AMD is on the cusp of refreshing its top-end elements with the Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 chips that arrive later this month. However the firm employs its Zen 2 structure for its newest low-end chips, the Ryzen 3 4100 and Ryzen 5 4500, and all indicators level to those chips being the corporate’s price range choices properly into subsequent 12 months. The $99 quad-core Ryzen 3 4100 and the $129 six-core Ryzen 5 4500 are designed to problem Intel’s potent $122 Core i3-12100 and the $99 graphics-less 12100F which have grow to be the go-to price range chips for avid gamers. The brand new AMD chips got here as a part of the corporate’s broader launch of seven new Ryzen 5000 fashions that intention to shore up its rankings in CPU benchmarks and retake its place on the Greatest CPUs for gaming listing.Â
The Ryzen 5 4500 and Ryzen 3 4100 are a part of AMD’s new technique of utilizing its monolithic (single-chip) Zen 2-powered ‘Renoir’ APU silicon to deal with the sub-$150 market that Intel has dominated with its Alder Lake processors. AMD’s low-end lineup leverages one full-fledged APU mannequin with energetic built-in graphics, the Ryzen 4600G, and two fashions with disabled Vega built-in graphics, the 4500 and 4100.Â
| Value Road/MSRP | Design – Arch. | Cores / Threads | Base/Enhance (GHz) | TDP | L3 Cache | |
| Ryzen 5 5500 | $159 | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6 / 12 | 3.6 / 4.2 | 65W | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 4600G (APU) | $154 | Zen 2 – Renoir (Vega 7) | 6 / 12 | 3.7 / 4.2 | 65W | 8MB |
| Ryzen 5 4500 | $129 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6 / 12 | 3.6 / 4.1 | 65W | 8MB |
| Ryzen 3 4100 | $99 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 4 / 8 | 3.8 / 4.0 | 65W | 4MB |
The Ryzen 5 4500 and Ryzen 3 4100 nonetheless include the environment friendly 7nm TSMC course of, and their monolithic design permits AMD to hit lower cost factors than potential with the costlier chiplet-based Ryzen processors. Nevertheless, that leads to some tradeoffs — the chips solely help 20 lanes of the PCIe 3.0 interface and DDR4 reminiscence. In distinction, Intel’s competing Core chips help as much as PCIe 5.0 and both DDR4 or DDR5 reminiscence, giving Intel the connectivity edge. That is to not point out that AMD’s Renoir APUs have the ageing Zen 2 structure that debuted again in 2019.Â
AMD’s chips include bundled Wraith Stealth coolers and profit from the strong AM4 motherboard ecosystem that is teeming with loads of reasonably priced choices. AMD additionally permits overclocking on these lower-end SKUs, a bonus over Intel’s Core i3.Â
AMD’s lowest-end chips are lengthy overdue, arriving a 12 months and a half after the primary wave of Ryzen 5000 chips, however they’re badly wanted. Intel’s Alder Lake launch caught AMD uncharacteristically flat-footed, wresting away AMD’s efficiency and pricing lead. Intel’s aggressive pricing additionally introduced superior worth in each value vary whereas exploiting AMD’s obtrusive lack of any sub-$250 Zen 3 chips. AMD’s tactic of bringing single-chip Renoir silicon to market serves because the counter, even when it leverages older tech to lower cost factors. This is how the low-end Ryzen chips stack up.Â
AMD Ryzen 3 4100 and Ryzen 5 4500 Specs and Pricing
| Value – Road/MSRP | Design – Arch. | Cores / Threads | Base/Enhance (GHz) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence Help | L3 Cache | |
| Ryzen 5 5500 | $159 | Zen 3 – Cezanne | 6 / 12 | 3.6 / 4.2 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 4600G (APU) | $154 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6 / 12 | 3.7 / 4.2 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 8MB |
| Ryzen 5 4500 | $129 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6 / 12 | 3.6 / 4.1 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 8MB |
| Core i3-12100 / F | $122 – $99 (F) | Alder Lake | 4 / 8 (4P+0E) | 3.3 / 4.3 | 60W / 89W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 12MB |
| Ryzen 3 4100 | $99 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 4 / 8 | 3.8 / 4.0 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 4MB |
The Ryzen 3 4100 and Ryzen 5 4500 are almost equivalent to the graphics-armed Ryzen 4000G fashions that AMD delivered to marketplace for OEMs and SIs again in 2020. Nevertheless, these fashions include a disabled iGPU, so you will want a discrete graphics card.Â
The $99 Ryzen 3 4100 is a Renoir mannequin that slots in with 4 Zen 2 cores and eight threads that function at 3.8 / 4.0 GHz base/increase clocks. The 65W chip comes with 4MB of L3 cache and has a disabled Vega graphics engine, positioning it to compete with Intel’s graphics-less Core i3-12100F. In lots of respects, the quad-core 4100 primarily replaces the Ryzen 3 3100 that was by no means actually accessible at retail attributable to shortages through the pandemic.
The $129 Ryzen 5 4500 has six Zen 2 cores and 12 threads that function at a 3.6 / 4.1 GHz base/increase frequency. Just like the 4100, this chip has a 65W TDP however comes with 8MB of L3 cache. Despite the fact that it would not have an energetic iGPU of its personal, pricing dictates that the 4500 competes with the full-fledged $125 Core i3-12100 that comes with an iGPU. The 4500 successfully replaces the Ryzen 3 3300X that wasn’t ever extensively accessible at retail.
Except for the disabled iGPU, these chips have the identical Renoir design because the OEM-only Ryzen 7 4750G (hit the hyperlink for the complete architectural particulars), together with help for PCIe 3.0 as a substitute of PCIe 4.0. Consequently, this chip will make an awesome pairing for older, lower-end AM4 motherboards (you undoubtedly do not wish to pay for performance you do not want by pairing it with a PCIe 4.0-supporting motherboard).
The Ryzen 5 4500 and Ryzen 3 4100 include a bundled Wraith Stealth cooler enough for inventory operation and helps as much as DDR4-3200 reminiscence. As well as, these chips are absolutely unlocked for overclocking the CPU cores, reminiscence, and cloth. In distinction, Intel’s non-Okay fashions solely help reminiscence overclocking, although Intel’s nonsensical determination to maintain sure voltages locked nonetheless restricts reminiscence overclocking headroom.
