AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Zen 3 CPU Review

1. Ryzen 5 5600X - A New All-Round King?2. Operating Frequencies & Overclocking3. Testing Methodology4. CPU Tests: Cinebench R205. CPU Tests: Blender and V-Ray Rendering6. CPU Tests: 7-Zip Compression & Decompression7. CPU Tests: Handbrake H264 & H2658. Memory Tests: Memory Bandwidth and Latency9. Gaming: 3DMark Time Spy10. Gaming: F1 202011. Gaming: Grand Theft Auto V12. Gaming: Metro Exodus13. Gaming: Red Dead Redemption 214. Gaming: Shadow of the Tomb Raider15. Gaming: The Division 216. Technical: Power Draw, Efficiency, Temperatures17. Value: Cinebench Performance per £18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

The Ryzen 5 5600X proves itself as a superb gaming processor and delivers efficient and competitive productivity performance without breaking the bank.

Versus the roughly £250 Core i5-10600K that ships without a cooler, the £280 Ryzen 5 5600X is an obvious winner. AMD’s chip sits on a better platform with more premium features even on low cost motherboards. And the performance superiority versus Intel’s six-core processor more than justifies the 5600X’s 12% price premium.

We feel that the Zen 3 Ryzen 5 is also a much better buy than the roughly £230 Ryzen 5 3600XT. You get better all-round performance, the efficient Zen 3 architecture, and vastly superior gaming FPS. Lower cost Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen 5 3600X would be tough competitors from a purely pricing perspective, but these are getting increasingly difficult to find at that sub-£200 sweet spot.

If gaming is your focus, the Ryzen 5 5600X is far superior to the £300 3700X. However, if you are mainly interested in heavily multi-threaded productivity usage such as rendering, the 3700X is a better option. For other productivity tasks such as video conversion and file compression, the Zen 3 architectural improvements actually make the 5600X very competitive despite its core count deficit.

So, the Ryzen 5 5600X comfortably holds its own versus the Ryzen 7 3700X, albeit with that eight-core Zen 2 chip being the toughest competitor currently on the market.

If you are only interested in gaming, our results highlight that the Ryzen 5 5600X is an excellent performer and now becomes the realistic go-to gaming processor if you can afford and justify the £280 asking price.

There is still an argument that cheaper Zen 2 Ryzen 5 plus the difference spent on a beefier GPU will be a better option. But we like the untethered FPS numbers offered by the Ryzen 5 5600X and are more confident that Zen 3 will last successive GPU upgrades going forward.

Yes, the 5600X’s price increase versus Zen 2 Ryzen 5s is a little tough to swallow for many and we hope that a 5600 non-X will come in at sub-£250 in the future. But unless you are able to find a bargain sub-£200 Ryzen 5 3600 once again, we feel that the extra spend on the Ryzen 5 5600X is justified by its consistently strong performance, excellent overclocking headroom, and truly competitive gaming numbers.

The Ryzen 5 5600X MSRP is $299 USD and £280 in the UK at major e-tailers such as Overclockers UK.

Pros:

• Excellent gaming performance.
• Strong out-of-the-box clock speeds.
• High overclocked frequency.
• Excellent power efficiency and thermal performance.
• Drop-in upgrade for many AM4 users.
• Bundled basic CPU cooler.
• Reasonable price point versus the competition.

Cons:

• Some will be disappointed by the price increase versus Ryzen 5 3600.
• Ryzen 7 3700X is a tough productivity usage competitor at £20 more.

KitGuru says: If you are in a position where your budget for a productivity plus gaming processor is strictly kept to the sub-£300 price point, the Ryzen 5 5600X is a very well balanced option and offers impressive gaming performance to make it a strong recommendation versus the competitors.

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