The BEST Budget Gaming CPU No One Told You About

Summary

In this engaging video, Linus Tech Tips dives into the budget gaming CPU market, uncovering the "secret" AMD Ryzen 5 7500F. This processor, available primarily through sites like AliExpress, offers comparable performance to the AMD Ryzen 5700X3D, yet sits on a future-proof platform and is more affordable. The video explores the CPU's strengths, including its compatibility with modern GPUs, its potential as a long-term investment for gamers, and its surprising performance against competitors from Intel. However, there are trade-offs, such as the lack of a warranty and integrated graphics, but for those willing to venture into the less mainstream purchasing avenues, the CPU presents significant value for money.

Highlights

• Introducing the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F as an affordable, high-performing CPU for gamers on a budget. 🎮💼
• Despite no warranty or cooler, the 7500F boosts higher and supports future upgrades better than other budget CPUs. 📈🛡️
• The CPU shines with a modern GPU, outperforming even more expensive Intel options, reaffirming AMD’s stronghold in the budget sector. 💪
• The performance gap closes even more at higher resolutions, proving the 7500F’s capability in mid to high-end gaming setups. 🔍🔥
• The video's surprising twist highlights Intel's struggle to compete with AMD’s offerings in this budget segment. 🥊
• Linus Tech Tips recommends the 7500F as both a smart long-term investment and a current gaming solution for budget-conscious users. 🧠💰

Key Takeaways

• The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a budget-friendly CPU that rivals the Ryzen 5700X3D in gaming performance while being more affordable. 🎮💸
• This CPU is built on a modern AM5 platform, making it future-proof and compatible with newer DDR5 memory. 🌟
• The 7500F lacks integrated graphics and an AMD direct warranty, adding a bit of risk but also saving cost. 🛠️
• Purchasing from sites like AliExpress can offer good deals, but buyers should beware of potential import tariffs. 🌐
• The 7500F impressively competes with more expensive Intel chips, lacking any real competition in its price range. 🤯
• An ideal choice for budget gamers planning to upgrade in the future, with competitive performance in titles like Cyberpunk and Rocket League. 🚀

Overview

Meet the 'secret' weapon in budget gaming: the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F. Linus introduces this off-menu CPU, which competes neck-and-neck with pricier alternatives while providing budget-conscious gamers a future-ready platform. Ideal for those seeking great performance without breaking the bank.

The video goes in-depth on the 7500F’s specs, comparing it against Intel and other AMD models. While lacking standard perks like an integrated GPU and AMD's warranty, it excels where it matters most: raw performance paired with cutting-edge GPU compatibility. This combo makes it a game-changer in its class.

Linus closes with a comparison across gaming scenarios, showing the 7500F’s prowess in action. The segment also highlights potential deals available through unconventional buying methods like AliExpress, cautioning viewers about import tariffs, and noting the overall superior value of this stealthy, formidable chip.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to AMD Ryzen 5700 X3D and Introduction of Secret Gaming CPU The chapter introduces the AMD Ryzen 5700 X3D, a popular recommendation for budget gaming PCs. However, it recognizes the reluctance to invest in outdated technology. The chapter then unveils a 'secret' gaming CPU that competes closely with the 5700 X3D, offers a future-ready platform, and is more affordable, teasing its identity without naming it yet.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Introduction of AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and Sponsor Segment The chapter introduces the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F CPU and discusses its performance for budget-minded gamers. The narrative cleverly shifts to a sponsor segment featuring Seic power supplies, highlighting their efficiency and reliability, encouraging viewers to purchase using a link provided in the video description.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Availability and Comparison with Other CPUs The chapter discusses the Intel Core i7-7500F CPU, which isn't a new release but is relevant because it's typically aimed at system builders and bulk purchasers rather than individual consumers. It has not been widely reviewed due to its primary market being different from retail consumers. While it can be found on retail sites like NewEgg, the best pricing and availability are often through bulk purchase channels.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Performance Analysis and Price-to-Performance The chapter delves into performance analysis and the price-to-performance ratio, focusing primarily on the comparison between various AMD processors. It highlights the similarities and differences between processors like the Ryzen 5 7600 non-X and the 5700 X 3D, specifically noting the absence of onboard graphics in some models, which is indicated by the 'F' suffix. This absence contributes to a lower price point but comes with compromises, such as significantly less cache and the absence of AMD's 3DV cache technology. The discussion aims to provide insights into how these factors affect the overall performance and value of these processors, especially in relation to their pricing on platforms like AliExpress, which serves as an alternative marketplace to mainstream US retailers.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Comparison of GPUs and Conclusion on 7500F The chapter discusses the differences between GPUs and provides insights on the AMD 7500F. Despite lacking an AMD direct warranty or box cooler, the 7500F offers significant advantages, such as almost 1 GHz higher clock speed, utilizing newer Zen 4 cores, supporting faster DDR5 memory, and being compatible with the modern AM5 socket, which allows future upgrades. In gaming performance tests focusing on CPU capability, the 7500F performs competitively, slightly trailing behind the 600X and 5700X models.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Considerations for Future-Proofing and Final Thoughts This chapter discusses the performance of CPUs in gaming scenarios, particularly comparing chips in games like Cyber Punk and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It highlights that while average performance may fall slightly short, the gap is smaller than the price difference between various chips. In Rocket League, where clock speed is crucial, one chip has a significant lead over its main competitor. Although Intel is still present in the market, its competitive edge is questioned against similarly priced chips from other brands.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Conclusion and Sponsor Segment: SEIC Power Supply The chapter provides a detailed analysis and comparison of various processors, highlighting the performance of the 7500f and the Ryzen 8400f. It notes that the 7500f outperforms competitors consistently, and the Ryzen 8400f offers significant value for money, outperforming more expensive models such as the 13400 F in most scenarios, despite lacking an integrated GPU (igpu).
• 03:30 - 04:00: GPU Recommendations to Pair with CPU In this chapter, the author discusses testing various CPUs and their performance with GPUs, specifically focusing on price-to-performance ratios. Despite the 8400F being generally 20% slower than the 7500F and sometimes lagging behind the older 5600x in certain games like F1, it still offers outstanding value. The author highlights how pairing these CPUs with appropriately priced GPUs continues to offer positive performance outcomes.

The BEST Budget Gaming CPU No One Told You About Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 everyone including us has recommended the AMD ryzen 5700 x3d for gaming on a budget at some point or another but like who wants to pay for a gaming PC that is out of date before you even click add to cart not you but fortunately there's a secret gaming CPU one that goes blow for blow with the 5700 x3d and sits on a future ready platform and most importantly is cheaper meet the AMD
• 00:30 - 01:00 ryzen 5 7500f we ran it through the labs Gauntlet to find out if this off menu CPU is the one budget-minded Gamers should be targeting just like we're targeting you yes you Howard with this segue to our sponsor seic give life to your build efficiently and reliably with a seic focus GX power supply you can pick one up today using our Link in the video description
• 01:00 - 01:30 [Music] the 7500f isn't exactly new so why are we covering it now well the main reason is that unlike CPUs that come in retail boxes this one is targeted at system Builders and bulk buyers and therefore has mostly flown under our radar now you can find them on sites like New Egg but at the time of writing the most reliable place to get one for a good price seems
• 01:30 - 02:00 to be AliExpress not exactly a mainstream us retailer but what is it well on paper it is strikingly similar to a ryzen 5 7600 non-x except that it lacks onboard Graphics hence the- F suffix and hence the lower price there are some compromises here compared to the 5700 X 3D it's got only about onethird of the cash none of amd's amazing 3dv cach here and being OEM chip
• 02:00 - 02:30 it comes with no AMD direct warranty or box cooler but if you're willing to live on the edge it boosts nearly 1 GHz higher uses newer Zen 4 cores supports faster ddr5 memory and sits in a more modern am5 socket giving us room to upgrade it in the future let's see how these differences manifest in gaming starting with our test that best isolate CPU performance the 7500f does pretty darn well it Trails the 600x and 5700 X
• 02:30 - 03:00 CD in games like cyber Punk and Shadow the Tomb Raider but on average it remains within Striking Distance falling short by a smaller Gap than the price difference between those chips and that's kind of the worst case scenario in games where clock speed is King like rocket League the 7500 FC's a big lead of over 24% over its primary competitor and I say primary competitor cuz Intel still exists for now but it's hard to call them competition when we throw in some similarly priced chips from Team
• 03:00 - 03:30 blue on the chart they do not put up a fight not a single one beats our 7500f even once even worse our other secret value gaming monster the ryzen 8400f gets in on the Beatdown too often available for just over $90 sometimes cheaper this almost an 8600 G but without the igpu beats the more expensive 13400 F in all but one of
• 03:30 - 04:00 our tests even then it was a draw for 1% lows which I still considered to be a win even considering that the 8,400 f is on average about 20% slower than the 7500f and even occasionally falls behind the older 5600x in games like F1 the price to Performance of this little fella is kind of outstanding and that positive look continues when we match our CPUs with gpus that might be a little more price appropriate price
• 04:00 - 04:30 appropriate like this quality stretchy wicking button-up sport shirt from LTT store.com fre as soon as we switch to a more reasonable 4060 class GPU both the 8400f and 7500f make us question why gamers are even bothering with gaming CPUs at all the 8400 does show its limitations more often but the 7500f stays remarkably close to the old budget gaming King even pulling slightly ahead over overall at
• 04:30 - 05:00 1440p and matching the gold standard for PC gaming the 9800 x3d in cyberpunk and f124 of course a lot of this changes once we swap out our GPU which we know from a lot of audience surveys is the most likely upgrade to an existing system paired with a 470 super the 8400 starts to fall behind especially at 1080p where on average the 9800 x3d beats its 1% lows by 41% which is a lot
• 05:00 - 05:30 even considering that it costs five times as much and remember it's more fair to compare the total system price versus the price of individual components when evaluating bang for the buck of a new pc purchase focusing back in on our head-to-head showdown between the 7500 F and the 5700 x3d they trade blows with each other performing about 15% better than the 8400f with the 7500f taking F1 in rocket league and the 5700 x3d holding strong and Punk and Shadow
• 05:30 - 06:00 the Tomb Raider as we jump to 1440p the results are same same but with smaller gaps and by the time we make it all the way to 4K we're so GPU bound that even the 8400f is back within a margin of error of the gold standard now this is where we had planned to end our testing but then we thought okay but what if we switch over to an RTX 4090 for some legitimate 4K gaming that would obviously be a pretty imbalanced Choice given that the MSRP of that g GPU is
• 06:00 - 06:30 more than 10 times the cost of our 7500f but wouldn't you know it the little F gin that could is breathing down the neck of the 9800 x3d in most games with the 1% lows of City skylines 2 being the only really meaningful performance difference across our UHD gaming testing but what is all that mean well first of all while this isn't really news it means hot damn Intel y'all need to get it together
• 06:30 - 07:00 while AMD has dominated the CPU gaming performance charts at both the mid-end and high-end for a while their budget lineup has withered to almost nothing leaving an opportunity for Intel an opportunity they should have taken while they had it because now with these two stealthy budget ryons it's hard to see a single bright spot for team blue I mean we didn't even include the latest generation of core Ultra chips in our testing because there aren't any core Ultra CPUs and compatible motherboards
• 07:00 - 07:30 that are in a comparable price bracket that means that any intel budget purchase is going to be on a dead platform Yonkers but what about compared to amd's own products should you be considering these effing cool chips well yeah both offer strong real world performance as long as you can find one for the right price and while I lean more towards recommending the 7500f as a long-term proposition for gamers the 8400f is one of very few
• 07:30 - 08:00 quality sub $100 processors these days and could be a great way to game today if you're on a strict budget just be aware that someday and that day may never come being limited to eight pcie Gen 4 lanes for your GPU may make you feel the pinch making this one the less future proof of our options though of course that won't matter if the only future proofing you care about is putting something you in your am5 socket
• 08:00 - 08:30 sometime between now and 2027 when AMD says that this platform will be abandoned oh and there is one more thing while AliExpress is pretty reliable these days we actually ordered a second chip off of New Egg just to make sure and we found that both were equally genuine import tariffs could impact the viability of these CPUs for our American neighbors wait sorry did I say one more thing I meant two more things and the second is this segue to our sponsor seic
• 08:30 - 09:00 you know what kind of cars I like the kind with unreliable gutless engines just kidding of course nobody likes that and in the same way nobody likes a PC that has a gutless unreliable engine and that's where cic's Focus GX line of power supplies comes in they'll keep your rig running smoothly and efficiently no matter what kind of workload you're putting it through they use a thermal solution called optis sync which enhances cooling efficiency while minim iing space requirements meaning
• 09:00 - 09:30 you can stick a cic power supply in almost any size of case and still have enough power to support nextg gpus it even comes in white or black to match your build and the best part it comes with a 10-year transferable warranty so don't wait pick up a cic focus GX today using our Link in the video description if you're looking for a GPU to pair with your new CPU we have reviewed a ton of gpus recently with the AMD RX 970 and 970 XT looking like a pretty solid match
• 09:30 - 10:00 for the 7500f as long as you can get it at a fair price or actually maybe the Intel b580 wow what a hell froze over system that would be AMD CPU Intel GPU