AMD is about to shake up the top-end parts with its Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 chips coming later this month. However, the company has adopted the Zen 2 architecture for its latest low-end chips, the Ryzen 3 4100 and Ryzen 5 4500, and all signs point to these chips being budget offerings for the company. The $99 quad-core Ryzen 3 4100 and $129 six-core Ryzen 5 4500 are designed to challenge Intel’s mighty $122 Core i3-12100 and $99 graphics-less 12100F, making them go-tos for gamers. It has become a budget tip. The new AMD chips came as part of the company’s broader launch of seven new Ryzen 5000 models aimed at bolstering its rankings in CPU benchmarks and regaining its place on the best CPU list for gaming.
Ryzen 5 4500 & Ryzen 3 4100 Will Be AMD’s New Strategy To Use Monolithic (Single-Chip) Zen 2 Powered ‘Renoir’ APU Silicon To Tackle The Sub-$150 Market Intel Dominates With Alder Lake Processors is part of AMD’s low-end lineup leverages one full-fledged his APU model with active integrated graphics, the Ryzen 4600G, and two models with Vega integrated graphics disabled, the 4500 and 4100. .
| As per price/Suggested retail price | Design – Arch. | core/thread | Base/Boost (GHz) | TDP | L3 cache | |
| Risen 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 |
| Risen 5 4500 | $129 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6/12 | 3.6/4.1 | 65W | 8MB |
| Risen 3 4100 | $99 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 4/8 | 3.8 / 4.0 | 65W | 4MB |
The Ryzen 5 4500 and Ryzen 3 4100 will still be powered by the efficient 7nm TSMC process and their monolithic design will allow AMD to deliver lower prices than their more expensive chiplet-based Ryzen processors. However, this comes with some tradeoffs. The chip only supports 20 lanes of PCIe 3.0 interface and DDR4 memory. In contrast, Intel’s competing Core chips support up to PCIe 5.0 and either DDR4 or DDR5 memory, giving Intel a connectivity edge. It goes without saying that AMD’s Renoir APUs are sporting the aging Zen 2 architecture that debuted in his 2019.
AMD’s chips come bundled with Wraith Stealth coolers and benefit from a robust AM4 motherboard ecosystem with plenty of affordable options. AMD also allows overclocking on these lower end SKUs. This is an advantage over Intel’s Core i3.
We can’t wait to see AMD’s low-end chips come out a year and a half after the first wave of Ryzen 5000 chips, but they’re very much needed. Intel’s Alder Lake launch stole AMD’s performance, leaving AMD stranded in uncharacteristic fashion When price lead. Intel’s aggressive pricing has taken advantage of AMD’s lack of Zen 3 chips under $250 at all while offering excellent value across all price points. AMD’s tactic of bringing single-chip Renoir silicon to market would work as a counter even if it took advantage of older technology to bring down the price. Here’s how low-end Ryzen chips stack up.
AMD Ryzen 3 4100 and Ryzen 5 4500 Specs and Prices
| Price – Street/Suggested Retail Price | Design – Arch. | core/thread | Base/Boost (GHz) | TDP/PBP/MTP | memory support | L3 cache | |
| Risen 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 |
| Risen 5 4500 | $129 | Zen 2 – Renoir | 6/12 | 3.6/4.1 | 65W | DDR4-3200 | 8MB |
| Core i3-12100/F | $122 – $99 (Women) | alder lake | 4/8 (4P+0E) | 3.3/4.3 | 60W/89W | DDR4/5-3200/4800 | 12MB |
| Risen 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 identical to the graphics-equipped Ryzen 4000G models that AMD brought to market for OEMs and SI in 2020. However, these models have the iGPU disabled and require separate graphics. card.
The $99 Ryzen 3 4100 is a Renoir model with 4 Zen 2 cores and 8 threads running at base/boost clocks of 3.8/4.0 GHz. The 65W chip comes with his 4MB of L3 cache and has the Vega graphics engine disabled, thus competing with Intel’s graphicsless Core i3-12100F. In many ways, the quad-core 4100 essentially replaces the Ryzen 3 3100, which was never really available in retail due to shortages during the pandemic.
The $129 Ryzen 5 4500 has 6 Zen 2 cores and 12 threads running at base/boost frequencies of 3.6/4.1 GHz. Like the 4100, this chip has a TDP of 65W but comes with 8MB of L3 cache. It doesn’t have an active iGPU of its own, but pricing makes the 4500 compete with the full-blown $125 Core i3-12100 that comes with an iGPU. The 4500 effectively replaces the Ryzen 3 3300X, which was previously not widely available at retail.
Aside from the disabled iGPU, these chips are the same Renoir as the OEM-only Ryzen 7 4750G (click link for full architecture details), including support for PCIe 3.0 instead of PCIe 4.0 It is designed. As a result, the chip is perfect for pairing with older, lower-end he AM4 motherboards (you don’t want to pay for features you don’t need by pairing with a PCIe 4.0 capable motherboard).
The Ryzen 5 4500 and Ryzen 3 4100 come bundled with enough Wraith Stealth coolers for standard operation, supporting up to DDR4-3200 memory. Additionally, these chips are fully unlocked for overclocking CPU cores, memory, and fabric. In contrast, Intel’s non-K models only support memory overclocking, but Intel’s nonsensical decision to keep locking a specific voltage still limits memory overclocking headroom.
