The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a six-core, 12-thread processor that fits perfectly into the midrange gaming CPU market. It has the best balance of core count and price of the company’s new Zen 3-based processors. When compared to the average Intel Core i5-10600K, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X shines, giving Intel serious competition (though at a slightly higher price point than we’re used to seeing from Ryzens).
The Ryzen 5 5600X broke records in some of our gaming tests and is one of AMD’s best deals in terms of price-to-performance in 2020. It doesn’t have the integrated graphics that some midrange buyers might want, but that’s a small flaw for this Choice pick among gaming CPUs, which is also a great budget model like the Ryzen 3 3300X.
Specifications
- Cores: 6
- Thread: 12
- Base clock: 3.5GHz
- Boost clock: 4.4GHz
- L3 Cache: 32MB
- Memory support: DDR4 3200MHz
- Socket: AM4
- TDP: 65W
- Cooler: Wraith Stealth
Where to get AMD Ryzen 5 5600X?
Start by reading our full review of the Ryzen 9 5900X if you want to learn more about all the improvements that AMD has made to its new line of desktop CPUs with the Zen 3 launch. Here’s a quick rundown of the specs for the Zen 3 midrange desktop stack of Ryzen 5000-series CPUs, as well as a reminder of the chips they’re meant to replace from the last generation. On the second tab, we compare it to Intel’s 10th and 9th Generation products that are similar.
But that’s not the only difference between Zen 2 and Zen 3. The move to a single eight-core core complex (CCX) design in Zen 3 gives the 5600X an edge over the Ryzen 5 3600X because it is designed for gaming. In the Ryzen 5 3600X, the processor was split between two four-core CCXs, which were made up of two dual-core core chiplet dies (CCDs) each, with one CCX disabled in the second CCD.
Having the cores spread out over two CCDs meant that tasks that used all six cores at the same time, like games like GTA V and games in the Civilization series, took longer to finish because of the extra travel time. In the same way, games with a lot of small threads, like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rainbow Six: Siege, ran a little slower on the Ryzen 5 3600X and the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT, which was the next update in the Zen 2 stack.