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The Ryzen 5 5600X, a six-core component of ZEN3, will be examined in this article. This processor series is expected to significantly improve single- and multi-thread task performance. The new sweet spot for gaming may be the 5600X.

AMD has unveiled a new architecture that will go up against Intel once more, this time with a strong emphasis on your enthusiast-class gaming performance. This processor series is expected to significantly improve single- and multi-thread task performance.

It’s only been three years, my fellow gurus; AMD launched its first line of ZEN-based chips in 2017. And Intel has changed from tic-tac-toc to tock-tac-tock-tock. It is amazing that AMD has been applying a tick for almost a year. A tock is the refresh of an architecture, whereas a tick would be a new architecture for those I just lost here.

Furthermore, AMD has been actively exploring new fabrication techniques. As a result, they are already producing at a refined 7nm process with 5nm nearby, in contrast to Intel, whose latest desktop processors are still made at a 14nm process.AMD still had a few architectural drawbacks, which primarily manifested themselves in CPU-bound gaming while Intel maintained the performance edge.

And that is about to change because AMD will soon overtake Intel in that market thanks to ZEN3 (for now). Yes, there will be some gains and losers for each brand, but with Ryzen 5000 ZEN3 based processors, that primary worry has already been allayed.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Specifications

The six-core, 12-thread AMD Ryzen 5 5600X has a base clock speed of 3.7GHz and a maximum boost speed of 4.6GHz. It is composed of a single core complex with 32MB of dedicated L3 cache and uses the same I/O die as Zen 2. The Zen 3 architecture portion of our Ryzen 9 5900X review is well worth reading if you want the complete lowdown on what makes Zen 3 work.

Like with the other Zen 3 family CPUs, the boost clocks frequently exceed the official 4.6GHz limit. Even with the Wraith Stealth cooler, the cores will run at 4,650MHz, and 4.7GHz is not unheard of with a water cooler. All the cores will reach their maximum speed when you’re operating a fully threaded application, which is 4,175 MHz, which is also quite healthy.

The 5600X can only pull 76W from the socket while having a 65W TDP. That’s remarkably low for a contemporary CPU, so if overclocking is your thing, there may be room for some mischief. By the way, this chip is unlocked, albeit you’ll need a good cooler to really take advantage of this fact.

Last but not least, it should be noted that AMD officially supports DDR4 RAM running at speeds of up to 3,200MHz, though far faster speeds are supported without any problems. It makes logical to link the Infinity Fabric with 3,600MHz DDR4 since it operates at 1,800MHz by default. Though AMD isn’t promising this at launch, there is the potential for a faster Infinity Clock (FCLK) in the future through BIOS updates (opens in new tab).

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X General Information

Platform	Boxed Processor
# of CPU Cores	6
Base Clock	3.7GHz
Default TDP	65W
CPU Socket	AM4
Launch Date	11/5/2020
Product Family	AMD Ryzen™ Processors
# of Threads	12
L2 Cache	3MB
Processor Technology for CPU Cores	TSMC 7nm FinFET
Thermal Solution (PIB)	Wraith Stealth
*OS Support	Windows 11 – 64-Bit EditionWindows 10 – 64-Bit EditionRHEL x86 64-BitUbuntu x86 64-Bit
Product Line	AMD Ryzen™ 5 Desktop Processors
Max. Boost Clock	Up to 4.6GHz
L3 Cache	32MB
Unlocked for Overclocking	Yes
Max. Operating Temperature (Tjmax)	95°C

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Performance & Tests

Beginning with the multi-core test in Cinebench R20, we can see that the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X achieves 4462 points, which is 19% quicker than the 3600 and 24% faster than the Core i5-10600K. The performance improvement offered by the 5600X over current 6-core, 12-thread processors is significant, bringing us very near to 8-core CPU capability.

Given that it has 25% fewer cores, the 5600X, for instance, is just 9% slower than the Ryzen 7 3700X and 10% slower than the Core i7-10700K.

You won’t be shocked to learn that the 5600X is extremely quick when it comes to single core performance given the great multi-core performance. Here, the 3600 and 3700X are both outperformed by 23% and 18%, respectively. In fact, the 5600X outperforms the Core i9-10900K in terms of single-thread performance.

We kept an eye on the 5600X’s clock rates during all of the Cinebench R20 tests. The 5600X clocked at about 4.4 GHz during the multi-core test, which places all cores under heavy strain, which is significantly higher than the 3.7 GHz base clock frequency that was advertised.

Additionally, AMD offers a maximum boost clock frequency of 4.6 GHz, which should be achievable in workloads that use just one core or a few light threads. The 5600X frequently ran at 4.65 GHz in the Cinebench single core test, which is 50 MHz faster than the quoted speed.

The 5600X was able to equal the 3700X and 10700K in 7-zip compression performance, which is an excellent result and translates into a 30% performance increase over the current 6-core/12-thread CPUs like the Ryzen 5 3600 and Core i5-10600K.

Performance during decompression was equally as good. Here, the 5600X was 22% quicker than the 3600 and a stunning 41% faster than the 10600K, while being 7% slower than the 3700X.

We’re getting a good look at what Zen 3’s greatly enhanced single thread performance means for single threaded programs like Photoshop. This is a significant performance boost because the 5600X was 22% quicker than the R5 3600 and 18% faster than the 3700X and 10600K.

Another program that relies heavily on single core performance is After Effects, where the 5600X exhibits strong performance. It handily defeated Intel’s Core i5-10600K and Core i7-10700K, indeed it even beat the 10900K, clocking in at 21% quicker than the 3600 and 15% faster than the 3700X.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Power Consumption

The Ryzen 5 5600X has great power efficiency, just like the rest of the Zen 3 line. We’re looking at a 7 watt boost from the 3600, which is fantastic given that Blender benchmark results show a 19% speedup. In addition, compared to the 3700X, the new CPU reduced total system usage by 14%; nonetheless, this is in accordance with the 3700X’s lower performance. We’re looking at significantly increased power efficiency as compared to competitive Intel components like the 10600K.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Gaming

The Ryzen 5 5600X is 18% quicker than the 3600 and 16% faster than the 3700X, according to testing with Far Cry New Dawn. That represents a significant performance improvement over older parts. Additionally, it delivered superior frame time performance and was 7% quicker than the 10600K.

The 5600X is now falling behind the components with more cores in our gaming tests for the first time. In Horizon Zero Dawn, it wasn’t significantly slower, falling behind the 5950X by up to 10% for the 1% low result and 4% on average. The Core i5-10600K, which is 16% faster than the 3700X and over 30% quicker than the 3600, performs similarly in terms of speed.

Conclusion

Unexpectedly, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a fantastic gaming processor. Although it only has six cores and 12 threads to work with, it isn’t the monster under heavy workloads that the more expensive CPUs are. If you want to dabble with 3D rendering, video encoding, and the like, it’ll still work great, but if that’s your main goal, you’ll have to spend more money.

Overall, AMD and the Zen 3 architecture both benefit from this. Although it is $50 more than we had hoped for, the cooler helps make up for this. For us gamers, this is a bigger victory because we don’t have to pay excessive amounts of money to play well.