Conclusion
The Final Words
In a previous review I've already stated that I feel the age of the quad-core processor is behind us. Testing the Ryzen 5 1400 does reconfirm my feeling. A six or eight-core processor simple feels snappier and faster with all the things we do simultaneously on a PC these days. That doesn't account for gaming though, there a 4-core CPU in many scenarios offers the best value. Some might not feel 8-cores is needed, others do not have the budget for it. As such Ryzen 5 1400 might be proper value as you purchase a reasonably fast 4-core processor at 169 USD. Pair it with a 100 USD B350 motherboard and you have gained nice performance and opened up a feature-set that is 2017 readu with USB 3.1, full proper fast M2 support and so on. If you tweak the proc a bit you can get it towards 3.8~3.9 GHz fairly easy. And from there on you will gain real value respective and relative towards overall and game performance. The Ryzen platform remains to be is a hint immature. We tested with AGESA 1006 firmware, and if you pick your memory right you can simply hit XMP in the BIOS and set it at 2933 MHz (which is the DRAM frequency we recommend for this processor). Yes games can run a notch slower in 1080p on Ryzen and going down to a slower clocked Ryzen 5 1400 with four cores again will slow down things a step or two. But at this price combined with a mainstream graphics card like the GTX 1060 or a Radeon Rx 470/570 you will not notice a difference as you would be GPU bound, not CPU bound. So for the mainstream gaming segment this processor hits a sweet-spot. Also as weeks and month pass, we see games slowly getting more and better optimized for Ryzen, the latest example is Tomb raider which made an impressive step forwards with the latest patch that suits Ryzen processors really well. Step by step though AMD is advancing on the Ryzen platform, more game titles get optimized, memory support is improving with each update that is released and the firmware updates bring in more performance as well. The biggest culprit however remains memory compatibility, which can be tricky to setup for many, if that automated XMP profile does not kick in.
The Experience
The four core Ryzen 5 1400 offers nice value for money. Tweak it a little and this 169 USD processor is plenty fast for even high-end gaming. It is a bit of a value mainstream processor though. You just have four out of the eight cores less available at your disposal, you however get a SMT threading processor, and that is golden value in this segment. We could tweak the proc towards 3.9 GHz on air really well and stable, 4.0 GHz is very feasibly with a liquid cooling kit. Realistically though, and this is subjective thing - I find four-core processors to be less attractive as playing with all the six- and eight core processors feels faster and better in your desktop environment and applications, but it is a fine and very sufficient processor though.
The RAW Performance
Overall we like what we are seeing with the Ryzen 5, the per core performance is good enough for what and where it needs to be, especially in this price category. The performance overall lack a tiny bit at default clocks, bit hits a nice sweet spot when tweaked. Combined with a 3.4 GHz Turbo frequency the Ryzen 5 1400 processors still remains to be very capable. The technology arena is slowly transitioning to six or more core processors in the next 12 to 24 months. For those that are shouting four cores is enough, hey... we had the very same discussion moving from two to four cores, remember? So if you hang on to that thought for a moment, in this year of 2017 would you still purchase a dual-core processor over a four-core one? Nope, and along these lines you need to think as we need to advance in hardware, the software will then follow in this technological evolution. I also do know that a setup like this could last you years as, again, the IPC perf is good and you have many threads available.
The Gaming Performance
At launch the biggest discussion at Ryzen's launch was 1080p gaming performance. This problem is still here, but not as big as some state it is. Ryzen is a truly great processor series, but it lacks a little in 1080p gaming situations where you are more CPU bound (if you have a fast enough graphics card). The reality is simple, the results are what they are. Ryzen 5 and 7 lack a good 10-20% in performance when used with super fast graphics cards in a lower resolution compared to the fastest clocked Intel SKUs. Now, as we have shown multiple times, it does depend on the game titles a lot as well. We added like eight new games and the differences with these titles look much, much better. For the game titles that do lack a bit of bite, well... you can do quite a bit with the platform to tweak out that difference.
I recommend you to read our tweaking article, as you can gain a lot from tweaking and using higher-frequency memory. To boost your performance, especially for gaming, here are a few generic Guru3D tips:
- Update your motherboard to the latest firmware BIOS, especially the AGESA 1006 or newer firmware revisions are going to help.
- Make sure you have your memory set to at least 2667 MHz with CL16 - 2133 and 2400 MHz will hurt game performance. We recommend 2933 MHz and, if possible 3200 MHz DDR4.
- Tweak your processor, you can likely reach 3.8~4.0 GHz on all cores with proper air cooling or LCS. This offers a gain for game performance - but granted, this will eat a bit more energy, 40 to 50 Watts extra under hefty load on all CPU cores.
- Install the AMD Chipset Drivers and use the Ryzen optimized power plan energy mode.
In closing on the gaming topic, if you are a little GPU bound or use 2560x1440, this pretty much is a non-issue as perf there is top notch for what the processor needs to deliver. And no, the 1080p performance isn't as big of an issue as some evangelize it to be. With the Ryzen 5 1400 you enter the mainstream gaming segment, paired with a GTX 1060 or Rx 570/580 you will not run into CPU bound limitations, hence such a setup would be a perfect symbiosis.
The Memory
The AMD Ryzen platform supports DDR4 1866, 2133, 2400 and even 2667 MHz straight out of the box with two DIMMs. Higher frequencies are motherboard and more importantly firmware dependant. Over the past weeks we found out the hard way that Ryzen processors really like fast frequency memory, hence we sorely recommend you to use at least 2667 MHz DDR4 DIMMs. However, we recommend 2933 or 3200 MHz. Let me again refer to this article so you can see why. Now, this all sounds crisp and clear, but actual memory support on Ryzen systems is a bit of a mess. We have seen 3200 MHz modules from brand A work with a Ryzen 1600X, but not with an 1800X on the very same motherboard and vice versa. In such conditions your motherboard will revert to 2133 or 2400 MHz. Quite annoying and chances currently are still pretty good you'll stumble into it. AMD, the board partners and memory manufacturers have a massive task at hand here to get proper XMP support up-to snuff like Intel offers. Are you stuck at 2133 or 2400 MHz? Please read my procedural recommendations on this page. The new AGESA 1006 based BIOSes do improve a lot. Our tested Corsair 3000 MHz Vengeance LPX DDR4 kit hit 2933 MHz instantly after applying the XMP (if you are wondering why not 3000 MHz, 3000 MHz is not a multiplier that is available for the Ryzen memory controller)
The Power
With this processor now fabbed at 14 nm FinFET the TDP sticks at 65 Watts. A full PC at idle will sit in the 50 to 60 Watt range with a dedicated graphics card installed (GeForce GTX 1080 / 16 GB memory / SSD and the motherboard). When we stressed the processors with a Prime 1024M run we reach roughly 100 Watts, that's low enough for what it needs to be. Overall though this is impressive to see. When we game we hover at 225 ~250 Watts, but obviously that factor is dependant on the type of graphics card you use of course. So yeah, these are really good values with a many core product. No complaints here whatsoever and remember, these are all 8-core parts physically, even that 4-core enabled processor.
The Tweak
We used just the a stock AMD cooler for overclocking. We reach a stable 3.9 GHz at ALL cores for both processors. With proper liquid cooling and a lucky CPU we have no doubt that you will reach the 4.0 GHz on all cores as well. After that number things will start to get complicated though. The Ryzen 5 itself will be easy to overclock, you could increase the voltage but we advise the AUTO voltage mode really. Then select your multiplier or frequency of choice and you are good to go.
The conclusion
At a recommended price of 169 USD you can purchase a quad-core processor that has SMT (euphemism for hyper-threading), is unlocked on the multiplier and voltages. That simply means great value. Especially when you pair this processor with a B350 motherboard costing a 100 USD/EUR and with a bit of tweaking the two combined offer a lovely symbiosis for little money. Now the quad-core era as far as I am concerned is on its last feet. Hence I really would recommend you to go with the 219 USD Ryzen 5 1600 with six cores / twelve threads. Still, as an editor I am a little spoiled with all the samples and also need to account for the fact that not everybody can or is willing to spend over 200 bucks on a processor. At the price level (and probably even a little lower in etail) the Ryzen 5 1400 does offer proper value and does properly compete with the Core i5 6600K and even 7600K. Now granted, it does not tweak as high as the Intel counterparts, but you do get SMT (Hyper-threading) as a bonus. Pop a nice graphics card into the setup, tweak that CPU and you'll get a smile on your face as to how well a setup like that works. For that kind of money this setup offers nice gaming perf and excellent application threaded performance as Ryzen offers killer single- and multi-threaded performance. It's not all about the processor though, the PC overall is brought into the year 2017 with things like massively fast M.2 SSD storage, SATA3 and/or USB 3.1. I'll keep saying this though, the more I test quad-core processors the less excited I am getting about them. A move to six and eight-core processors to me feels like the right thing to do as I do feel my overall desktop experience is much snappier and faster compared to any brand quad-core CPU, really go ask some users in our forums as it really feels and seems faster. Ryzen still is a platform in development. Your motherboard will likely need a few firmware updates in the future, the memory support sometimes can be daunting and icky but we acknowledge that progress has been made in large steps over the last few weeks and slowly but steadily things are maturing properly. Our recommendation sticks, Ryzen processors like fast frequency memory. At this point in time we recommend 2933 MHz DDR4 for Ryzen 5 1400. Motherboards wise the performance will be the same from a 99 USD B350 towards the most expensive 350 USD X370 motherboard, you define the budget and needs in features. Please base your memory purchase choices on what the motherboard manufacturer advises (check their QVL list or at least the list on the next page). Your sweet spot memory would be 2933 MHz with two DIMMs hence for all processor reviews we are moving to that number where possible. Overall the Ryzen 5 1400 will not set any performance records, but it is PLENTY fast for a proper mainstream PC gaming build. If you match this processor with a B350 motherboard and a GTX 1060 or Rx 570, then you'll realize really fast that everything about the PC you have built oozes value. And if you want a little more bite out of your system, have a peek at that 6-core Ryzen 5 1600(X).
ATH +++
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