New AMD Ryzen 5 1600 AF CPU Review & Benchmarks

[Kenrou]

TLDR: "AMD somewhat silently released a new CPU -- the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 AF -- which is technically a better R5 1600, but with the same name. It's a 12nm part rather than 14nm, something we confirmed with AMD, and that brings with it benefits for power efficiency, overclocking headroom, and even stock performance (in a significant fashion). In this benchmark, we're looking at the AMD R5 1600 "AE" (the original) versus the R5 1600 AF, the R5 2600 (which we need to do some refreshed testing on once we're back from CES, but it hasn't changed much), and the R5 3600. The R5 1600 AF impressed us, especially at the budget CPU price, and has established itself as one of the best budget CPUs for gaming or light production workloads."

 

[trents]

That dude talks so fast he is impossible to understand! Good thing he included charts.

The main question I have is about compatibility. How many AM4 motherboards will have bios support for this CPU? I've checked some CPU compatibility lists for MSI and it's not showing.

 

[freakdiablo]

That dude talks so fast he is impossible to understand! Good thing he included charts.

The main question I have is about compatibility. How many AM4 motherboards will have bios support for this CPU? I've checked some CPU compatibility lists for MSI and it's not showing.

That's actually a valid point and is bound to cause some issues with users seeing the original 1600 on the board support list.

Only had time to watch part of the vid, wondering why they didn't give it a 3xxx number - do they have a 3500 planned? Maybe call it a 3000/3200/3400 without the "G" suffix to differentiate it from the APUs. As stated in the video, the 3200G/3400Gs are also based on the 12nm Zen+ architecture, so the line is already somewhat diluted.

 

[chrisjames61]

That's actually a valid point and is bound to cause some issues with users seeing the original 1600 on the board support list.

Only had time to watch part of the vid, wondering why they didn't give it a 3xxx number - do they have a 3500 planned? Maybe call it a 3000/3200/3400 without the "G" suffix to differentiate it from the APUs. As stated in the video, the 3200G/3400Gs are also based on the 12nm Zen+ architecture, so the line is already somewhat diluted.

There is a Ryzen 3500. Six cores and no hyper threading. It is for oem's and is sold retail in Asia.

 

[trents]

There is a Ryzen 3500. Six cores and no hyper threading. It is for oem's and is sold retail in Asia.

Do you have any links to that for purchasing, Chris?

 

[Kenrou]

It's supposed to be China only but there's already a couple postings on eBay - https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-3500x

 

[trents]

At $85 the 1600AF would seem to be a much better deal than the 3500 for $108.71 on ebay. And the 1600AF is available on Amazon.

 

[bassnut]

My 3500u mobile is a nice cpu. I just picked it up on a black friday deal at dell ...... so far I'm impressed.

 

[blackdragon1186]

I picked one of them up just because of the great price. I don't have a board for it just yet, as my x570 is occupied with my 3800x. I'm getting a b450 board from a buddy of mine in a few weeks for a good price, which I plan to drop that cpu into. It will likely go into my HTPC build to replace an aging amd apu in it currently. I'm debating about putting it on water, as the case is a typical htpc case that doesn't support tower coolers. I'll report back in how it works for me.