors your CPU has. 

IPC is convoluted at best, but we did go into more detail in our ‘5800X vs 5800X3D’ article.

Cache 

The Ryzen 7 5700X has a larger cache capacity of 36MB 

A CPU’s cache is essentially an extension of the system’s RAM and it acts as backup storage for memory transference. The cache is arranged into three levels, and these cache levels are arranged as follows: 

Cache access speeds run in alphanumerical order, with one being the fastest by far and three being the slowest. For size, the opposite is true with three having the largest capacity and one being the smallest. 

Level one cache is built closest to CPU cores to allow for the swiftest access speeds. This is where integral data that needs to be acquired quickly is situated. 

Level two cache is a kind of middle ground between one and three, reserved for less vital data but it’s still ideal that the CPU has fast access to it. 

Level three cache is large and slow, reserved for programs you may run on your PC frequently, none vital to PC functionality.

TDP

The Ryzen 7 5700X has a lower TDP of 65W 

TDP stands for thermal design power and is the maximum amount of heat energy a component can expend at full load under normal operating conditions. 

Generally, a CPU with a higher TDP means two things – more powerful or less efficient. 

With the Ryzen 7 5700X having a vastly lower TDP, you might be inclined to think it’s worse than the 5800X, however this is not the case on paper. 

Regardless of TDP, you need to make sure your cooling solution can handle the amount of thermal energy the component emits. AIOs and full water loops are fantastically efficient and great at dissipating heat. 

It’s best to leave some headroom when selecting a cooling solution. Picking up a cooler that can handle a good few hundred watts higher than your component’s TDP is important, especially when it comes to overclocking your CPU. 

Overclocking dramatically increases the TDP of a component due to the presence of higher voltages or higher clock speeds. 

Socket 

Both of the CPUs on the list fit the am4 socket. 

A socket can be thought of as like a shape – only an AM4 compatible CPU will fit an AM4 socket. 

AMD has kept AM4 alive for about five years now and although it’s incredibly refined, it’s starting to show its age. As details of the new AM5 socket features hit the news, its technological limitations become more obvious. 

If you’re wanting to upgrade right now for the best performance we suggest waiting for AM5 and Zen 4. 

Ryzen 5700X vs 5800X: Benchmarks

We’ll add benchmark results here as soon as the CPU is released. 

Price

The Ryzen 7 5700X is magnitudes more cost-effective than the 5800X. 

The 5700X can be had on release for $299, that’s a cost per core of around $37. However, the 5800X can be had online for around $375 depending on where you go – that’s a cost per core of around $46. Are the cores of the 5800X worth $9 more than the 5700X’s? 

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

Pros

Very good gaming performance

Excellent value for money

Cons

More expensive than Intel alternative

Final word 

We favour the 5700X here, it’s more cost-effective and it’s newer with more cache. It only has a 0.1GHz slower max boost speed. Features like overclocking support will remain to be seen until the CPU is released. 

The CPUs are very similar on paper but we feel the newer 5700X will have an advantage over the 5800X. If you’re looking for a new CPU and you’ve found yourself on this Ryzen 5700X vs 5800X article, we say go for the 5700X.