Ryzen 5 5500 vs Ryzen 7 3700X

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Ryzen 5 5500 and the Ryzen 7 3700X are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Ryzen 5 5500 has 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Ryzen 7 3700X has 8 cores and 16 threads. The extra cores of the Ryzen 7 3700X help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 4.2 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

Both chips use the AM4 socket, so they fit the same motherboards. You can swap one for the other without changing the board.

Rated power is 65 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Ryzen 5 5500 cost $159 and the Ryzen 7 3700X $329, which gives 31.4 and 15.2 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Ryzen 5 5500 can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 7 3700X reaches the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 5 5500 if you want the faster gaming chip. Choose the Ryzen 7 3700X if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.