AMD has officially launched the Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500, two strong contenders for the best CPUs on the market if you're on a budget. Both are hexa-core chips, with the Ryzen 5 5500F featuring AMD's Zen 3 execution cores and the Ryzen 5 7500 using the newer Zen 4 execution cores. The Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500, priced at $99 and $189, respectively, are available at U.S. retailers starting today.Go deeper with TH Premium: CPU(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)Intel VP Robert Hallock sets Nova Lake expectations, teases return to Raptor Lake for DDR4 platformsCPU scaling with DLSSIntel's one-two punch plan in desktop CPUs is taking shapeBenchmarking AMD's BC-250, offering Steam Machine-like performance at half the priceAMD splits Zen 7 into three EPYC families for 2028 and starts selling server CPUs by the agent The Ryzen 5 5500F, despite its similar model name to the Ryzen 5 5500, belongs to a different family in AMD's portfolio. The Ryzen 5 5500F hails from the Ryzen 5000 series (codenamed Vermeer), which uses a multi-chiplet architecture. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5500 comes from the Ryzen 5000G series (codenamed Cezanne), which uses a monolithic die design.Therefore, it is more sound to call the Ryzen 5 5500F a lower-binned version of the Ryzen 5 5600, rather than an iGPU-less variant of the Ryzen 5 5500, which lacks integrated graphics to begin with. The distinction matters because the Ryzen 5 5500F is close to the Ryzen 5 5600, albeit with a 500 MHz lower boost clock speed and half the L3 cache. The "F" suffix on the Ryzen 5 5500F is present because Vermeer does come with integrated graphics, so AMD uses it to explicitly indicate the absence of this feature.The Ryzen 5 5600, which launched at $199, now retails for around $159, making the new Ryzen 5 5500F approximately 38% more affordable. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5500, which debuted at $159, has lost substantial value over the years. OEM tray versions of the Ryzen 5 5500 now start at just $74, so it is still the most cost-effective entry point into the AM4 ecosystem. Compared to the Ryzen 5 5500, the Ryzen 5 5500F carries a 34% price premium. The latter justifies its higher cost with a slightly higher boost clock speed, which translates to better gaming performance, and support for PCIe 4.0, unlocking faster SSDs and graphics cards.Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500 SpecificationsProcessorMSRP / Current PriceArchitecture / CodenamePlatformCores / Threads Base / Boost Clock (GHz)L2 Cache (MB)L3 Cache (MB)Graphics ModelGraphics CoreGraphics Frequency (MHz)Memory SupportPCIe LanesTDP (W)Ryzen 5 7600$229 / $226Zen 4 / RaphaelAM56 / 123.8 / 5.1632AMD Radeon22,200DDR5-520024 PCIe 5.065Ryzen 5 7500$189 / $189Zen 4 / RaphaelAM56 / 123.7 / 5.0632AMD Radeon22,200DDR5-520024 PCIe 5.065Ryzen 5 7500F$179 / $157Zen 4 / RaphaelAM56 / 123.7 / 5.0632N/AN/AN/ADDR5-520024 PCIe 5.065Ryzen 5 5600$199 / $159Zen 3 / VermeerAM46 / 123.5 / 4.4332N/AN/AN/ADDR4-320020 PCIe 4.065Ryzen 5 5500F$99 / $99Zen 3 / VermeerAM46 / 123.0 / 4.4316N/AN/AN/ADDR4-320020 PCIe 4.065Ryzen 5 5500$159 / $74Zen 3 / CezanneAM46 / 123.6 / 4.2316N/AN/AN/ADDR4-320020 PCIe 3.065When it comes to the Ryzen 5 7500, little mystery surrounds its place in AMD's product stack. True to its name, the Ryzen 5 7500 is the same processor as the Ryzen 5 7500F, which launched three years ago, but with integrated Radeon graphics. This small addition suits users who need basic display output and do not plan to spend money on a discrete graphics card. Apart from the integrated graphics, all core specifications remain identical between the two models.As a result, the difference between the Ryzen 5 7600 and the Ryzen 5 7500 stands. The former boasts a 100 MHz higher base and boost clock, so performance is somewhat better in certain processor-intensive workloads or gaming scenarios. However, most users may not notice the difference.The Ryzen 5 7500F hit the market at $179, but over time its retail price has dropped to about $157. In contrast, the Ryzen 5 7600 has held its value over the years, falling only slightly from its original MSRP of $229 to around $226. As a result, the Ryzen 5 7500 positions itself as a mid-point option, priced 16% lower than the Ryzen 5 7600 and 20% above the Ryzen 5 7500F.The Ryzen 5 7500 makes sense in this market because not everyone is a gamer, so integrated graphics mean you do not have to spend a fortune on a discrete graphics card at today's ridiculous prices. However, because it runs on AMD's AM5 platform, the Ryzen 5 7500 is still bound by the sky-high cost of DDR5.