AMD Ryzen 5 5600X: The gaming CPU for everyone

In the test, the Ryzen 5 5600X proves to be a great CPU for everyday and gaming PCs. It can even hold a candle to more expensive Intel competitors. The results are particularly impressive in gaming benchmarks. At the introductory price of 300 euros, the Ryzen 5 5600X is surprisingly expensive for a self-proclaimed mid-range processor, the predecessor cost 60 euros less at market launch. At least a fan is included.

• Pros:
  Strong everyday and gaming performance
  Stylish cooler included
• Cons:
  I7-10700K is defeated in some benchmarks
  A bit expensive for the middle class

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Review: six-core with a good clock

The Ryzen 5 5600X has six cores with multithreading, i.e. twelve threads for parallel processing of tasks. It clocks from 3.7 to 4.6 gigahertz and supports DDR4-3200 RAM. The L1 and L2 caches have remained more or less the same compared to the previous generation, but something has changed with the large L3 cache: Depending on the model (5800X / 5950X), up to eight cores now access them at the same time. This new cache model is supposed to reduce latencies, which is supposed to help with gaming. Incidentally, the “previous generation” is the 3000 and not the 4000 chip series. The latter was reserved exclusively for mobile products and desktop OEM manufacturers.

The CPU should also be compatible with AM4 mainboards of the 400 and 500 chipset series via BIOS updates. You should check on the manufacturer’s website whether your old mainboard is supported before buying the processor.

Head-to-head comparison with Intel i7

With Zen 3, AMD remains with a similar manufacturing process with a structure width of seven nanometers as with the previous generation. But although the manufacturer TSMC has not reduced the size of the components any further, AMD has achieved a good increase in performance in the 5600X. For this test, we compare the CPU with the current Intel Core i7-10700K, which costs 320 euros. You can see the result in the following table. The following applies to the values: higher is better for values ​​given in points, MB/s, fps and pps. Lower is better for values ​​that are specified in seconds.

Although the AMD R5 5600X roughly boxes up one weight class (AMD divides from weak to strong into R3, R5, R7 and R9), it can win a few benchmark rounds against the i7-10700K (Intel divides into i3, i5, i7 and i9). The CPUs are roughly on par in benchmark suites for everyday use and professional applications. The eight-core 10700K has the edge in multi-core applications – this is most obvious in (Cinebench n-thread) whereas the Ryzen pulls away in single-thread performance. This is visible in Cinebench (1-thread). The gaming performance is particularly impressive: In the CPU-intensive Total War: Warhammer II, the Ryzen makes a whopping 25 fps more, in The Division 2 it is still 3.

Economical and fan in the box

When it comes to power consumption, the Ryzen 5 5900X is exemplary when considering its performance. The maximum power consumption of the system is 147 watts. The same system as its predecessor, the 3600X, did about as much. At this point we would like to specify the power consumption directly on the cores and on the package, but our tool cannot currently read these values ​​from the 5600X and the larger 5900X. We will add the results in a future update.

There is also a Wraith stealth fan in the packaging that matches the 65 watt TDP of the processor. In the past, we had good experience with AMD coolers as the standard solution, so you can install the components immediately and consider upgrading the fan later.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Specifications: