AMD Ryzen 5 7500F review: a great value gaming CPU if you can get it

Our benchmark results are presented a little differently to what you might be used to elsewhere on the web. On mobile, you'll get a basic overview, with metadata from the video capture of each CPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat experience with embedded YT videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each CPU handled the scene as it progresses; you can even choose exactly what CPUs at what resolutions you're interested in and it'll update in real time. Below the real-time stuff is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. As always, all the data here is derived from video captured directly from each CPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

We'll start with three games that offer a stern test for gaming CPUs: Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3 and the benchmarker's favourite, Ashes of the Singularity Escalation.

Flight Simulator 2020

Flight Sim is our first contender, with our benchmark encapsulating the first 10K frames on an autopiloted evening flight from London City Airport to London Heathrow over some of the British capital's most well-known landmarks.

The 7500F acquits itself well from the off, coming within 94 percent of the faster 7600X in one of the most challenging titles we've got in our test suite. That is the difference between a 60fps average and not, but it's still enough to see off the 13400F and come within 10 percent of the 12900K. We do see a significant jump from AMD's X3D designs though, which register at 70 percent and nearly 80 percent faster with the 7800X3D and 7950X3D respectively. Of course, in terms of value, I'd say the 7500F is still more than holding its own.

Hitman 3

Hitman 3's Dartmoor benchmark comes next. Of the two integrated benchmarks provided in the pre-game options menu, Dartmoor offers the greater CPU load than Dubai, with a comprehensive demonstration of the Glacier Engine's destruction physics that is pretty fun - even if it isn't too indicative of normal stealthy gameplay.

This time, the 7500F is within five percent of the 7600X, but draws level with the popular Core i5 13400F. There's a significant jump once again to our X3D options, though at 35 percent it's not quite as game-changing as Flight Simulator 2020. Intel's remaining 13th-gen CPUs pull in strong results here, with the 13600K and above outscoring the 7500F and 7600X's efforts as their core counts and clock speeds increase.

Ashes of the Singularity is historically a RAM benchmark for us, but its surprisingly modern, thread-aware design is still a good test of processor performance - even at 1080p, its dense CPU benchmark can bring a modern CPU to its knees. Let's look at the RAM situation first - we see a similar five percent improvement from 5200MT/s to 6000MT/s RAM on the 7500F, versus a six percent advantage from the faster RAM with the 7600X. Interestingly, this puts the 7500F with faster RAM right in line with the 7600X with slower RAM.

In terms of the raw CPU results, the 7500F falls to its greatest deficit here, with a score that's just 93 percent of the more expensive 7600X - but is this trend set to continue, or can the 7500F stem the bleeding in the next set of game tests?

AMD Ryzen 5 7500F analysis

• Introduction, test rig and content creation benchmarks
• Gaming benchmarks: Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3, Ashes of the Singularity [this page]
• Gaming benchmarks: Counter-Strike: GO, Metro Exodus EE, Black Ops Cold War
• Gaming benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, Crysis 3 Remastered
• AMD Ryzen 5 7500F: the Digital Foundry verdict